The value of solar spotlight wattage compared to the old system

[billd766]

I managed to get one of my cheap and nasty solar lights up and running last night, and it came on as it should do, but when it came on the side passage seemed to get darker. It must be a black hole light.

 

Later my wife came in with 3 x 60 solar spot lamps, so this morning I started to set one up where I had the 10W? old one was. I will finish it after my afternoon nap when is is a bit cooler.

 

Plus at 79 years old, climbing step ladders, my arthritic knee takes all the fun out of it. I can just about handle 3 steps, but at 4 steps, trying to drill a hole in a concrete beam, one handed, is no fun at all.

[sometimewoodworker]

On 12/12/2023 at 12:25 PM, billd766 said:

I do understand that the more LEDs in a spotlight means that it is brighter. Then I need to work out that if the wattage is for example 500 watts and the Voltage is 230V, I can work out the power consumption per hour.

Regrettably there is no direct correlation between number of LEDs in a spotlight and the brightness. There are far too many factors involved.

To give a few examples

1 an LED typically is actually several actually LEDs in 1 package

you can get a larger physical size COB that has many individual LEDs on a single substrate.

The voltage that the LEDs are run at will affect the light output and lifetime of the unit.

The quality of the battery will drastically effect the lifetime, both in runtime and total lifetime.

 

All of the above and many more that I haven’t touched on are related.

The single factor that generally is useful is the cost of the units.

Buy a cheap high power unit and the chances are, the battery will be exhausted soon, an LED will burn out, the power supply will die, the LEDs will change colour etc, you can be lucky. Spend more on a lower powered unit and you generally get  better reliability. There is a good reason why commercial units cost multiple times domestic ones.

[Muhendis]

On 12/11/2023 at 12:17 PM, billd766 said:

I want to put a couple of solar spotlights around the house

 

They seem to range between 45W, 65W and 2,00W.

 

Are the wattages the same value as the non solar wattages, or do they have a different value?

 

I have done several internet searches and they seem to come up with different values.

 

They will be running for 12 hours or more, so what size solar batteries would I need  for a 45W, 65W, 100W or a 2,000W solar spot light?

 

Any help or advice will be gratefully received.

There are many useful tables on the internet.

https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/light/watt-to-lumen-calculator.html

As people have already said there is no direct correlation between light, wattage and the amount of light you get from your light source.

If you want to go a bit deeper then you could look up candelas on google. They are the earlier units of light measurement.

 

I would start off thinking big and go for anything over 1,200 lumens that should just about be adequate for a well lit area with the light 4 metres high.

 

[billd766]

2 hours ago, Muhendis said:

There are many useful tables on the internet.

https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/light/watt-to-lumen-calculator.html

As people have already said there is no direct correlation between light, wattage and the amount of light you get from your light source.

If you want to go a bit deeper then you could look up candelas on google. They are the earlier units of light measurement.

 

I would start off thinking big and go for anything over 1,200 lumens that should just about be adequate for a well lit area with the light 4 metres high.

 

Thank you for that. I have been reading Crossy's thread of 3 years ago and a lot of that went over my head.

 

I put a 60 watt spot lamp up at the side of the house today. After dark I realised that it is at the wrong end. Tomorrow I will move it to the other end of the house and see if it is any better there.

 

Dog, how I hate climbing step ladders at my age.

 

It was just about fully charged and it came on ay 17:45. After only 3 1/2 hours I looked at it and it was down to about 1/2 charge already.

 

I had thought about putting a 650 watt solar spot light out the back, but after reading the replies to this thread and the replies to Crossy's thread, I will probably need a solar battery the size of a suitcase.

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, billd766 said:

 

It was just about fully charged and it came on ay 17:45. After only 3 1/2 hours I looked at it and it was down to about 1/2 charge already.

 

I had thought about putting a 650 watt solar spot light out the back, but after reading the replies to this thread and the replies to Crossy's thread, I will probably need a solar battery the size of a suitcase.

The performance of the light after 3 ½ hours is probably nothing much to do with the light. It much more likely to do with the battery. It is almost certainly a low capacity one so with an upgrade it will have a much longer life.

But with a higher capacity battery comes the need to have a large enough charging panel to recharge it.

 

A 60 watt light should be enough to floodlight your entire garden, however it maybe a 60 watt equivalent so about a 7watt LED.

 

A 650 watt spotlight (if it’s a real 650 watt LED) would be able to light something 300 ~ 500 meters away it will need forced air cooling and the suitcase battery. 
 

My opinion on around the house lights are that 3 watt lights are almost too bright, we have 2 ~4 on each of 3 sides and a much more ornamental set of 5 doubles a the front. 

[jvs]

We have bought more then 20 different Solar lights from this company.

If you compare the price to Thai whatsadu you will seen this company is A lot cheaper!

https://www.facebook.com/atchaya20/

[billd766]

I ran one of the 60 watt lamps my wife last night after 5 hours it was down to about 50% but to my surprise it was still working after 12 hours, though only just. 

