I just remodeled my shed and this was a great finishing touch. Thanks for the links to the materials. I was able to get everything off Amazon except the angle iron. One thing to watch out for - if you drill holes in the aluminum and screw that into the beams, be careful not to short out the strip. It's really easy to do. If the lights keep going out, loosen the screws and put them back in gently.
That is one clean and organized shed. Don't forget an inline fuse or two. I know it's a hassle but it's pretty cheap and peace of mind goes a long way.
What fuse / configuration did you end up installing? Great video - this is exactly what I need, installing as soon as parts arrive, thanks so much for posting!
So my 1-window shed (which is in tree shaded area) is in need of some lighting. I love this setup! Seems simple and inexpensive. Im just looking for having lights when i step out there to look for something. Might pickup a cheap portable generator to power some tools in the future. This should work for my needs. Thanks for the video!
I did a similar setup in my shed with a deep cycle 12v battery. and led strips. The one problem I had is forgetting to turn the lights off and coming back to a dead battery two days later. I solved that by replacing the switch with a one hour timer mounted to a standard 110v wall switch box. Now if I forget to turn the lights off the timer runs out and the lights turn off. no more dead battery.
I have been using RV bulbs, standard screw in base so you can use a standard light fixtures 12-24v. I also have some hand wired 10w LED cobs @ 250ma for free* lighting installed in every ceiling in my house. All of my outbuildings, shed, coup, greenhouse have independent systems like this...until recently. I just ran a 10guage pair, and a 6 wire solid core(control wire) thru every structure. Now I can have some fun :) I was just searching to checkout others projects like this. Thankyou! :)
You should use the output load part on that charge controller that way you have over discharge battery protection. I have Two of those charge controllers and they work well.
Thanks for the great video. You inspired me to install a solar lighting system in my 12' x 16' shed. Works excellent-way better than any pre-packaged system, and costs way less. Plus, I have the satisfaction of having built it myself. Consider yourself subscribed!
Great video and thank you so much for the parts list. I used the same parts and installed solar lighting in our community's Boy Scout shed and it works great. Thank you.
So the battery is going to the charge controller, and also to the light switch? Then the lights connect to the switch, and solar panels connect to the charge controller? Sorry if it's a stupid question.
I am very curious as to how long those lights last when on continuously. My apartment landlord wants a solar light solution for his car ports and I think this could be very effective with low maintenance so long as the run time is good. Please advise. Great and simple video btw!
Gday nice i put a car battery and a solar panel in my 40ft container and set up 3 1m long led lights on 3 switches and run a car radio i put the lights in a alloy channel held on the roof with hard drive magnets cos i did not want to put holes in the roof and all wiring is in poly pipe and the cam can not show how good the light is. cheers
I think you're supposed to hook in the load (lights) in to the extra port on your solar charge controller rather than taking the load straight out the battery. The reason behind this is that the solar charge controller would then prevent you from using the lights when the battery was not charged enough. It's unhealthy to over-discharge a battery.
Hobby Picker thanks for the tip, I understand how its supposed to work, luckily I understand how low to drain a lead acid before damaging it. I left it unhooked because I didn't want my solar charge controller always pulling a small amount of power from my battery.
I agree, that is what the load terminal is for. The regulator would use a small amount from the battery regardless of whether you use the load terminal or not (such a small amount it's no worth worrying about) Better to have low voltage protection that the load terminal provides.
@@mattburrows2615 Ok, so now i'm confused. I'm about to try this. :-) Should I do it the way the video has it or go through the controller? Keep in mind I know nothing about how this stuff works. 😃
@@wheelerk2012 it's OK. I can answer any questions you have. It will work the way shown in the video but you will need to make sure you switch the lights off when the voltage gets low or lights look dim to greatly prolong the life of the batteries. The benefit here is you won't be left in the dark until the batteries are totally drained unless the lights have a low voltage protection. If on the other hand you wire the lights to the load terminals the controller can disconnect the lights automatically when the battery reaches the adjustable low voltage cut off value. This of course has the drawback of potentially leaving you in the dark without warning but a battery and panel sized for the purpose can avoid this. It just depends how many hours you want to run the lights for and how much power they use. You will get to know it's capability. I use the load terminals as I have the lights on 24h a day then adjust brightness on a dimmer as required. Hope this helps. Feel free to ask anything.
The LED lights you linked come with an AC power adapter, I’m guessing you just cut the connector off the lights and plugged the + and - wires directly into the solar charge controller?
Jason, great work. I just purchased everything to do lights in my shed. Any chance you could put up some closeups of the wiring at the battery and how you connected the lights and the battery to the terminals?
This is an awesome video. I have two questions, should I use 2 inline fuses? Also, what type of connectors are you using to connect the wires to the battery?
Is this a special battery for the solar panel or can you use a car battery? Would have been nice to have seen it been set up. Lovely shots of the components.
The battery I used is a sealed lead acid battery. They don't require any maintenance so it nice to use them in this setting. A car battery would work fine as well in a setup like this.
Sorry this is way late but if I added a second battery and cables would it store more energy [From west Texas so sunlight is no problem around here] Thank you for the help
those lights say 60watts does that mean you can only have it on for 30 minutes at a time? 12 volt times 7 amp battery = 84 watts. iam just old. am i thinking right
Yeah, I have a small battery and don't use the lights for a very long time. These lights pull about 40 watts. Just put in a bigger battery if you need longer run times.
Depends on how much power your lights use, 12 volt led lights are very efficient. If they only pull 2 or 3 amps, a 35 Amp hour battery would last plenty long.
