Solar power for observatory

[Bigzmey]

Now i am styling. Everything that i need is now in the shed, the exceptions are anything that would need to be charged up. Now to dig into a fan for the ridge

Fancy!

[Mike Q]

Now i am styling. Everything that i need is now in the shed, the exceptions are anything that would need to be charged up. Now to dig into a fan for the ridge

Fancy!

That might be pushing it a little lol.

[Mike Q]

So a update on this little project. I did buy some solar fans to move some air around in the shed. One of them sort of works and the other was a waste of money completely. So a trench was dug and 100 foot of direct bury wire was run. I now have a few 120v outlets available to put in real fans. I really dont need much this time of year but come spring I will have fans running.

[Richard]

Yes wise decision to run a cable , solar with batteries is ok but for real power cable is the answer
Most of my house runs on solar , but that is in RSA where there are frequent power cuts , I still run most of the house on solar as the main supply is solar first , but if solar is not enouph it reverts to grid and if no grid then batteries , it does not save a lot but at least I have power all the time , it was not cheap , batteries are the most expensive part, I run 2 48v 100amp /Hr lipo4 , 16 x550w panels and a 10kw inverter . water is as solar geyser and stove is gas
I did this some time ago thinking my electricity bill will be much less , but as many people that pay have done the same the goverment changed the tariffs 50% fixed charge whether one uses the grid or not and reduced the consumption charge
One can never win in Africa
I can run the house off grid but there are days when there is no Sun for days and that will probably kill the batteries , but now I am looking at alternatives

[Mike Q]

If i was building house there is no doubt i would incorporate a solar system into the design, but it would only be to used as a way to get power on sunny days and a bit of a backup power supply. If the grid goes down i have a 20kw propane powered generator for that. The fact is here in my part of Ohio, solar and wind are ok, but not great options.

[Mike Q]

Today i replaced the solar powered light with a light wired to the mains. Just a 30 inch LED shop light, 3500 lumens of natural light. Just enough to to light things up when I am tearing down and stowing my gear. I have one more light that I am going to coat in red tape so i can have a red light on at night if I want to.

[Graeme1858]

Separate red and white lighting is useful. I've got a strip of those multi selectable colour LEDs along the wall in the observatory.

[Mike Q]

Separate red and white lighting is useful. I've got a strip of those multi selectable colour LEDs along the wall in the observatory.

Now that is a good idea.

[Graeme1858]

Scroll down this page a bit:

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/o ... irlqffv91o

[Mike Q]

Scroll down this page a bit:

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/o ... irlqffv91o

I remember seeing that now when i checked out your build

[Mike Q]

Separate red and white lighting is useful. I've got a strip of those multi selectable colour LEDs along the wall in the observatory.

So I ended up down at Menard's, a giant big box hardware store Saturday and picked up two 30 inch LED shop lights for cheap. One i am leaving clear light. Tonight i took some tail light repair tape to the other and it now is a red light. It actually worked pretty well. I will mount it later on this week and see how it works.