 

Now I have to move it from one end of the house to the other.

 

Dog, how I hate climbing step ladders. So far I have dropped 2 bolts and 1 nut and I have no idea where they went to.

[Crossy]

19 minutes ago, billd766 said:

So far I have dropped 2 bolts and 1 nut and I have no idea where they went to.

 

They are on vacation with your missing socks on the planet where wire-hangers breed

 

I did once find a screw I had dropped in the past, unfortunately it was embedded in my car tyre!

[billd766]

3 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

They are on vacation with your missing socks on the planet where wire-hangers breed

 

I did once find a screw I had dropped in the past, unfortunately it was embedded in my car tyre!

I think that every DIY job should come with a free metal detector.

[Crossy]

We have a total of 10 * 10W (real W not "solar" W) 12V floodlights around our place. The lights have 10W COB LEDs but in reality, are closer to 5.5W (measured) when run from 12V.

 

The lights are split into two groups of 5 so about 27.5W per group.

 

Each group is supplied by a roughly 40Ah 12V LiFePO4 pack made up from a selection of el-cheapo 32650 cells obtained from Lazada over the years whilst trying to find a decent source. The cells were capacity tested and them assembled as a (lots)P x 4S pack with a cheap BMS that was "in-stock".

 

The pack is charged by a motley selection of used panels totalling about 100WP solar per 5 light group, via a home-brew "sort of MPPT" controller.

 

The lights run all night at full intensity using about 340Wh (28Ah) from the pack. The panels usually manage to put this back by mid-day (weather dependant of course).

 

IoT monitoring is by an ESP8266 based V/I/W monitoring thingy powered by the same pack. The ESP isn't the lowest power beast, but it's what I have a stack of.

 

Apart from the floods themselves (cheap from Lazada / China) it was all assembled from stuff that was in the "potentially useful bits" box.

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/angelila-12v-24v-led-flood-light-waterproof-10w-20w-30w-50w-floodlight-lamp-safety-led-work-light-for-offroad-driving-marine-fishing-boat-deck-trawler-suv-tractor-i4167531100-s16377228216.html?

 

Illumination is definitely more than adequate for security, and of course, costs zero to run. It would be a whole 4 Baht per night on grid power, but every little helps.

 

In relatable terms that's 2 slabs of Chang per year "free"  

[billd766]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

We have a total of 10 * 10W (real W not "solar" W) 12V floodlights around our place. The lights have 10W COB LEDs but in reality, are closer to 5.5W (measured) when run from 12V.

 

The lights are split into two groups of 5 so about 27.5W per group.

 

Each group is supplied by a roughly 40Ah 12V LiFePO4 pack made up from a selection of el-cheapo 32650 cells obtained from Lazada over the years whilst trying to find a decent source. The cells were capacity tested and them assembled as a (lots)P x 4S pack with a cheap BMS that was "in-stock".

 

The pack is charged by a motley selection of used panels totalling about 100WP solar per 5 light group, via a home-brew "sort of MPPT" controller.

 

The lights run all night at full intensity using about 340Wh (28Ah) from the pack. The panels usually manage to put this back by mid-day (weather dependant of course).

 

IoT monitoring is by an ESP8266 based V/I/W monitoring thingy powered by the same pack. The ESP isn't the lowest power beast, but it's what I have a stack of.

 

Apart from the floods themselves (cheap from Lazada / China) it was all assembled from stuff that was in the "potentially useful bits" box.

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/angelila-12v-24v-led-flood-light-waterproof-10w-20w-30w-50w-floodlight-lamp-safety-led-work-light-for-offroad-driving-marine-fishing-boat-deck-trawler-suv-tractor-i4167531100-s16377228216.html?

 

Illumination is definitely more than adequate for security, and of course, costs zero to run. It would be a whole 4 Baht per night on grid power, but every little helps.

 

In relatable terms that's 2 slabs of Chang per year "free"  

I find that climbing the stepladder 3 days in a row doesn't make it any less difficult but drilling the holes in the concrete beams and bolting the holding frames on is easier with modification and practise.

 

Tomorrow should be easier as I will be drilling though wood in the car port. Dog, I still hate climbing step ladders though.

[billd766]

On 12/13/2023 at 6:24 PM, Muhendis said:

There are many useful tables on the internet.

https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/light/watt-to-lumen-calculator.html

As people have already said there is no direct correlation between light, wattage and the amount of light you get from your light source.

If you want to go a bit deeper then you could look up candelas on google. They are the earlier units of light measurement.

 

I would start off thinking big and go for anything over 1,200 lumens that should just about be adequate for a well lit area with the light 4 metres high.

 

The problem with so many tables on the internet is knowing exactly what woeds and terms you want. If you put in the wrong word then you get shunted down to the wrong table.

[Crossy]

2 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I find that climbing the stepladder 3 days in a row doesn't make it any less difficult but drilling the holes in the concrete beams and bolting the holding frames on is easier with modification and practise.

