Solar LED Lighting for an Art Gallery

Okay, You've got 50 lights at 9W each for 450 watts total. You would need solar panels capable of generating roughly double that, 900 Watts, at maximum sun exposure in order to have an output of 450 watts at average sun exposure.

Here is a panel that can generate 85 W at 12 V at maximum exposure. You would need 10 of them. At $300 each, that will be $3000. Then you'll need a large enough battery to handle this, plus the inverter, plus the wiring, plus the lamps. That's going to add up to a lot of money compared to normal halogen lighting.

Here's the link:

http://www.solar-electric.com/so85wa12voso.html

Keep in mind, too, that you need to buy high quality LED lamps. Cheap LEDs have poor Color Rendering Index (CRI) ratings -- meaning that the colors of the art work will be distorted. CRI is one of the challenges that LED lighting faces compared to halogen incandescent or fluorescent.

The company linked above may be able to supply some of the components of the system you need.

Thanks Usbport, good info.

why would you even want to light art with led lighting??? what you need is lighting that approximates natural lighting, also know as " color temperature". there are light bulbs designed for that purpose. led bulbs would be the worst choise.

I have seen 9W LED with 5500K° with less halo than halogen gallery lights, installed in an art gallery and produced more accurate color than halogen (halogen=3200K°), it also had with better coverage within it's 60°.

So, the LED is very usable for my purpose; the costing is another matter.

Be sure to test the illumination provided by the product before you invest in a full system.

The 2 watt LED bulbs which are widely touted as a replacement for 40 W incandescents did not fulfill my expectations, by a long shot. I tested two models for use as display lights, and the performance was in no way comparable to a 40 Watt incandescent bulb. The bulbs look bright alright - glaring in fact - but the light did not penetrate any distance nor generate 'ambient' light in the way an incandescent would do.

To compare with a 40 Watt as overhead lighting, I tried the bare bulb in a ceiling fixture. It produced a halo of purplish white glare no more than two or three feet around the source, leaving the room below in near darkness.

Obviously the 9 Watt will perform better than that, but you will want to test to see how big of a "halo" you are getting from it, and whether the plan is adequate to illuminate the largest artwork you expect to display.

Do you have regular electric supply from the grid available?

If so that is only about 1000% more green than a battery based solar system.

Grid tied solar PV is expensive - off grid solar PV is horribly expensive.

you don't need alot of panels because at 40 lights x 9watts that is only360 watts.About 100 watts at 12 vdc is about 1 amp.So now your talking about 4 amp's per hour.Now you will have to figure out how many hours they will be lite.To hold the dc ele, you will need deep cycle batteries.You will have to figure out the AH. [amp hours]. That is how long the lights will be lite.This fourm is very good.http://www.wind-sun.com/forumvb/

or just type in solar fourms.

Your eletriction might know but might not be into solar.

good luck

John

Thanks John; that was the calculation I had. I am thinking of using movement sensors to switch on and off different areas, so the consumption will be reduced further. I hope to get about 5 hours lighting min

paul go to that forum and the people will help you out alot.Im just setting up my Off Grid set up. so far I have 700 watts of panels. and I bought my 40 amp MPPT solar controller for only about $85.oo from zlpower. the modle number is SL-40.The ladies name was Phillis and her email is phylis@zlpower.com and its working fine.Why use a MPPT, it will not waste as much electricty when converting.Im off the grid for my small office,and two bed rooms and next will be my living room and dinning room.It dose feel good to type for FREE.lol another thing,any thing for solar is suppose to be tax free.Thats what i heard in the USA.

John

Thanks again John. I will go to that forum.

Here in OZ the gov seems to be a bit slow to really encourage private solar: pretty stupid for a country with the most sunshine days in the world eh?We have less solar than Germany! The trick is in the Utilities & CO and the sure tax they pay to the gov. The gov in fact does NOT want private energy production, contrary to the bullshit they spin to the public. Bah! That is the norm in the USA too, I bet! Privatize everything to big corps, collect tax and provide the least services possible to the public. That is one sure way to make states broke: no collateral ownership!

