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Indoor lighting when there is no Electricity

24K views 71 replies 43 participants last post by  RedWoods 
#1 ·
Like many here I have oil lamps, candles but I have recently changed my focus in this area to those solar powered lawn landscaping lights. I bought a dozen of those cheap $5 ones at homedepot.

I am trying to find a way of making them slighty brighter, I switched out their cheap Chinese batteries with some quality lithium rechargable batteries. We put 5 of them across the fireplace mantle with a mirror behind them and they lit the room pretty good but I wonder if there is anything else I can do

Is anyone doing this and have any ideas or any thoughts on this?

 
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#2 ·
I got 12 the other day but Mrs Max wont let me try them in the garden yet until I finish my other projects and clean the drive up after finishing my land rover discovery service
I had not thought about putting in better batteries great idea

cheers
max
 
#3 ·
I have a solar powered set up. It's a little expensive, but it works good. I start out with a 5 watt solar charger battery charger, I got at Harbor Freight, that charges up two deep cycle UPS batteries I have. Then I connected up a 1500 watt inverter to convert the 12 volts to 110 AC, and that'll power up standard lamps to light up my house. This also gives me up to 1500 watts of 110AC for small appliances as well.


Solar panel from Harbor Freight......$ 40.00
two UPS batteries........................$ 40.00 each
110 ac 1500 watt inverter.............$ 120.00
Misc cables, extention cords..........$ 25.00
Two lamps with bulbs about ..........$ 20.00

So for under $250 I have a solar powered emergency lighting system. This will also power small hand tools, drills, grinders, saws.... etc.
 
#6 ·
I have a solar powered set up. It's a little expensive, but it works good. I start out with a 5 watt solar charger battery charger, I got at Harbor Freight, that charges up two deep cycly UPS batteries I have. Then I connected up a 1500 watt inverter to convert the 12 volts to 110 AC, and that'll power up standard lamps to light up my house. This also gives me up to 1500 watts of 110AC for small appliances as well.


Solar panel from Harbor Freight......$ 40.00
two UPS batteries........................$ 40.00 each
110 ac 1500 watt inverter.............$ 120.00
Misc cables, extention cords..........$ 25.00
Two lamps with bulbs about ..........$ 20.00

So for under $250 I have a solar powered emergency lighting system. This will also power small hand tools, drills, grinders, saws.... etc.


Too cool!

Nice set up!
 
#4 ·
I played around with a few of those last summer. One thing I did was to remove the stake, and place the light part on top of a mason jar that I rigged inside with a reflector made from an empty beer can. I used it in my bathroom as a night light. It worked pretty well. I've also wondered about ways to improve on the basic idea.
 
#5 ·
I have those solar powered garden lights, but that's wehre they are...the garden.

For INDOOR lighting when there is no electricity, I have candles, battery-operated and dynamo flashlights, and numerous oil/kerosene lamps and 3 Dietz lanterns, PLUS 6 gallons of lamp oil and 5 gallons of kerosene stored.
 
#8 ·
Thanks kev, I should have known you had a video on this!

I took out those cheap batteries but there is no "mill amp hours" written on the new ones I bought. I bought "Energizer Ultimate Lithium" rechargable batteries.

I'll check again
 
#11 ·
If I had land to grow sunflowers Id do the whole diesel generator thing run on sunflower oil. Either that or beeswax candles home made.

I'll more than likely end up with a bunch of those torches you pull the string on and it gives you an hours light. 2$ a pop, cant really go wrong.
 
#13 ·
I got a few Multi-Mode Mini Maglite 2-cell AA LED flashlights. The Candle mode is pretty amazing and could run for a few days on one set of batteries. I use rechargable Eneloop batteries and 3 wall chargers so the cost is next to nothing to me and I can go without the power for at least a week.

Also, I have one of those portable generators/jump starters with an inverter that I got at Costco. I use it regualry and make sure it fully charged.

Next on my list to buy is foldable solar panel. Hopefully, I will get it before I really need it.
 
#15 ·
I use white LED Christmas lights in the basement. They are always on. 12vdc can run off rechargeable battery power for a long time. Solar, wind is the choices here. Grid when it’s up.

LED's are safer than open flame and ANY light is good when its pitch dark in the basement.
 