Hey there! Some follow ups bc I’m using this lay out and may help others: it looks as if you have 1 cable going to each angle piece which has 2 strips on them. Is this accurate? If so how did you connect each strip end to 1 cords + and - side; seems like you would need 2 cords per angle piece. Additionally I was going to use 3M Scotchlok connectors to bridge off of main line running to the back to feed the first angle piece any foreseeable issue with that? And did you just secure angle ends with electrical tape? Thank you!
@@waynec1752 The aluminum angle is secured using zip ties to each rafter. I wired the lights together using 14 gauge exterior landscape wire, each light has a positive and negative wire coming directly from the battery and I just daisy chained the lights by connecting positive to positive and negative to negative. Each LED strip has double sided tape that sticks directly to the aluminum angle. Does that answer your questions?
Great video and a massive help on my new low energy design and layout. Your using a SH1228W battery and they are 8AH? do you have any calculations on the energy those lights use, the length of time they last on a full battery charge? What is the wattage per strip?
Hi! Writing to ask if the positive wire (supply) to the switch could have been routed from the "load" terminals on the charge controller? I understand of course that the positive wire directly from the battery to the switch does work, but I figured I'd ask why you didn't use the load terminals on the charge controller for that purpose. Thanks!
Yes, you can use the load terminals for the lights. It adds extra protection to your battery so you don't run it down too much. Just skipped it on my project.
I know you posted this a few years ago but I’m having an issue. My on my controller the light bulb is flashing and I have no power. Same items as you but less lights. Like your setup. Thanks for posting. Hope you can help.
Sounds like the load function is shutoff by the solar charge controller. Sometimes it's on a schedule or maybe the battery voltage is too low? Whats the voltage of the battery? You can always bypass the load output and connect directly to the battery, you just need to make sure to not over-discharge the battery by running the lights to long.
Jasonoid battery is full and solar is charging. I’ll try to bypass it and check the settings again. Just can’t find any info on what flashing things mean or the like. Thanks for your quick reply.
@@brianbaker9382 These cheap solar charge controllers are good for basic things but when something goes wrong it's hard to know what it's doing. Hopefully that helps! Good luck :)
Jasonoid thanks for your help. I think I’ve got it figured out. Wrong lights. Your link is no longer good. Do you know what lights you have. I know it’s a long shot. Thanks again.
@@brianbaker9382 Added 3 new options to the video decription, these light links seem to change every couple months. Make sure you get 12v waterproof lighting just in case it gets wet in your shed.
Is the solar panel behind a glass window? I have tried to put a solar panel in a south facing window that gets a lot of sun but it severely affected its output needed to put it outside to get it to work properly.
Since I use the lights only a couple times a week, this was fine for my needs. If you want to so something a little larger, check out this video: th-cam.com/video/rFVtJXqV_zA/w-d-xo.html
I don't have anything to compare this to, but I am curious why you didn't hook the light wiring to the load connections on the charge controller so you couldn't accidentally leave the lights on and over-discharge the battery. Other than that curiousity, I really like what you did and how clean the wiring work was done.
Mark Chapmon thanks for watching my video! Just personal preference, and for simplicity. I personally won't leave the lights on to over discharge the battery.
Interesting, I was just thinking maybe I could use the solar trickle charger for a 12v battery I bought for my lawn mower, hook it up to an old 12v car battery I have to power up some LED lights for my shed that doesn't have AC power. As far as switch, it seem like you could use just a regular AC wall switch. And I'm also wondering if for a battery I could use my 18v power tool batteries. That way I could use one of them that was charged up if the one charged by the solar panels was low or ran out while I was in the middle of doing something. And as far as hooking up to that batter I have an old drill that recently died and luckily I didn't toss it because I can use it's base as the plug in point for my 18v batteries! How much heat do these strip lights put out. Do you think you could use some of the LED tubes that replace fluorescent tubes in a fluorescent fixture without ballast or maybe one of the plug in tube fixtures and just bypass whatever ac/dc converter it has? I actually bought a couple led lights at the auto parts store that had two 9 volt batteries hooked in series to provide a store demo so I'm thinking some more lights like them should be able to run off my 18v ryobi batteries.
These lights don't put off heat at all because they are LEDs. A 12v battery would power these light just fine. If you wanted to run higher voltages like 18v you'd want to make sure the leds you bought support that voltage. This video is pretty old and my lights still are working great!
I have a barn with no electricity. I rarely need a light on. Is a very small solar panel enough to keep a 12v battery topped up? My setup is similar to yours using a car battery.
Where do the wires from your LEDS go? ( ie are they straight onto battery terminals?) I expected them to go to the charge controller but cant see that. Also are they fused?
They are fused, switch is on the positive line, and they connect to the positive and negative battery terminals. You could also wire the led power wires to the 'load inputs' on the solar charge controller if you want to have low voltage protection.
Correct, I just cut the strips to the desired length, then I soldered on the landscape cable you can buy by the foot from HomeDepot or Lowes. I recommend at least 14awg cable for the project.
@@Jasonoid how much current do they pull? Total or per strip? I am loooking at hooking up my shed but I am not sure the strips put off enough light? Also I am sizing my battery.
@@DemingChiropractor They pull quite a bit of current. I'd say at least 5-7 amps total for all the strips. I haven't ever officially measured, I need to purchase a DC clamp meter for all my projects. If you are looking to run them a long time I would suggest getting a larger battery and a larger solar panel to compensate.
