Retrofitting street lamp post to solar powered

[Joat]

I live on a private road which has 2 lamp posts as seen in pic. As residents (7 homes altogether) we pay for the upkeep of the road
and boundaries plus electric supply to the lamp posts.

Due to energy costs we are looking at retrofitting the lamp posts to run on solar power.

Can this be done, anyone got any ideas or had experience?

[Bill]

You'd need solar plus battery(unless you only want them lit in the day...) so I can't imagine it's worth it.

[worsy]

It would cost a lot in the way of low energy light bulbs. It might be better to fit a timer to do what the council do and switch them off at midnight.

[sherman]

Low energy bulbs.
A timer as above and PIR to activate the street lights if anyond does come into the street between 12am-5am for instance.

[bigpriest]

Bill said:

You'd need solar plus battery(unless you only want them lit in the day...) so I can't imagine it's worth it.

Garden lights - the solar panel uses sunlight / daylight to charge a rechargeable battery which then provides the power at night. When garden lights fail it's usually because the battery inside needs recharging. Would be a bigger version of that but not sure how much bigger.

[netherfield]

We have two lights the same at the back of the house, assuming yours have a screw base ES, then two of these might be what you need, surprising bright. If it's a BC fitting adaptors can be got, 62.5 hours for both lamps to use 1 Kw.


https://www.cp-lighting.co.uk/LED-Stick-8W-Very-Wa...

[DonkeyApple]

Joat said:

I live on a private road which has 2 lamp posts as seen in pic. As residents (7 homes altogether) we pay for the upkeep of the road
and boundaries plus electric supply to the lamp posts.

Due to energy costs we are looking at retrofitting the lamp posts to run on solar power.

Can this be done, anyone got any ideas or had experience?

Solar for night lighting?

I'd start with working out how 7 properties are struggling to pay for 2 light bulbs to be honest. With the right bulbs being used the electricity cost should be close to irrelevant.

Spending a slug of money up front for ugly solar panels and ugly batteries and a less reliable end result would probably be a real last resort to be honest. It looks like a pleasant area and as such has to be worth avoiding a load of ugly junk being bolted on to the lampposts?

[Chumley.mouse]

Agreed. 2 led bulbs between 7 houses? Im tight but I’m not that tight .

[tux850]

Joat][url said:

Due to energy costs we are looking at retrofitting the lamp posts to run on solar power.

Might you be overestimating the cost of LED lighting? (Do you know what's in it now? Might it be overkill even if already LED?)

If we take a nominal 10W LED bulb, chosen just as a point of reference but which I would expect might even provide sufficient light output for the scenario shown, it costs around 0.3p/hr to run at today's rates. Assuming what is likely a worst case scenario of needing it lit 12 hours/day that'd be £13/yr. Doubling that for the two bulbs doesn't strike me as a lot to be paying between 7 of you given the utility it brings?

If cost is the motivating factor I think you would struggle to break even going down the solar route, particularly if wanting maintain comparable levels of light output and reliability. There would also be the issue of aesthetics to consider.

Edited by tux850 on Monday 9th June 19:12