Solar powered lighting for Summer house / shed

[yozzer]

I need to buy a solar powered lighting kit for my summer house as I will be using it as a gym. The summer house is 80m away from the back of my house so wiring up to mains isn't impossible but would be quite expensive.

Have any of you had an experience with solar lighting for sheds / summerhouses? I was thinking of using something like the following:

http://www.thesolarcentre.co.uk/products/Geo_2_Mai...

The summerhouse is in a position where it isn't covered by trees and would get a good amount of sunlight during the day to charge the battery.

Any pointers or experience most welcome, thanks.

[shimmey69]

Only ever had garden solar lights
Great in summer crap in winter!!
Are you looking to use the gym year round??
If you are will be worth installing power as you could then have heating, dehumidifier, lights, tv etc etc
Armoured cable is about £100
Trenching machine £80 a day
Sparky to connect £60
So all should be doable yourself for £250-300
Hth

[shimmey69]

Only ever had garden solar lights
Great in summer crap in winter!!
Are you looking to use the gym year round??
If you are will be worth installing power as you could then have heating, dehumidifier, lights, tv etc etc
Armoured cable is about £100
Trenching machine £80 a day
Sparky to connect £60
So all should be doable yourself for £250-300
Hth

[Du1point8]

^^^ This.

Other than the fact the £100 system you have shown is good for 2 light bulbs... so no you cant have real music/tv/heating/etc in the gym them.

With that in mind I would be going mains...

Hell the digging can be done by you so take £80 off the cost.

[yozzer]

Hooking up to mains would be ideal but i would need the trench to go through a concrete rear access path (approx 2m wide) before I go to any grass area.

Also the consumer unit is at the front of the property (near the front door) and I would need the mains to come out rear of the property. ( I have made the assumption I would need to come off the consumer unit - will gladly be corrected if its not the case tho)

thanks for comments so far, its appreciated.

[shimmey69]

could easily go though wall at front of house, into consumer, then run along the side of the house to the rear. you can then run this above head height susupened on a wire to a post to get over the concrete path and then trench it from there. or run around to fence etc and then down underground.

[yozzer]

Thanks again for the comments guys, I am going to have a look at it over the weekend, I didn't realise hooking up to main could be done without having someone do the whole thing for you.

I guess if i can dig the trench, lay the cable to the correct depth etc then all i need to sparky for is to connect things up so I am within regs.

Another added issue is that the house is a terraced but maybe I can lay the cable from the CU under floor boards to the back of the house and take it from there?

As for negotiating the pathway, I saw on an American website that someone had gone under a pathway using a PVC pipe section so maybe that is an option depending on the depth of the path concrete.

[shimmey69]

trench needs to be 600mm deep and you would be best to leave open for sparky to see you have dug deep enough. i trenching machine will make quick work of this!! imagine a giant chainsaw for moving earth and you have a trencher!