I havea solar panel controller 12v battery and about to add wind turbine to my garden shed. I cant find 12 v lighting ANYWHERE on the internet in the UK (unless you buy a system with a solar panel which I dont need)
Don't search for 12 volt lighting, search for 12 volt leds lights, you might have better luck. Led strip lights are available everywhere. Amazon, eBay are both in the UK as well.
Plan on a 5 amp draw with these lights so if you want to run for 5 hours each night you'll want at least 50AH battery to not run your lead acid below 50%DOD (25 Amp hours is 50% of the battery)
This is extremely helpful. My garage is about the same size so this will do wonders. The Amazon links still work but would you recommend any other upgrades as the video is now 2 years old?
@@Jasonoid gotcha. Thanks for the reply. I have some laying around but nothing that large. I wanted someone bigger so I don’t slice my hand when searching for the switch in the dark 🤣
All depends on how large your battery is. This is a super small battery so you get around 1 hour of runtime. Larger battery with a larger solar panel and the whole thing is scalable.
You’re gonna kill the battery, change the light cables from the battery to the last two connectors on the right, that’s the “load” connection, you can set the controller to 24h, if you leave the lights on by accident or dusk till dawn. the controller will cut power if the battery level is dangerously low to protect it, in the event of a short circuit on the wiring, the controller will also cut the the power, please read the instructions for the controller. Otherwise, I like how clean and neat the wiring looks.
I skipped the load connections on purpose. Thanks for the heads up. I run the lights for 5 minutes once or twice a week. If I used them more I would have planned to put them on the load circuit.
Mine will run a couple hours before the battery dies, if you want it to last longer just add a bigger battery. The charge controller will protect from low voltage if you hook the lights into the 'load' terminals
@@Jasonoid thank you. But when you do the calculations, a 7Ah battery could run a 12v 3w led for more than 12hrs. But why doesn’t it happen practically?
Would there have been any difference between wiring up to the load terminals on the charge controller instead of the battery? or was that just preference to go straight to battery?
Just my preference. If you go through the load terminals you get the automatic shutoff when the battery voltage is too low. You can also schedule the power source availability. I just wanted to keep it simple and run my lights off a switch. Either way works well.
The link you have for the lights is for a flexible roll of lights, not the bars you installed. Could you please update the link or provide the model #? Great vid..thx!
The bars I made myself using aluminum angle from HomeDepot and then stuck the flexible lights to them via the included sticky back tape. I purchased the flexible roll of lights.
1:44 use the load output of the solar charge controller. This way you can even set a shutoff timer, if you forgot to turn the lights off. Its also protcting from over discharge
I only use the lights for a few minutes at a time. I watch the voltage as I use them. I could see this being useful if they were being used all the time.
There are breaks in the led strand where you can cut them, it has sticky tape on the back where it sticks to stuff. Solder the breaks back together, positive to positive, negative to negative.
@@Jasonoid thanks I have ordered it all off Amazon the solar panel was out of stock so I got a different one with a adjustable rack. Thank you very much
The controller keeps the panel from overcharging the batt? I am thinking of doing this in my well house with a 75 watt bulb to keep it above freezing in the winter.. Do you think this setup would work for that? I would use a smart plug to make sure the light does not use power during the day (temps are above 32 here in the day)
Yeah, it keeps it from over charging. You'd have to do the math because a constant 75watts is a lot, maybe 150 watts of solar panels and a large battery bank (100-150 Amp hours) will work for you. My system is very small for very little load.
Hi Jason, great Video and I was hoping you can help me understand the connection of the lights to switch and battery as I am not familiar with electricity at all. I have batter and panel connected and charging. I ran all the lights wired them to the light switch and assumed I connect switch to load connectors on solar charger, but lights won’t turn on. Do I need to connect switch directly to batter to make this work amd have wires split from battery to both switch and controller? I hope that’s not too confusing but any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Hey thanks for reaching out. You want to hook up all the following connections: -Battery to the + - battery connections on the charge controller. -Solar panels to the + - of the solar connections on the charge controller. - LED lights up to the "load" + - connections on the charge controller. Put an in line switch on the positive wire of the led lights to turn on and off the lights when you want to use them.
Hi Jason did what you said and lights worked for 5 min and shut off. No error codes on charge, direct connected lights to battery with switch to make sure I didn’t short anything or blow the lights and they worked fine. Assuming it must be something with the load connectors not working anymore. Is it safe to just skip the load and direct connect to switch to battery and not deal with the aggravation of what’s wrong with the load connector? Thanks again in advance!
@@carchontides how many lights are you using? You can skip the load connection and go directly to the battery. You'll just want to keep an eye on the battery voltage like I do. Don't let the battery drop below 12.0v or it will cause damage to the capacity.
@@Jasonoid maybe this is the issue, but the lights did work after I direct connected battery to switch (although that was after it charged up again a few days later and I didn’t leave them on long to see if they would turn off again). Im prob drawing too much power…like I said no electrical experience here… I’m using 4 x 12v light bars on a 12v 7ah rechargeable battery.
These lights draw about 3amps. I have a 7 amp hour battery. You don't want to take lead acid batteries past 50% capacity so I can run these lights for about an hour. I only use the lights for 20 to 30 minute intervals so this works perfect for me. Ways to make them shine longer would be to get a larger battery, or use less lights.
My battery is small. I only planned to have it on 1 or 2 hours at most. If you want more run time add more battery capacity. Less lights for even longer run time.
Yeah, I just measured and cut the strips to how long I wanted them, then I soldered them together with jumper wires. Still working awesome two years later!
I also noticed you did not use the light outlets on the solar charge panel. So you just connected the lights directly to the battery, and the battery directly to the solar charge panel. Curious why did you not use the light outlet on the panel.
