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Solar and battery powered light question

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wilykat

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Working in the woods in winter time sucks but someone's got to do it. I was wondering what would be needed for my little outhouse. First, obviously winter time has limited sunlight available and second, in the woods means tree would be blocking some of the light. In the past I've tried garden lights that stayed outside to recharge and bought inside when I need to use the facility but even the better ones I've tried were extremely dim and ran out in a few hours due to poor sunlight condition in the woods.

I have a 12v 1w panel from an old multi-LED set that had gone bad: charger and battery wasn't water proof as claimed, rain got inside, and battery leaked n ate everything in the LED housing, left only the panel intact. Is there a way to use 12v 1w panel or is that not going to be enough? The panel would be mounted outside on the roof and the wire will run inside to the battery and light. I wanted to use a few bright lights (a good flashlight for example) hooked in and it'd be on during the night. No motion sensor, just a light detector. Charge 12v battery during the day, drop to 9v to light up a pair of 4,5v LED flashlights?

Or is there a product out there under $20 that has separate panel for installing panel outside and lights inside, or a rechargeable battery light array that can be hooked to my solar panel? I am in Michigan, USA if there are local stores that has solar powered work lights.
 
what kind of battery have you been using, because the cold will freeze some and most lose alot of their voltage, I tried all types of battery's up north while I lived in Pa. I ended up using a 5V lead Acid (powersonic) for my weather station. It used 2 6V 200 milliamp solarcells to run and trickal charge that battery (I was using less then 20mA at any-one-time).
Leds would be my first choice to use, they would use much less amps then a regular bulb.
A small windmill type charger would also help to off-set any cloudy days that the panels won't charge and would also charge at nite during a blizzard :).
Good Luck with your research
 
A LED used as an indicator is bright with 20mA. An LED flashlight is bright when its LED has 100mA or more.
Your 12V/1W solar panel produces 1W/12V= 83mA at noon in summer on a sunny day.

My solar garden lights are bright for the entire night in summer. Last night I could barely see them for half an hour then they faded away.

Uncivilized people long ago used fire as a flashlight. Maybe you can use an engine-driven generator to make your own electricity?
 
A small wind generator, as suggested by Joe, is an option but the wind might be significantly attenuated by the trees.
Also they are generally more expensive then small solar panels.

Why does the light need to be on all night?
 
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