 

Tomorrow should be easier as I will be drilling though wood in the car port. Dog, I still hate climbing step ladders though.

 

I'm still OK on step-ladders, despite being "somewhat" overweight 

 

When it comes to ladder-ladders I have a step-son

[billd766]

43 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

I'm still OK on step-ladders, despite being "somewhat" overweight 

 

When it comes to ladder-ladders I have a step-son

I have a 19 year old Thai son who is willing to try to do most things but he is at uni in Chiang Rai at the moment. The goo news for us is that he is home for the holidays next week.

 

I have the tools, knowledge and experience that he doesn't, and he has the muscles and the lack of fear that I had at his age.

[sometimewoodworker]

8 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

I'm still OK on step-ladders, despite being "somewhat" overweight 

 

When it comes to ladder-ladders I have a step-son

I resemble those remarks.

However we have SWMBO’s brother who has a partner who has to pay off a car loan of about 12k a month, so as there is no good paying jobs in the village is very motivated to do a good job as we pay double the usual rate.

 

Our house has been newly painted, the garden is maintained and countless other tasks that are on the roundtuit list are getting done.

 

I have come to accept that climbing ladders, running around the roof, lifting heavy stuff, prepping steel for welding, spending time to get a perfect sanded finish are all tasks that brother-in-law and partner are happy to do as it means they can get the car loan payment while not doing really hard labour and I can avoid the things I find boring. All in all it’s a win win for everyone apart from my waistline where I have to try to keep in check.

[Elkski]

10 hours ago, Crossy said:

We have a total of 10 * 10W (real W not "solar" W) 12V floodlights around our place. The lights have 10W COB LEDs but in reality, are closer to 5.5W (measured) when run from 12V.

 

The lights are split into two groups of 5 so about 27.5W per group.

 

Each group is supplied by a roughly 40Ah 12V LiFePO4 pack made up from a selection of el-cheapo 32650 cells obtained from Lazada over the years whilst trying to find a decent source. The cells were capacity tested and them assembled as a (lots)P x 4S pack with a cheap BMS that was "in-stock".

 

The pack is charged by a motley selection of used panels totalling about 100WP solar per 5 light group, via a home-brew "sort of MPPT" controller.

 

The lights run all night at full intensity using about 340Wh (28Ah) from the pack. The panels usually manage to put this back by mid-day (weather dependant of course).

 

IoT monitoring is by an ESP8266 based V/I/W monitoring thingy powered by the same pack. The ESP isn't the lowest power beast, but it's what I have a stack of.

 

Apart from the floods themselves (cheap from Lazada / China) it was all assembled from stuff that was in the "potentially useful bits" box.

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/angelila-12v-24v-led-flood-light-waterproof-10w-20w-30w-50w-floodlight-lamp-safety-led-work-light-for-offroad-driving-marine-fishing-boat-deck-trawler-suv-tractor-i4167531100-s16377228216.html?

 

Illumination is definitely more than adequate for security, and of course, costs zero to run. It would be a whole 4 Baht per night on grid power, but every little helps.

 

In relatable terms that's 2 slabs of Chang per year "free"  

Omg, you like chang.  I thought you were an ok guy. 

So from your post  you need 100 watt panel to run your 27.5 watt 5 light groups?  And a 40Ahr battery.   And thats without an inverter.   I have about 15 backyard lights for decoration.  Unfortunately some are incandescent. I think i have removed all the halogens.  Was thinking of putting my 100 watt panel  solar system on the shed roof  but i would need many new panels and of course a big battery.  I have the charge controller and everything.  How would i switch all these lights on at dusk and off at 10pm.  Currently i use a 120v low voltage power supply with a leviton smart wifi switch.  It seems like i would get lots of loss using my inverter with this 600 watt power supply.  

[billd766]

15 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

I resemble those remarks.

However we have SWMBO’s brother who has a partner who has to pay off a car loan of about 12k a month, so as there is no good paying jobs in the village is very motivated to do a good job as we pay double the usual rate.

 

Our house has been newly painted, the garden is maintained and countless other tasks that are on the roundtuit list are getting done.

 

I have come to accept that climbing ladders, running around the roof, lifting heavy stuff, prepping steel for welding, spending time to get a perfect sanded finish are all tasks that brother-in-law and partner are happy to do as it means they can get the car loan payment while not doing really hard labour and I can avoid the things I find boring. All in all it’s a win win for everyone apart from my waistline where I have to try to keep in check.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) both of my BIL live in Bangkok about 400 ,m away. My son is at uni in Chiang Rai and only comes home on long holidays.

 

I now look at the jobs in 3 categories.

 

1   I can do these but much slower than before.

 

2   I used to be able to do these so I will try 3 times and then give up. Those are the ones I get my wife to find a man who can do them for a price to be decided upon.

 

3   I used to be able to do these, but I know I can't do them anymore. Those are the ones I get my wife to find a man who can do them for a price to be decided upon from the start.