@@bpekarek1986 good question, the switch is only on the led light positive line. So the solar charge controller is always connected to the battery and charging.
How long would that battery last im considering doing this in my chicken coop the lights wood be on all night in there i am also curious to know what type of strain that would cause on the battery thanks and good job on the vido
Its the type of door that goes on a storage unit. I searched around and found a local company that builds storage units so they could get me "roll up garage door" at a good price. Cost a little under $400. I installed it myself, there are many TH-cam videos on the subject.
Hi Jasonoid, really like this setup. Just had my own 12x16 shed installed on yesterday and think this setup would be perfect with a slightly larger battery and using the Load connection on the controller. Would like to know how the connection from the LED lights is made to the wiring going to the battery. The LEDs seem to have their own style connector which is recommended to be connected to an adapter but you didnt do that. How did you connect to the landscape wire? Did you use the LED connector or just cut that off a wire directly? Appreciate it!
A larger battery would be recommended after me using mine this long. I just stripped, tinned and soldered the landscape wire directly to the led strip. Works great, just use some heat shrink or elec tape to keep it insulated. Thanks for watching!
@@bane1240 these led strip lights are designed to run off 12 volts, and so are most solar charge controllers. So you can either parallel 2 12 volt batteries or just buy a larger Amp hour 12 volt battery for more storage. 24 volt systems don't work with my setup.
How long do lights last before going off ? Would 2 hours at a time work as my garage has no lighting but have a lot of gym and boxing equipment in and far from house so I was wondering If, You could give advice thanks
Check out my website for other awesome content! jasonoid.com/
I just remodeled my shed and this was a great finishing touch. Thanks for the links to the materials. I was able to get everything off Amazon except the angle iron. One thing to watch out for - if you drill holes in the aluminum and screw that into the beams, be careful not to short out the strip. It's really easy to do. If the lights keep going out, loosen the screws and put them back in gently.
I'm glad it helped! Thanks for watching and thanks for the tips!
Only 5k views? This video is Better quality than a 500k video !
Getting my shed built this week! Perfect low power system, and I already have a 7ah battery from another project that's ready to go!
Thank you for posting this Jasonoid. Very easy, clean and a great idea! Thanks for emailing me back so fast in regards to my questions as well.
Thanks for doing this, I followed it to light my backyard shed. Works great!
Thanks for watching, glad it helped your project! Love to hear other people are doing it!
That is one clean and organized shed. Don't forget an inline fuse or two. I know it's a hassle but it's pretty cheap and peace of mind goes a long way.
duannguyen thanks appreciate you tuning in, planning on putting a fuse in shortly!
What fuse / configuration did you end up installing? Great video - this is exactly what I need, installing as soon as parts arrive, thanks so much for posting!
What is the inline fuse for? Just learning about this cool stuff.
You should get an award how tidy your shed is
So my 1-window shed (which is in tree shaded area) is in need of some lighting. I love this setup! Seems simple and inexpensive. Im just looking for having lights when i step out there to look for something. Might pickup a cheap portable generator to power some tools in the future. This should work for my needs. Thanks for the video!
That's exactly what I want to do! Thanks for the help bud.
Very nice explanation. I am building a 14 x 18 wood shop and this is what I will use to light the darker corners. Thanks for the thorough explanation.
Happy to help!
I need to study up on connecting electrical wires. I have a 14 X 20 barn that your set up is perfect for. I'm impressed!!!
You can do it!
I did a similar setup in my shed with a deep cycle 12v battery. and led strips. The one problem I had is forgetting to turn the lights off and coming back to a dead battery two days later. I solved that by replacing the switch with a one hour timer mounted to a standard 110v wall switch box. Now if I forget to turn the lights off the timer runs out and the lights turn off. no more dead battery.
I have been using RV bulbs, standard screw in base so you can use a standard light fixtures 12-24v. I also have some hand wired 10w LED cobs @ 250ma for free* lighting installed in every ceiling in my house. All of my outbuildings, shed, coup, greenhouse have independent systems like this...until recently. I just ran a 10guage pair, and a 6 wire solid core(control wire) thru every structure. Now I can have some fun :) I was just searching to checkout others projects like this. Thankyou! :)
Excellent ideas! This video is a bit old, I'd probably do it a little differently if I re did it now haha.
You should use the output load part on that charge controller that way you have over discharge battery protection. I have Two of those charge controllers and they work well.
I never use the lights long enough to discharge the battery to damage it. If I used them more I would use the load attachment points.
Thanks for the great video. You inspired me to install a solar lighting system in my 12' x 16' shed. Works excellent-way better than any pre-packaged system, and costs way less. Plus, I have the satisfaction of having built it myself. Consider yourself subscribed!
That is awesome!
Great video man! Exactly what I needed!
Thank you!
Still going strong today! Couple years later!
Simple and works. Awesome . Thanks J............
You're welcome!
Can you please present a video on how you wired the components to make it all work. Thank you.
The wiring is described at 1:20 A wiring diagram also comes with the charge controller. Greetings from sunny Jamaica.
Very informative and well done! Thumbs up!
Clean install!
left and came back to give thumbs up
Thanks Jerry!
Nice job on the shed.
Great job bro! I like it!
Great video and thank you so much for the parts list. I used the same parts and installed solar lighting in our community's Boy Scout shed and it works great. Thank you.
Nice video. I love solar projects.
Where r u from
So the battery is going to the charge controller, and also to the light switch? Then the lights connect to the switch, and solar panels connect to the charge controller? Sorry if it's a stupid question.