Don't believe that spiel - solar power is only a nice and expensive toy today. Greens spin all sorts of yarns with zero facts involved.

The rant about utilities could not be more wrong.

That forum will provide you help for sure.

Stay away from the cheap Chinese inverters - they will only cost you far more than they are worth over time - as in a year.

Your battery based system will be in the range of 50% efficient as compared to maybe 75% for grid tied. One has to be out of their mind to use battery based solar power if the grid is available.

Sue posted a link to this site on a different thread

http://www.builditsolar.com/

That is the best open source site on the web for solar!

9.5 amp s at 12 VDC is 100 Watts A=W/V. Actually I=W/E, but we're dealing with someone interested in making a statement, not an engineer or tech. I think he wants to be able to state that he has a "green gallery" Cost has nothing to do with it. His clientele are not the least interested in those gosh danged facts & figgers.

Paul, you will have to look long and hard for the proper L.E.D.s As others have pointed out, color is the big issue. You could possibly use LED's for area lighting and halogen for the actual objects. To do this you are going to need a lot of panels, wind generators and batteries. Motion sensors may help for the lighting, except when you have an "opening" and everything must be working.

Others here may be able to point you in the right direction. Will you be looking for 3200K? I've never seen them, but others may have. Do you want the fans, HVAC to run on the panels or can they be on the grid?

Some artists work with light and LED's, they may also be a source of information. One last thing LED's, generate ultraviolet. I don't know if it is a significant amount or not, probably not, but something to check. After you have collected what you want, write back, this will take some doing, but the people here will help. You will need an electrician to tie this together and an inspection, you are a public space and will have to follow code.

Best of luck.

Oh, I like brie.

Thanks, all comments are welcome and they are providing me with all the questions and answers I wanted, thanks to all of you!

The "green" statement is only part of it. The gallery is connected to grid and the LEDs I have found are sufficiently color corrected and have good spread. I am a trained pro-photographer with many years experience and I am perfectly aware of color issues in displays. I may change my mind about the batteries and have the solar grid connected.

The LED I have found emit 5500K°, which is equivalent to average white daylight. Halogen produces a "sunset" color temperature of 3200K°, which undermines blues in anything we see. The mind corrects this to some extent producing "white" in areas which are known to be white, but the yellow cast is distorting other colors in any case.

Your suggestion to use grid for fans etc and on exhibition days and evenings is what I intended, while the solar energy may offset the cost of illumination, considering that we have so much sunlight. I am getting quotes for the panels etc and am looking at other ways as well: like using optic fibre solar lighting, halogen or LED boosted.

The cost factor is only part of the equation, although an important consideration.

I will go to the suggested forums as well. Thanks a million for the time you are all giving me: it is greatly appreciated.

well I don't think you need a permit or inspectors

unless there is a grid tie, at worst it would be considered a unapproved lighting appliance

Some follow up to my previous post.

I would drop the battery, the maintenance as well as the environmental issues make it a white elephant. Just get sufficient panels to run your meter backwards. You can start small and add on as funds become available. You are in the art business, not electric generation and storage. This is not a plug, play and forget system.

Yes, see my comment above (16) which I was writing while you were writing yours

Hi PAUL

I have supplied 2x3W modules ie 6W with nice anodised reflectors for focus light applications in India for an art gallery.I have used mains chargeable Li batteries as the main source.Of course an Inverter connected with a proper solar panel can be used to harness solar power Li batteries were used as the client wanted to avoid Lead Acid batteries to avoid sulhur dioxide fumes coming out of the battteries while they get charged and moreover Li cells are more efficient vis a vis sealed lead acid batteries.

Thanks for your note enpee2003. Could you give me more details on the batteries and costing? Can you send me some pics of the lamps and gallery?

Hi Paul,

I will email you the details as desired by you.In which country/city would you want the project to be implemented.I believe that it would be better if you use local resources to the core as it will help you with spares,support etc.Of course it will be expensive if you buty it locally and if i send it to you from India,it would be really cost effective and of course very good quality.The decision has to be yours.

Can you please send me a business weblink where I can see the components? I would be interested in getting them from you, if i find them to be useful.

Please do share

links as they relate to the discussion are not a problem