Solar Power Fur Shed?

[TRAPnHUNT]

Last Fall I had found solar powered garden lights on sale at Home Depot. I had bought 2 dozen of these and will be putting them around the house here soon. This is what gave me the following idea.

In my back yard, I have an inground pool and screened in pool house. I want to add on to it and use the addition as a fur shed. Now mind you, I'm not an electrician and I've been seriously electrocuted once before (This may explain a lot of things!), so now a days, I don't even like changing a freakin light bulb. What I was thinking of doing for lighting in the shed (If I ever get this built) is to use a small solar panel to bring in the small amount of power that I would use to run my lights.

Has anyone here done this for their fur shed and or other buildings that you might own? If so, how did it work out for you?

Looking for suggestions & comments upon this matter,
Ron

[Admin]

My whole cabin runs off battery power. Eventually I will have a few batteries linked together and 3 Harbor Freight panels on the roof. I bought the panels on sale and will mount them on the roof sometime soon. For the last year however, I have been running the cabin on one single car betterty. I charged it last fall and we just spent the night there and still got juice. Even watched a movie on the laptop. You could wire the place and run CFL or LED bulbs and have continuous charging from a small solar panel. Harbor freight also has solar shed lights that come with their own charging panel but I doubt there'd be enough light from them for doing task. I love the way my cabin is set up and will love it even more when my panels are hooked up. Its just pretty darn cool when you go to a cabin way back in the woods and have the convenience of flip the switch lighting and movies on the laptop. For a nightlight I just bring in one of the 3 dollar solar yard lights at night and I don't have to fumble around in the dark when I need to piss
If I had known how easy it was to rig up a cabin like this, I never would have spent all those years in my younger days messing with lanterns all the time.

[TRAPnHUNT]

One question that I do have is this... How do the panels hold up to hail?

[Admin]

Apr 21, 2011 12:20:22 GMT -5 TRAPnHUNT said:

One question that I do have is this... How do the panels hold up to hail?

I can't speak from experience because I've never used any. I can imagine that they must be made rugged enough because they're made for outdoor use and mostly on rooftops.

[patricimo54]

Apr 21, 2011 12:20:22 GMT -5 TRAPnHUNT said:

One question that I do have is this... How do the panels hold up to hail?

If hail is a concern you might consider a protective grid of hardware cloth/hail screen attached to a frame work to buffer any or most ill effects to cover your solar panels.

[ninedeer]

what a neat idea.solar panels on my fur shed would work great.faces south and probably gets a good 10 hours of sun on a good day.I must look into that,Thanks

[fishleclair]

I have been looking at Solar power at the trap cabin. There are 2 HUGE 12 Volt Batteries already there. I just need to get me a good Panel and inverter for 120V (Wifes PVR and TV)..They have a Kit of 3 panels at 30w with Inverter for the same price as this Panel...
www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/4/Auto/SolarPortablePower/SolarEnergy/PRD~0112085P/Blue%252BPlanet%252B85W%252BSolar%252BPanel.jsp?locale=en

But I think Ill go with the one above and maybe run 2 sets.

[Admin]

Having you trapping cabin set up with solar will be awesome. I love the way I have mine rigged. Theres so many cool little solar lights on the market now. Best of luck with the cabin Jason