It would be great to have step by step instructions.... :) . Looks great!
Do you have a wire diagram? Plan to do this for my shed this weekend
I am very curious as to how long those lights last when on continuously. My apartment landlord wants a solar light solution for his car ports and I think this could be very effective with low maintenance so long as the run time is good. Please advise.
Great and simple video btw!
These lights in a full strip put out lots of light and use lots of power. If you want the battery to last all night use only a few feet of light.
Gday
nice i put a car battery and a solar panel in my 40ft container and set up 3 1m long led lights on 3 switches and run a car radio i put the lights in a alloy channel held on the roof with hard drive magnets cos i did not want to put holes in the roof and all wiring is in poly pipe and the cam can not show how good the light is.
cheers
Nice grid
I think you're supposed to hook in the load (lights) in to the extra port on your solar charge controller rather than taking the load straight out the battery. The reason behind this is that the solar charge controller would then prevent you from using the lights when the battery was not charged enough. It's unhealthy to over-discharge a battery.
Hobby Picker thanks for the tip, I understand how its supposed to work, luckily I understand how low to drain a lead acid before damaging it. I left it unhooked because I didn't want my solar charge controller always pulling a small amount of power from my battery.
I agree, that is what the load terminal is for.
The regulator would use a small amount from the battery regardless of whether you use the load terminal or not (such a small amount it's no worth worrying about)
Better to have low voltage protection that the load terminal provides.
@@mattburrows2615 Ok, so now i'm confused. I'm about to try this. :-) Should I do it the way the video has it or go through the controller? Keep in mind I know nothing about how this stuff works. 😃
@@wheelerk2012 it's OK. I can answer any questions you have.
It will work the way shown in the video but you will need to make sure you switch the lights off when the voltage gets low or lights look dim to greatly prolong the life of the batteries.
The benefit here is you won't be left in the dark until the batteries are totally drained unless the lights have a low voltage protection.
If on the other hand you wire the lights to the load terminals the controller can disconnect the lights automatically when the battery reaches the adjustable low voltage cut off value.
This of course has the drawback of potentially leaving you in the dark without warning but a battery and panel sized for the purpose can avoid this.
It just depends how many hours you want to run the lights for and how much power they use.
You will get to know it's capability.
I use the load terminals as I have the lights on 24h a day then adjust brightness on a dimmer as required.
Hope this helps. Feel free to ask anything.
@@mattburrows2615 helpful thank you
Cool white light has a lot of blue light in it. You need multiple daylight 4000k series.
Listing said 5000k, which I like. They are really like 6500k... The reviews didn't have many pictures back in the day.
The LED lights you linked come with an AC power adapter, I’m guessing you just cut the connector off the lights and plugged the + and - wires directly into the solar charge controller?
This video is super old so I'm guessing the product may have changed. Just make sure they are 12v leds, wire up the battery pos and neg you'll be good
I was looking for your tutorial on how to set up the lighting, couldn't find it
Nice job.
Isn't 14.4 volts a little high, for charging a 12 volt battery?
Jason, great work. I just purchased everything to do lights in my shed. Any chance you could put up some closeups of the wiring at the battery and how you connected the lights and the battery to the terminals?
Google how to setup solar charge controller wires and you'll get some great images for a layout.
Nice install, I didn’t notice any fuse. Is there some over current protection between the battery and lights?
Well done!
How much did all your equipment cost together
Total LED wattage? Did you have to cut the LED strips to size? If yes, how did you reconnect to the battery power line
This is an awesome video. I have two questions, should I use 2 inline fuses? Also, what type of connectors are you using to connect the wires to the battery?
Do you need fuses?
Is this a special battery for the solar panel or can you use a car battery? Would have been nice to have seen it been set up. Lovely shots of the components.
The battery I used is a sealed lead acid battery. They don't require any maintenance so it nice to use them in this setting. A car battery would work fine as well in a setup like this.
Thank you for sharing
what size wire did you use?
Nice and simple ! Good job..
What all do you need to do this
Nice video, how long does the charge last when using the lights and how long to fully charge. Thanks
This uses a small battery, it runs the lights for like 2 hours. If you want a longer runtime jut get a bigger battery.
What lights did you use got a link?
I want to do this. And also into our house. This would be great for outside as well!
Its very bright and would work great for outdoor patio lights
Sorry this is way late but if I added a second battery and cables would it store more energy [From west Texas so sunlight is no problem around here]
Thank you for the help
If you wired both batteries in parallel, yes it would add more storage. Thanks for watching!
Have u just left the light on to see how long it would last through out the night??
My wife left it on once, it ran for 5 or 6 hours and was still going. Depends on battery levels and temps outside.
@@Jasonoid wow! Really! Nice...good to know...thanks!
those lights say 60watts does that mean you can only have it on for 30 minutes at a time? 12 volt times 7 amp battery = 84 watts. iam just old. am i thinking right
Yeah, I have a small battery and don't use the lights for a very long time. These lights pull about 40 watts. Just put in a bigger battery if you need longer run times.
Very nice job thank you for posting! God bless!
Great concept! Just built an 8x10 shed. What modifications to this setup could I make to increase my lighting to 4-5 hours? Battery type, etc?
Edit - found a batt calculator; would need a 120ah ($250) battery according to that.
Depends on how much power your lights use, 12 volt led lights are very efficient. If they only pull 2 or 3 amps, a 35 Amp hour battery would last plenty long.
