about solar porch light - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: ruth
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 22, 2020, 09:14:23 pm
content: To start, I'm not looking for help to build anything, I don't know that I could. I'm looking for a little knowledge and explanation so I can hopefully buy what I want.I want to put up a solar porch light. I searched for that and found a bunch, however, my porch and all the porches of all the houses I've ever occupied, and all the porches of all the houses around me have roofs and all the 'porch' lights I have found have the little solar panel collector on top of them or the side or attached to the top or such and moveable but that wouldn't really work. My porch has no sun, ever. So, I think that I will need to have something that has a remote panel which somehow sends the 'power' to the light. I have found a couple of 'security' lights that seem to have panels that have some kind of cable to them, but no explanation about them.FYI I have a front and side porch, both with roofs. I am in California, my front yard has sun about 5 feet out from the porch starting at about 8 to 9am and lasting until 4 to 6pm depending on the season. As a 'guesstimate' the panel could be 20 feet or so from the wall of the house, or I could perhaps up on the roof somehow and that would be about 10 feet above where the light would be.I would appreciate any information and help that anyone can provide so I can figure out if something is available. Thank you so muchRuth

author: Jwillis
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2020, 12:03:21 am
content: You can just relocated the solar panel. The only problem you may run into is the longer the wire the more resistance it will have . You may have to increase the wire size (gauge) to offset the resistance increase if the distance gets to far. But 10 or 20 feet isn't that much . A change of a few milliohms won't have much impact .

author: Gregg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2020, 12:34:56 am
content: I just did an Amazon search for "solar lights outdoor" and there are a number of available units with remote solar panels. Exact unit will depend on many factors pertaining to the location and how you want it to function. Be aware that most of them are quite cheaply made and may not last very long; meaning that you may not want to mount things too permanently so that you can't easily relocate or replace them when newer and better ones come along. Check out the types of settings and color of the light before purchasing. A lot of LED lights are available in too blue of a color for my taste (6500K is way too blue in my opinion; 4000K is much better).

author: SmallCog
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2020, 01:28:54 am
content: They’re sold as shed lights in Australia.https://www.bunnings.com.au/solar-magic-40-lumen-solar-shed-light_p4351882Light goes inside, panel goes outside. Some are motion activated and some have a switch.I’m sure they’re available elsewhere just might need to change your search term

author: andy3055
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2020, 02:25:33 am
content: You can get one of these from Costco:https://www.costco.com/sunforce-solar-motion-security-light.product.100475926.html