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Solar voltaic with led house lighting?

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  • 25-10-2009 8:29pm
    #1
    Bluehair
    Registered Users Posts: 1,336 ✭✭✭


    I've been investigating solar panels for heating etc. and it would appear that in our climate solar voltaic panels are not the most efficient.

    It then crossed my mind would it be possible during a house renovation to wire some of the later with a battery back-up to exclusively run low voltage leds as the sole lighting in the house?


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    #2
    quentingargan
    Registered Users Posts: 1,627 ✭✭✭quentingargan


    Bluehair wrote: »
    I've been investigating solar panels for heating etc. and it would appear that in our climate solar voltaic panels are not the most efficient.

    It then crossed my mind would it be possible during a house renovation to wire some of the later with a battery back-up to exclusively run low voltage leds as the sole lighting in the house?

    Battery systems are quite inefficient in any renewable project. I should imagine that as solar PVs come down in price, grid tie inverters would be the most efficient way to harness their power.

    I run my house on batteries (from a wind turbine installed before we dared to imagine the ESB would allow grid-tie).

    If you are wiring DC lighting, you MUST use stranded wire, not solid copper. The wire has to be a lot heavier as well as the currents are far higher. That said of course, LEDs are low wattage.


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    #3
    Khanis
    Closed Accounts Posts: 33 ✭Khanis


    LEDs are at the point where you could absolutely use them exclusively for illumination but you'll need to have lots of them to make it worthwhile. High output LEDs are expensive, while the lower output ones are cheap as chips, so go for high density.. use 20 per room in the ceiling, you can get integrated downlighters so you don't need a separate fixture and in a domestic environment it'll be good for 20 years.

    PM me for more


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