Hey there! Some follow ups bc I’m using this lay out and may help others: it looks as if you have 1 cable going to each angle piece which has 2 strips on them. Is this accurate? If so how did you connect each strip end to 1 cords + and - side; seems like you would need 2 cords per angle piece. Additionally I was going to use 3M Scotchlok connectors to bridge off of main line running to the back to feed the first angle piece any foreseeable issue with that? And did you just secure angle ends with electrical tape? Thank you!
@@waynec1752 The aluminum angle is secured using zip ties to each rafter. I wired the lights together using 14 gauge exterior landscape wire, each light has a positive and negative wire coming directly from the battery and I just daisy chained the lights by connecting positive to positive and negative to negative. Each LED strip has double sided tape that sticks directly to the aluminum angle. Does that answer your questions?
Great video and a massive help on my new low energy design and layout. Your using a SH1228W battery and they are 8AH? do you have any calculations on the energy those lights use, the length of time they last on a full battery charge? What is the wattage per strip?
Hi! Writing to ask if the positive wire (supply) to the switch could have been routed from the "load" terminals on the charge controller? I understand of course that the positive wire directly from the battery to the switch does work, but I figured I'd ask why you didn't use the load terminals on the charge controller for that purpose. Thanks!
Yes, you can use the load terminals for the lights. It adds extra protection to your battery so you don't run it down too much. Just skipped it on my project.
I know you posted this a few years ago but I’m having an issue. My on my controller the light bulb is flashing and I have no power. Same items as you but less lights. Like your setup. Thanks for posting. Hope you can help.
Sounds like the load function is shutoff by the solar charge controller. Sometimes it's on a schedule or maybe the battery voltage is too low? Whats the voltage of the battery? You can always bypass the load output and connect directly to the battery, you just need to make sure to not over-discharge the battery by running the lights to long.
Jasonoid battery is full and solar is charging. I’ll try to bypass it and check the settings again. Just can’t find any info on what flashing things mean or the like. Thanks for your quick reply.
@@brianbaker9382 These cheap solar charge controllers are good for basic things but when something goes wrong it's hard to know what it's doing. Hopefully that helps! Good luck :)
Jasonoid thanks for your help. I think I’ve got it figured out. Wrong lights. Your link is no longer good. Do you know what lights you have. I know it’s a long shot. Thanks again.
@@brianbaker9382 Added 3 new options to the video decription, these light links seem to change every couple months. Make sure you get 12v waterproof lighting just in case it gets wet in your shed.
Is the solar panel behind a glass window? I have tried to put a solar panel in a south facing window that gets a lot of sun but it severely affected its output needed to put it outside to get it to work properly.
Since I use the lights only a couple times a week, this was fine for my needs. If you want to so something a little larger, check out this video: th-cam.com/video/rFVtJXqV_zA/w-d-xo.html
I don't have anything to compare this to, but I am curious why you didn't hook the light wiring to the load connections on the charge controller so you couldn't accidentally leave the lights on and over-discharge the battery. Other than that curiousity, I really like what you did and how clean the wiring work was done.
Mark Chapmon thanks for watching my video! Just personal preference, and for simplicity. I personally won't leave the lights on to over discharge the battery.
In the video those lights appear to emit a blue-ish light. Is that an artifact of you camera?
They are probably around 5500k, so they are white / blue tint. It's not a horrible light tone. It's more white than blue.
Interesting, I was just thinking maybe I could use the solar trickle charger for a 12v battery I bought for my lawn mower, hook it up to an old 12v car battery I have to power up some LED lights for my shed that doesn't have AC power. As far as switch, it seem like you could use just a regular AC wall switch. And I'm also wondering if for a battery I could use my 18v power tool batteries. That way I could use one of them that was charged up if the one charged by the solar panels was low or ran out while I was in the middle of doing something. And as far as hooking up to that batter I have an old drill that recently died and luckily I didn't toss it because I can use it's base as the plug in point for my 18v batteries! How much heat do these strip lights put out. Do you think you could use some of the LED tubes that replace fluorescent tubes in a fluorescent fixture without ballast or maybe one of the plug in tube fixtures and just bypass whatever ac/dc converter it has?
I actually bought a couple led lights at the auto parts store that had two 9 volt batteries hooked in series to provide a store demo so I'm thinking some more lights like them should be able to run off my 18v ryobi batteries.
These lights don't put off heat at all because they are LEDs. A 12v battery would power these light just fine. If you wanted to run higher voltages like 18v you'd want to make sure the leds you bought support that voltage. This video is pretty old and my lights still are working great!
I have a barn with no electricity. I rarely need a light on. Is a very small solar panel enough to keep a 12v battery topped up? My setup is similar to yours using a car battery.
Should work great. I don't use my shed lights much either. A car battery is HUGE compared to my small battery. The small panel will be fine.
@@Jasonoid Thanks for the reassurance. Good job on the video, by the way..
So you go from battery to switch then straight into the strip? How did you connect battery to strip lighting?
Are the lights set up for a 12 v battery or are you using a inverter?
These are 12v leds, no inverter needed.
Where do the wires from your LEDS go? ( ie are they straight onto battery terminals?) I expected them to go to the charge controller but cant see that. Also are they fused?
They are fused, switch is on the positive line, and they connect to the positive and negative battery terminals.
You could also wire the led power wires to the 'load inputs' on the solar charge controller if you want to have low voltage protection.
I am guessing you just cut the strips wherever you wanted but how did you then wire them? Solder new wire on at the ends?
Correct, I just cut the strips to the desired length, then I soldered on the landscape cable you can buy by the foot from HomeDepot or Lowes. I recommend at least 14awg cable for the project.