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#19 ·
I have put back hundreds upon hundreds of candles, and several kerosene lamps, along with roughly a dozen extra wicks each, and a few extra globes. Also have lots and lots of kerosene.

The only way to make those garden lights better, besides the better batteries, would be to completely rework them, well actually just rob parts from them and build something new and better. I may have to fiddle with it and maybe I can come up with a short instructional thread and parts list. Stay tuned.

Basically you will need to replace the LED's with a better, brighter ones. Doing this will shorten battery life. The only real cure for that, since you've already replaced the batteries with better ones, is to add to the battery bank, now you probably won't have room to add batteries, so you will need to gut the original light and reassemble into another container, such as a hobby box from radio shack, along with a battery holder to simplify wiring in the extra batteries. Just interrupt the circuit on one side of the original battery bank and add in the new one by taking the negative wire to the old batteries off and hooking to the new battery carriers negative post, then run a wire from the new batteries positive to the old batteries negative.

Now it is possible that the existing photocell will be insufficient to charge all the batteries sufficiently, so you may need to rob another photocell from another light and add it in, in the same fashion as the batteries.

While you're at it, add in a switch so you can turn the light on and off.
 
#20 ·
I haven't bought any of the solar yard lights. Well, I have one, but it's for lighting up a halloween display. :D:

I use cheapo LED flashlights and rechargeable batteries. Works out about as cheap and is brighter. I have a bunch of small solar battery chargers and one larger unit.

Also have a bunch of oil lamps and candles. Before I was forced to move back into the city, my plans were to grow my own oil for them.

Edit to add: Actually, I just remembered I had 2 other old solar lights that used flourescent tubes. If you can find these cheap, they have a large panel and a gel cell battery that holds a fair amount of juice. The factory gel cell is crappy and goes out in a year, but you can upgrade it or use the panel and charger with other batteries.
 
#22 ·
I haven't bought any of the solar yard lights. Well, I have one, but it's for lighting up a halloween display. :D:

I use cheapo LED flashlights and rechargeable batteries. Works out about as cheap and is brighter. I have a bunch of small solar battery chargers and one larger unit.

Also have a bunch of oil lamps and candles. Before I was forced to move back into the city, my plans were to grow my own oil for them.
I am so far behind in about everything "solar", this summer I am giving this my full attention. My Dw (a teacher) takes continuing education classes over the summer and I usually takes something with her for the heck of it, I'm hoping they offer some type of introduction to basic solar power or something along those lines.

OM
 
#25 ·
So far I have lots of candles, some oil lamps with several spare wicks and bottles of lamp oil with more to be obtained, some Coleman lanterns of the white gas and propane variety with more fuel to be obtained, some dynamo flashlights and several battery powered flashlights with lots of batteries and more to be obtained.
After reading all this I'm going to get the funds together to get into solar battery charging. I have several truck batteries in good shape not currently being used, a 1000 watt DC inverter and several different type AC battery chargers. Just need some solar panels to charge the truck batteries to start it all up.
 
#26 ·
Be careful wiring it all up. You must use the proper wire guage or else your wires may melt and start a fire. I'm using 4 gauge wire in my setup.

I read about one guy who's electricity got shut off, so he tried lighting up his house with a car battery and a headlight...He ended up burning down the house and 5 people died in the fire including some kids. I've heard similar stories about people trying to light up their house with candles or oil lamps. These things can be complicated and dangerous to those who don't use them on a regular basis.
 
#28 ·
See The Light

Since I am totally "Off the Grid"...Let's just say power is not an issue. I do however have Kerosene back ups. One item I will suggest is the Humphrey's lamp. http://www.gas-lights.com/paulin.html Incidentally I have done business with this company for many years.
They are super fuel efficient 1/12 of a pound/hr. 1 Gal of Propane = 4.23 Lbs.
I have been using them for over 15 years. One lesson learned is to order a hi-altitude jet...every now and again you will run into one that just doesn't like the std jet and will carbon up (about $4 for the jet)
 
#29 ·
Since I am totally "Off the Grid"...Let's just say power is not an issue. I do however have Kerosene back ups. One item I will suggest is the Humphrey's lamp. http://www.gas-lights.com/paulin.html Incidentally I have done business with this company for many years.
They are super fuel efficient 1/12 of a pound/hr. 1 Gal of Propane = 4.23 Lbs.
I have been using them for over 15 years. One lesson learned is to order a hi-altitude jet...every now and again you will run into one that just doesn't like the std jet and will carbon up (about $4 for the jet)
Oh, man ... what I would give ... :thumb:
 
