Lighting a garage with no power

[bathwiggle]

So I might have bought a house with a garage, unfortunately it's in a block rather than attached to the house so has no power.

How do i light the garage brightly enough to work on the bikes without electricity, other than a generator...

Would a car battery and connecting some bulbs to it work? or is there another option i've not thought of?

The garage is the opposite end of a row of terraces so running a lead to it isn't an option.

[Mr Speirs]

12v lighting would work off a car battery. You could hook a solar panel up to the battery to let it charge in between also. Tbh i know you said no genny but you could pick up a cheap generator from eBay or a real cheap one from tool station or summat. That would give you 240v power for tools and a kettle. Would be such more beneficial I reckon.

[Icanopit]

Think camping, gas light or pressurised parrafin/petrol light "Tilley" you would also get a small amount of heat, place a mirror/reflector behind to guide the light source.
If taking a car battery as a supply you could use camping flourescent lights but the output is fairly limited and a low voltage inspection lamp for a "more defined" area.

[bathwiggle]

12v lighting would work off a car battery. You could hook a solar panel up to the battery to let it charge in between also. Tbh i know you said no genny but you could pick up a cheap generator from eBay or a real cheap one from tool station or summat. That would give you 240v power for tools and a kettle. Would be such more beneficial I reckon.

I shouldn't be needing power tools, it's only basic servicing, but due to the area i want to be able to work with the door shut as i don't want 3 motorbikes on display to the world.

With the generator surely i'd need to keep the door open for ventilation? and also getting the fuel over on the back of the bike. Thats my current logic anyway

[DanSp]

If your not working at night in there have you thought of installing a roof light/solartube for natural light?


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[tigersaw]

LED flloodlights use little power and are very bright.
I bought a 20 watt from ebay, (£25 ish) that is a good as a 500w halogen.
The light is 'different' though, you do get shadows and the colour is different.
Think of illuminating with a welding arc, but less dangerously so.

[yorkie_chris]

Getting fuel about on the bike is easy.
Try to figure a way to carry 60 liters now that gets interesting.

However what I would do is get a wheelchair or scooter battery (deep cycle) and some of those silly LED chavlights that some unemployed people stick underneath rusty fiats, they're about a quid on ebay. 2 or 3 sets of those will be enough to work by. And get yourself a hand lamp/torch for detail stuff.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-48CM-BRIGHT-WHITE-FLEXIBLE-LED-AUDI-A8-STYLE-CAR-STRIP-DAYTIME-RUNNING-LIGHT-/250943604870?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3a6d678886

Cheaper probably available but should give you the idea.

They only draw about 0.2A per pair.

[tigersaw]

just to let you see how good led floodlights are:

This is a 20 watt lighting up my outside bin areahttp://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n273/tigersaw/led20w.jpg

[Pete7]

TS, is that 20w at 12 volts, if so it's rather impressive.

BW, we have 125w of solar on the yacht because we don't have any water or power on the jetty it's moored to. In the summer this provides enough power to charge the 2 x 110 amp hour batteries to run our fridge, lights, laptops etc. Charges up the 12 Dewalt drill via 12 > 240v converter, razor and phones etc. This works really well and we can stay anchored in the middle of nowhere for a week quiet happily.

Solar is now down to less that £1 per watt which is a 1/3rd of the price a couple of years ago due to the Chinese flooding the market with cheap panels trying to drive the Germans out of business. Result we benefit in the short term.

Suggest a 80w (5 amp hours) panel and a couple of large ex truck batteries would be cheap set up. Try the local tip for a couple of big ones and test with a voltmeter and then a headlight bulb for 10 minutes.

This is one of our panels which we bought of him, having inspected the high end panels from the likes of Panasonic I can't tell the difference, probably make the cheap panels in the same factory as the expensive ones.

Pete

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PV-80-Watt-Solar-Panel-Mono-Crystaline-/140917214960?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item20cf520ef0&_uhb=1

[yorkie_chris]

Voltage doesn't really matter with LED's as all the dies end up running at 3V or so whatever the setup is. So excepting minor differences in efficiency of driver 20W would be 20W whether you were feeding it from 5V or 500V.

[tigersaw]

TS, is that 20w at 12 volts, if so it's rather impressive.



Its a 20w unit but driven with AC 230v which conditions it. I took the back off, just a small transformer and a DC converter


We put some 100, 120 and 140 watt LED lamps up at the airport on top of the stand lights to try.
2 x 120 watts were brighter than the original 4 x 500w vapour lamps. They even have a warning on them not to look into the beam.

[punkyp]

I have a 90 amp hour leisure battery and 2x15watt 12v energy saver bulbs. Not too bad but for some jobs I still wheel the bike outside for more light. My main use is just getting my gear on in a morning.