@@Jasonoid how much current do they pull? Total or per strip? I am loooking at hooking up my shed but I am not sure the strips put off enough light? Also I am sizing my battery.
@@DemingChiropractor They pull quite a bit of current. I'd say at least 5-7 amps total for all the strips. I haven't ever officially measured, I need to purchase a DC clamp meter for all my projects. If you are looking to run them a long time I would suggest getting a larger battery and a larger solar panel to compensate.
@@Jasonoid I am looking at 40 watt panel and 15 aH battery.
@@DemingChiropractor How long would you want to run the lights each time?
How/where can I buy the components?
Can you send a purchase list? Is there a kit somewhere?
All the parts are in the video description
If I used this exact setup what size fuse would I need?
15 Amp fuse would work. I doubt the lights pull more than 10 amps. Probably closer to 6 or 7 amps
I havea solar panel controller 12v battery and about to add wind turbine to my garden shed. I cant find 12 v lighting ANYWHERE on the internet in the UK (unless you buy a system with a solar panel which I dont need)
Don't search for 12 volt lighting, search for 12 volt leds lights, you might have better luck. Led strip lights are available everywhere. Amazon, eBay are both in the UK as well.
If I wanted to run my lights longer than an hour, what battery would you suggest purchasing? Will that solar panel still be adequate?
Plan on a 5 amp draw with these lights so if you want to run for 5 hours each night you'll want at least 50AH battery to not run your lead acid below 50%DOD (25 Amp hours is 50% of the battery)
This is extremely helpful. My garage is about the same size so this will do wonders. The Amazon links still work but would you recommend any other upgrades as the video is now 2 years old?
Larger battery if you plan to use the lights more than 20 minutes at a time. Other than that, I love them!
Awesome setup! I just added everything to my amazon cart because this is exactly what I needed. What did you use for the switch mount?
It was a metal L bracket I had laying around, I just drilled a hole and painted it gray.
@@Jasonoid gotcha. Thanks for the reply. I have some laying around but nothing that large. I wanted someone bigger so I don’t slice my hand when searching for the switch in the dark 🤣
@@andrewleman3106 there are probably many ways to do it, but yeah make sure it's not sharp to slice you in the dark! Good point.
How long do the led light up with that battery full charge?
All depends on how large your battery is. This is a super small battery so you get around 1 hour of runtime. Larger battery with a larger solar panel and the whole thing is scalable.
You’re gonna kill the battery, change the light cables from the battery to the last two connectors on the right, that’s the “load” connection, you can set the controller to 24h, if you leave the lights on by accident or dusk till dawn. the controller will cut power if the battery level is dangerously low to protect it, in the event of a short circuit on the wiring, the controller will also cut the the power, please read the instructions for the controller. Otherwise, I like how clean and neat the wiring looks.
I skipped the load connections on purpose. Thanks for the heads up. I run the lights for 5 minutes once or twice a week. If I used them more I would have planned to put them on the load circuit.
Hi, how long can it run till the battery drains out ? The charge controller has a setting to limit the discharge also no?
Mine will run a couple hours before the battery dies, if you want it to last longer just add a bigger battery. The charge controller will protect from low voltage if you hook the lights into the 'load' terminals
@@Jasonoid thank you. But when you do the calculations, a 7Ah battery could run a 12v 3w led for more than 12hrs. But why doesn’t it happen practically?
These lights pull around 42 watts for the full 16 foot strand (12v X 3.5 amps), that's why you'll get less run time.
@@Jasonoid I see. But I use 3w 12v LeD bulbs.
Great! Than it should last much longer for you
Would there have been any difference between wiring up to the load terminals on the charge controller instead of the battery? or was that just preference to go straight to battery?
Just my preference. If you go through the load terminals you get the automatic shutoff when the battery voltage is too low. You can also schedule the power source availability. I just wanted to keep it simple and run my lights off a switch. Either way works well.
The link you have for the lights is for a flexible roll of lights, not the bars you installed. Could you please update the link or provide the model #? Great vid..thx!
The bars I made myself using aluminum angle from HomeDepot and then stuck the flexible lights to them via the included sticky back tape. I purchased the flexible roll of lights.
What bracket did you use for the switch?
It was a random 90 degree piece of metal I had laying around. From some shelf or something.
1:44 use the load output of the solar charge controller. This way you can even set a shutoff timer, if you forgot to turn the lights off. Its also protcting from over discharge
I only use the lights for a few minutes at a time. I watch the voltage as I use them. I could see this being useful if they were being used all the time.
How do you cut the led light and connect the 2 4 foot sections thanks from Nebraske
There are breaks in the led strand where you can cut them, it has sticky tape on the back where it sticks to stuff. Solder the breaks back together, positive to positive, negative to negative.
@@Jasonoid thanks I have ordered it all off Amazon the solar panel was out of stock so I got a different one with a adjustable rack. Thank you very much
@@7990barry Enjoy the project, it's a fun one!
Hi mate is it possible to use car battery....cheers.
Car battery would work great! Thanks for watching!
How is the cable run into the back of solar panel?
The solar panel comes with wires attached, the wires attach to those.
@@Jasonoid wish I could send a pic my didn’t and it looks just like your setup
I do have a usb 1 and a usb2
@@kevinarcher7701 your led lights are probably 5v usb lights and will not work with a 12 volt solar panel.
Great video. So im guessing the lights are on the angled aluminum? Also what isnthe black ends of the lights?
Solder joints with the other lights and wiring
Think its possible to hook motion detection to this set up? Trying to do it for my carport.
If the motion sensor would work of the 12v system, it would probably work. Most are 120vac right?
