How about the 45 watt(?) solar panels for barn lighting?

[Hermein]

Trolling Harbor Freight yesterday and noticed that there are 3 panel solar lighting apparatus on sale. Compared to the cost of lights installed by an electrician, the $200–$400 price of the solar panels plus necessary accessories sounds like a bargain. (The full enchilada includes a battery, a splitter, various converters, etc.)

Part of the attraction is because dh and I are working at becoming greener and greener.

Anybody using solar for their barn?

[Linda]

Hi
We have solar panels on our barn…ours are about 4 times that size - but it provides power for the house too in addition to the barn. We do still have a small electric bill each month. But it is a lot smaller than if we did not have solar !

[Frog_Pond]

I looked at that system at Harbor Freight, too, and will probably install in next spring. I picked through the 300~ reviews and found great ideas and descriptions of other people’s installations. I have a 2-stall barn and for now, I’ve been using two of these from Amazon – Gama Sonic Light My Shed III Solar LED Shed Light Fixture #GS-16LD – sorry, having trouble linking. One in the feed room and one in the aisle gives me enough light to feed and move around at night, not enough to do detailed work or muck stalls – I use a headlamp to increase the light for that. I’m going to have the barn wired next year with an LED fixture over each store, in the aisle and in the feed room, with switches, so it can be plugged into my generator or hooked up to the solar panels.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Frog Pond;8362400]
I looked at that system at Harbor Freight, too, and will probably install in next spring. I picked through the 300~ reviews and found great ideas and descriptions of other people’s installations. I have a 2-stall barn and for now, I’ve been using two of these from Amazon – Gama Sonic Light My Shed III Solar LED Shed Light Fixture #GS-16LD – sorry, having trouble linking. One in the feed room and one in the aisle gives me enough light to feed and move around at night, not enough to do detailed work or muck stalls – I use a headlamp to increase the light for that. I’m going to have the barn wired next year with an LED fixture over each store, in the aisle and in the feed room, with switches, so it can be plugged into my generator or hooked up to the solar panels.[/QUOTE]

Think hard how you want to place lights.

Remember, horses have a large mass, so overhead lights will tend to give you a larger shadow, where you can’t see too well, than if you offset the lights to come at an angle to where you work.

If you are putting lights in aisles, stalls and wash stalls, where there will be horses standing there, put them on the sides, not right overhead.

[Frog_Pond]

Thanks, Bluey, all great points about light placement. My feed room light is in a good spot, but the aisle one creates shadows. That would be much worse with permanently installed lights. So many details to these new barn set ups – thank goodness for COTH!!