Generator shed light

[12volt dan]

I've been working on this project for several years now . The idea is to produce my heat and electricity at the same time while running on used frier oil.  The shed is completed and the genny set up is close as well (It goes in this fall) but the light is 6- 1156  12-led bulbs installed in a regular fixture with all aranged to a different aiming point.



 And here's the shed



 I definetly want some lights on the outside to accent the shed plus I need more lighting so the neighbours can see it  during a power outage

[Brundle Fly]

BTW, those are old bus windows in the shed, recycle 

[sanjed]

that's a very interesting looking shed.  I like it.

[Brundle Fly]

Here's a shot of his house, that's my #3 son standing on the second level by the middle window. Solar panels to the left, very cool place, and huge 

[Rob]

I guess you can't tell the kid to go sit in a corner...

[justDIY]

the walls... they're made of concrete?

whats the average thickness ... I must say, it's deffinately unique

[Brundle Fly]

I guess you can't tell the kid to go sit in a corner...

Only corner is in the outhouse, heh heh heh  \

the walls... they're made of concrete?

whats the average thickness ... I must say, it's deffinately unique

I doubt I'll get this right, I was under the influence of wobbly-pops when this was explained to me, it's a double wall with an airspace in between them, 24" thick. That's split cord wood you see embedded in the mortar. The two walls are tied together with more cord wood. I may be wrong on the thickness, Dan can straighten out what I got wrong, hahahaha 

The only way to tell you're off the grid is that he uses a propane fridge and stove, and, well, that really makes no difference to anything, it's a fridge and stove.

[12volt dan]

The walls are 16" thick. the mortor is made from portland,sand,lime and wet sawdust. The reason for the wet sawdust is to hold the mosture in the mortor as long as possable to reduce the shrinking. Once the sawdust dries it shrinks leaving an airspace in the mortor ,airrateing it and making it stronger.  I did a double run of mortor 5" wide inside and out  with sawdust (mixed with lime) packed in the middle for insulation. 44 cord of mostly hemlock and ceder and about 30 yard of mortor.

 The solar panels are going on a new mast with tracking before winter (caus I need the power). Thats what got me into LED's in the first place. I'm hooked now and hopfuly I can get some decent indoor lighting in here. Mixing red with white led's should give me a "warm white" ,right?

 Round is stronger than square, it encloses more area for the same perimiter wall, it's arodynamic and it's eaier to build from 1 center pole

[justDIY]

Mixing red with white led's should give me a "warm white" ,right?

well... white leds are blue + yellow ... except you don't get to control the ratio of yellow to blue.  bringing red to the party will most likely end up with a pastel pinks and purples and greens (blue + red + yellow)

i'd recommend experimenting with an array of blue and yellow leds ... use a pair of adjustable power supplies to power each color, and dial in the mix you desire - this is known as a dichromatic light source

you could also grab some red, blue and green leds ... experiment with using 2 green for every red+blue or 2 blue for every red+green (i've seen it either way in commerical rgb mixers) ... using adjustable power supplies, dial up the mix you desire.  you will get a purer white from this mix, but its also harder to get the mix correct and costs more - this is known as a trichromatic light source

For a power supply, I like this circuit it seems really simple and offers 5amps of current ... since you're already at DC, just chop off the the transformer, diode bridge and big capacitor

since you're going to be using this as semipermant lighting, look into illumination grade LEDs, like the luxeons (darned expensive but really bright) or piranha package (super nice to work with)

[Brundle Fly]

Here's a pic of 12V's solar panels, the pole on the right, with the ladder leaning against it, is where they will soon reside, with his sun-tracker gizmo. I modified the sundial in the forground myself, beer comes in handy in so many situations, heh heh heh 

In case you're interested, here's a look at some of the framing in this house, a lot of work, this is the second floor:



http://ca.geocities.com/i_p_farr/Dans/framing2.jpg

His "battery bank":

http://ca.geocities.com/i_p_farr/Dans/batteries.jpg

I wish I could have got some pics of the outdoor LED's while I was there, but the full moon was out when we were up, so you really couldn't tell the diff. The moon was so bright, I didn't notice they were there until the next morning when I was up enjoying a coffee and O'Darby's at 5:30am, man I love the bush, hahahahaha 

[12volt dan]

well... white leds are blue + yellow ... except you don't get to control the ratio of yellow to blue.  bringing red to the party will most likely end up with a pastel pinks and purples and greens (blue + red + yellow)

 Oh oh, they're already ordered, I'll just have to deal with it we'll sdee what happens.

 Don't  3 colour lights have a problem with off center? By that I mean that looking at the light from an angle shows the seperate colours? So they would have to be a pot style or some other focused light

 I like the new lights as well but I'm not paying that kind of money   piranha package ? whats that?

I think you have more picks of my place than I do Brundle. You'll have to come up on a dark night and see what the lights illuminate   Heh heh heh

[chopper]

Wow,nice shed, great home!! I'm impressed, what country are You in? Australia? About the piranhas... try quickar.com go to the bottom of the home page, thats the best deal I know of, they are amber and make great home lighting! Keep posting pics of Your projects, they arer impressive!

[Brundle Fly]

Dan and I are both in Ontario Canada, Dan is further north than I am though. I'm originally from even further north, a wee one horse town called Larder Lake, where the men are men, and the moose are nervous. Tis why I love getting out of the city, you can take the boy out of the bush, but you can't take the bush out of the boy 

12V
Well, seeing how we forgot the fishing rods, I have a good excuse to go back up there. Wonder if the kids planned it that way? 

[12volt dan]

Thanks Chopper, I've got 200 ordered and on the way. That is a great price and a fine led toy store, I'll be spending more money time there in the future . Have you used them for indoors?

 Bf

 either way It's a good excuse,maybe a winter weekend and they can play with the snomobile.

[chopper]

well lets say I tried to use them for under cabinet lights in the kitchen, they were great except I was powering them with a wal wart and have little confidence in the wal warts because of the voltage they put out versus what they say they do. There is a new thread adressing this issue with a seemingly simple fix, gonna give it a try! Simple to those in the know can be challenging to me  but try I will. Carl.