@@Jasonoid www.amazon.com/Security-Detector-Inductor-Floodlight-Age/dp/B01IU8CT0M/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=12+volt+motion+sensor+switch&qid=1610563388&sr=8-4
The controller keeps the panel from overcharging the batt? I am thinking of doing this in my well house with a 75 watt bulb to keep it above freezing in the winter.. Do you think this setup would work for that? I would use a smart plug to make sure the light does not use power during the day (temps are above 32 here in the day)
Yeah, it keeps it from over charging. You'd have to do the math because a constant 75watts is a lot, maybe 150 watts of solar panels and a large battery bank (100-150 Amp hours) will work for you. My system is very small for very little load.
@@Jasonoid Thanks! Great shed BTW
Perfect!
Hi Jason, great Video and I was hoping you can help me understand the connection of the lights to switch and battery as I am not familiar with electricity at all.
I have batter and panel connected and charging. I ran all the lights wired them to the light switch and assumed I connect switch to load connectors on solar charger, but lights won’t turn on.
Do I need to connect switch directly to batter to make this work amd have wires split from battery to both switch and controller?
I hope that’s not too confusing but any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Hey thanks for reaching out. You want to hook up all the following connections:
-Battery to the + - battery connections on the charge controller.
-Solar panels to the + - of the solar connections on the charge controller.
- LED lights up to the "load" + - connections on the charge controller.
Put an in line switch on the positive wire of the led lights to turn on and off the lights when you want to use them.
Thank you Jason, I think I understand now 😀
Hi Jason did what you said and lights worked for 5 min and shut off. No error codes on charge, direct connected lights to battery with switch to make sure I didn’t short anything or blow the lights and they worked fine. Assuming it must be something with the load connectors not working anymore. Is it safe to just skip the load and direct connect to switch to battery and not deal with the aggravation of what’s wrong with the load connector? Thanks again in advance!
@@carchontides how many lights are you using?
You can skip the load connection and go directly to the battery. You'll just want to keep an eye on the battery voltage like I do. Don't let the battery drop below 12.0v or it will cause damage to the capacity.
@@Jasonoid maybe this is the issue, but the lights did work after I direct connected battery to switch (although that was after it charged up again a few days later and I didn’t leave them on long to see if they would turn off again).
Im prob drawing too much power…like I said no electrical experience here…
I’m using 4 x 12v light bars on a 12v 7ah rechargeable battery.
First time with solor...how long will it last at night before battery gets to a point of being to low?
These lights draw about 3amps. I have a 7 amp hour battery. You don't want to take lead acid batteries past 50% capacity so I can run these lights for about an hour. I only use the lights for 20 to 30 minute intervals so this works perfect for me. Ways to make them shine longer would be to get a larger battery, or use less lights.
How long will the battery power the lights at night?
My battery is small. I only planned to have it on 1 or 2 hours at most. If you want more run time add more battery capacity. Less lights for even longer run time.
Did you cut the LED light and then solder them to the size you wanted? Wanting to try this project early next year.
Yeah, I just measured and cut the strips to how long I wanted them, then I soldered them together with jumper wires. Still working awesome two years later!
@@Jasonoid another question, you put a switch, if the switch is off, does the battery get charged?
I also noticed you did not use the light outlets on the solar charge panel. So you just connected the lights directly to the battery, and the battery directly to the solar charge panel. Curious why did you not use the light outlet on the panel.
@@bpekarek1986 good question, the switch is only on the led light positive line. So the solar charge controller is always connected to the battery and charging.
How did you wire the leds to eachother, did you solder them?
They are soldered together.
How long would that battery last im considering doing this in my chicken coop the lights wood be on all night in there i am also curious to know what type of strain that would cause on the battery thanks and good job on the vido
You can do the same idea, just add a 100 watt panel and maybe 100amp hour battery. Just look up some more info online and it will make sense.
What kind of roll-up door is that and how much does it cost? I'm going to build a shed in a few weeks. Thanks!
Its the type of door that goes on a storage unit. I searched around and found a local company that builds storage units so they could get me "roll up garage door" at a good price. Cost a little under $400. I installed it myself, there are many TH-cam videos on the subject.
Hi Jasonoid, really like this setup. Just had my own 12x16 shed installed on yesterday and think this setup would be perfect with a slightly larger battery and using the Load connection on the controller.
Would like to know how the connection from the LED lights is made to the wiring going to the battery. The LEDs seem to have their own style connector which is recommended to be connected to an adapter but you didnt do that. How did you connect to the landscape wire? Did you use the LED connector or just cut that off a wire directly?
Appreciate it!
A larger battery would be recommended after me using mine this long. I just stripped, tinned and soldered the landscape wire directly to the led strip. Works great, just use some heat shrink or elec tape to keep it insulated. Thanks for watching!
@@Jasonoid so say a 24v battery? I want to power lights very similar, if not the same as yours and also may want to add a power inverter too later.
@@bane1240 these led strip lights are designed to run off 12 volts, and so are most solar charge controllers. So you can either parallel 2 12 volt batteries or just buy a larger Amp hour 12 volt battery for more storage. 24 volt systems don't work with my setup.
@@Jasonoid Thanks! appreciate the responses.
How many hrs battery last?
I have a small battery 7ah so they don't last too long. If you want a longer runtime you'll have to have a larger battery!
How long do lights last before going off ?
Would 2 hours at a time work as my garage has no lighting but have a lot of gym and boxing equipment in and far from house so I was wondering
If, You could give advice thanks
Check out my other comments, I answer the same question. All depends on the size of your battery.