#31 ·
If using solar pannels and a battery bank Using an inverter is a bit wasteful there are many efficient low voltage lamps available. The lamps have a built in inverters but only work when the build is on http://www.alternativetechnology.info/12voltlighting.htm
Try running a drill or a saw on 12 volts....the inverter makes it possible to give you 110 ac power to whatever appliance you want. 12 volt appliances become expensive and can be hard to find. Plus you have to deal with larger gauge wire to handle the extra current. I'll stick with my inverter thank you.
 
#33 ·
Size Matters

TAC...When I first started out I did the 12v light thing. I found them to be a mistake. The units did not hold up to continuous use. Sides when you got satellite TV and internet, and a LARGE battery bank, What's the point of skimping on lights. During that time I used the Humphries lamps more than the 12v. Now that I have solar up and running, I have more power than I normally use. I still run the generator every couple of weeks just to "Equalize" the batteries and do laundry. 12 V is great for limited use, like in a travel trailer, or Car camping, but that's about it. On a quality inverter figure about 10% loss just to run the inverter. When you are blowing 300 watts on the tube, what's another 40 or so for lights? I honestly did not notice any significant change in charge cycles.
 
#38 ·
Another problem I have with 12 volt systems, is that for safety reasons, you really need to have a fuse on each circuit. With my set up, there's a circuit breaker/reset button built in to my inverter, so I don't have to mess with that. For even more protection, I can run power strips with built in breakers.

Look at the wiring in a car. It has multiple fuses each for a different thing. Running all those wires separately into your house would be wiring nightmare. At the lower 12 volt rating, your amperage rating skyrockets and you need heavier wire. Running wires at a long distance, also creates a problem with amperage, cost of wiring, and power drops.

So to avoid all the headaches associated with 12 volt systems, I went with an inverter and a 110 AC system.
 
#40 ·
Your lights need 110/240V AC the easy way to get this from a car battery is to use an inverter. An inverter chops the power to a sort of a sine wave and ups the voltage. The better the sine wave the more costly the inverter. This conversion has a small loss. Like a generator inverters with a small load are not too inefficient. Only turn on the inverter when you need the power if you just turn off the light the inverter will still take power from you battery. Check the no load power spec of the inverter some have a standby mode when no power is needed.
I have an ups system in my house that works my pc. The battery bank gives 96V DC at 21 A/hr. I found some compact energy lamp rated at 240V AC work just as well of 96V DC. The current drawn is around 35mA (less than 4W) the battery would last 21 days in theory at that rate. The ups with no load last about 12 hours.
The purpose of a fuse is to open an electronic circuit when current flow exceeds a certain amount, determined by the rating of the fuse. Opening a circuit under high current conditions can save electronic components from damaged and prevents overheating, which could cause a fire.
The more fuses you have the less catastrophic the failure will be. One fuse is one point of failure. Divide your load into circuits as you see fit.
Remember the fuse must be the weakest point in the circuit to do its job. Using a low voltage means higher current needing thicker more expensive wire. If the wire is not up to the job it will get hot which wastes power and could end up burning you house down.
Using low voltage has many advantages in a SHTF less than 50V dc could be considered non lethal must still be treated with respect. 12v power is cheap and easy to find lots car batteries. Running a generator is noisy which could tell people where you are and the fumes could kill you. Of cause at some time you need to charge the battery. Car batteries (Cranking) are not the best long term they don’t like to be fully discharged look a leisure/ups batteries.
You need chose what’s best for you I hope I’ve given some useful info.
 
#42 ·
drive through any parking lot on a sunny day and you will see those cardboard dashboard covers protecting the interior of the sheeple’s car.

Simply replace that cover with a foldable solar panels and keep your battery tip top charged, cigarette lighter plug will do it. Want to run a fan all day long to keep your truck aired out? This is the way.

If you’re driving or flying put this:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/giftsunder50/c5a7/

in a window towards the sun and charge it up, clip it to your backpack on a day walk, all you need is sunlight, it contains a battery that will run your cell phone or iPod or flashlight. After the initial cost its all free portable energy.
 
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