# Chicken Lights



## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

I need some of you to figure this for me. I got 2 new 6 volt trojan T105's batteries. Hooked in series to a 400 watt inverter---how many hours can I safely run a total of 100 watts of 120/volt CF lights before I would need to recharge them? I have all this now, so right now I am not looking to buy new low voltage lights etc to cut the inverter out. Thanks


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## 12vman (Feb 17, 2004)

225 aHr. divide by 4.. ~56 aHr. to 25% discharge. 100 divide by 12.. ~8 Amps. 56 divide by 8.. *~7 hrs*.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

6.75 going straight by the numbers, but it will be less with losses due to the inverter. So figure about 5 to 5.5 hours.

WWW


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## gpforet (Dec 24, 2013)

Since you're running 12v, you may consider 12v LED floods. I did an off-grid solar rig for my horse barn and used 10w and 12w 12v LED floods from Ebay. Then you can avoid the inverter and the effeciency loss from 12vdc to 115vac conversion.



Fire-Man said:


> I need some of you to figure this for me. I got 2 new 6 volt trojan T105's batteries. Hooked in series to a 400 watt inverter---how many hours can I safely run a total of 100 watts of 120/volt CF lights before I would need to recharge them? I have all this now, so right now I am not looking to buy new low voltage lights etc to cut the inverter out. Thanks


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

Thanks Guys. My problem is length of run which is why I am using 120 volts. My main 2 chicken yards are 130ft long divided into 13 pens and 160ft long divided into 17 pens and they starts about 100ft from the inverter. I actually have 8 T105's at the inverter. It is running good, but I was thinking of going with 2 T105's at a mid point of the chicken yard and just move the drop cords to another inverter there----not having to change lights etc. I might put up enough solar panels(I have them in storage) to keep these batteries charged. This will only be used during the short days of winter. I am trying to get the chickens in about 30 pens up and busy a few hours before daylight. These lights will run about 4 hours per day. This place is off grid.


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

Why do you want your chickens to have light when it's dark out? You can get them to lay eggs all winter long by providing 3 or 4 hours of light after sunset. Other posters have calculated that you have enough solar/battery capacity to do that.


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

Nimrod said:


> Why do you want your chickens to have light when it's dark out? You can get them to lay eggs all winter long by providing 3 or 4 hours of light after sunset. Other posters have calculated that you have enough solar/battery capacity to do that.


Nimrod, thanks for your reply---being honest I do not understand your first question when you answered that question with your second line----Guess we are not on the "same page".
My last post about using 120 volts because of the length of wire was meant for gpforet about the 12 volt led floods. 

My reason for morning light over night light is when the light cuts off in the morning---its daylight. If I added light after sunset---when the light cuts off 4 hours later the chickens will be in the dark and probably not be able to see to get on the roost.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Does the inverter self start when you cut and restor power to it?

If so, Morningstar makes a nice "sunlight" controller that can controll the lights for you. The 10 or 20 amp one would be large engh for the lights but not sure with the 400W inverter as it would have problems if you did try to pull the full 400 watts. You could use 4 of those batteries in series and use 20A - 24v model to make sure it'll work.

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/sunlight/

WWW


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

Thanks Everyone! I will check it out WWW


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## thestartupman (Jul 25, 2010)

Nor trying to derail this thread, but if someone was wanting to run a LED light off of a solar panel and still wanting to run them 4 hours before daylight. How would you recommend setting it up? I have thought about one of the 12 v units that have the light panel, and battery, and just find a way to add a timer between the photo eye and the light but I am not sure how to do it. I really wouldn't need a photo eye at all. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

thestartupman said:


> Nor trying to derail this thread, but if someone was wanting to run a LED light off of a solar panel and still wanting to run them 4 hours before daylight. How would you recommend setting it up? I have thought about one of the 12 v units that have the light panel, and battery, and just find a way to add a timer between the photo eye and the light but I am not sure how to do it. I really wouldn't need a photo eye at all. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.


Look at the settings for timer 2 on this charge controller (page 21)

http://www.victronenergy.com/upload...arge-Controller-12V-24V-10A-with-timer-EN.pdf

Does that do what you want.

WWW


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