Thanks to everyone for advice

[alsxx]

Thankies to everyone who advised on lighting solutions...pleased to say that our little yard now has lights rigged up running off a leisure battery and they are FAB!

I have an 11w CFL lamp in the tack room (equiv to 60w normal bulb) and a 9w CFL (equiv to 45w apparantly) in both stables, and wow they are so bright, you would never ever know we don't have mains electric!! We just need to get a couple for outside under the roof overhang.

The only downside was the swich that would not cooperate, sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, so I ditched it and opted to just connect up one of the crocodile clips to the batt instead of gambling on the lights working (or not!).

But thanks again, I would never have such a brilliant and easy solution if it weren't for HHO!

 

[Cahill]

you have light!!!please tell me how,i really need to do this,this winter in the quickest,cheapest way.
thanks

 

[alsxx]

Its really really easy!! There is an inital outlay but then it doesn't cost anything to run. You need a leisure battery (as normal ones aren't designed to keep discharging and charging), the higher amp hours the better really as then they will last longer - mine is 125ah (was the highest i could get without spending silly money, it cost me £130).

I got special 12v cabling from a solar lighting company, and special 12v CFL lights and bulb holder things so the horses wouldn't go chomping any bulbs, and basically wired it all up, used croc clips from halfords so I had easy connections to the battery.

I estimated that if I used my lights for 30 mins in the morning, and an hour at night for 5 days (as i generally do them in the light at weekends) my batt would last me 2 weeks before needing to be re-charged, and that was running it down to 80% discharge (as per manufacturers instructions for my particular battery, also my battery can do 1000 cycles of discharging and recharging which i though was good as then i wont need to replace it every couple of years). You work out the total wattage, (I based this on 3 9w bulbs and 2 11w bulbs, however am now using only 2 9w bulbs and one 11w), divide by the voltage of the batt (12v) which gives you the amps you are using, then you multiply by the number of hours you need to use that ampage for and you have your amp hours.

You need a special charger, i found one that was about £45 that would be suitable for the ah of my batt, however then found it £10 cheaper on ebay. I plan to take mine home on a sat morning and return it sun afternoon.