# Forum Home Renovation Solar Electrical Systems  solar power lights

## Billym

can you use a solar panel to light up a 240 volt fairy  light ??? :Confused:  :Confused:

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## rrobor

Yes as long as you have a big enough panel  and a heap of stuff between the lights and the panel.

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## NigeC

Don't make it too technical rrobor

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## rrobor

Actually I thought I covered it quite well. The guy is obviously wanting to run his lights off solar,  Do I say no and have the wolf pack howling that Im "Wrong", Or do I tell him  that theres no sun at night so he needs  a bank of batteries then a DC to AC converter. May jingle his bells, but sure going to stop his pockets jingling.

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## BRADFORD

Yes you can run 240volt lights from solar panels, but as rrobor says you need a lot of stuff in between.
Just plug it into the mains power, a whole lot easier and cheaper and quicker.
Then grab  beer, sit back and admire your lights and have a merry Christmas

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## Smurf

Technically it can be done certainly - solar panel, regulator, battery and inverter is what you need. 
Financially though it doesn't stack up unless mains power isn't available. A lot of money spent on equipment that will sit idle 11 months of the year. If you want to go solar then either use it to run something that's used all year round or get a grid connected system instead. :Smilie:

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## rrobor

Thats a pet hate of mine. What is an inverter. To invert is to turn inside out or upside down. The so called inverter term I think was invented by a Mitsushita guy who couldnt speak English. He invented a new power supply for a microwave with switching transformers and power FET's for their Panasonic range and wanted to call it something new. He was fed up with Switch mode or Chopper supply. There goes another word stuffed up.

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## NigeC

I'm tipping these fairy lights plug into 230 volts but actually have a 24 volt AC adapter, am I right? (or maybe 9 or 12 volt)

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## watson

*Far be it for me to step in*....but..lets not bugger this bloke's post up with "I thought" thingos. 
Lets just go back to where *NigeC* was, and we'll run the electrical terminology course in another space. 
The subject is..*SOLAR POWER LIGHTS.*  
Seconds out ......DING!

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## NigeC

> I always imagined that a inverter related to the 240VAC wave, if you invert one of the waves.............meaning you no longer have a current pulsating between postive and negative, rather a signal pulsating between postive and postive..........meaning you have a DC voltage.  I know it's a rather crude explanation, but am I close? 
> Thats exhausted my knowledge on electric current.

  Thats it in a nut shell. It "inverts" the 180 to 360 degree part of the AC sine wave so the current effectively goes one way, pull pull pull instead of push pull push pull. There are rectifiers in this circuit that smooths out these ripples to produce ripple free DC. 
As for Watson, I agree go back to my post and I await the answer so I can give good advice.

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## watson

:2thumbsup:

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## Smurf

> I'm tipping these fairy lights plug into 230 volts but actually have a 24 volt AC adapter, am I right? (or maybe 9 or 12 volt)

  Fairly lights I know a bit about - got nearly 15,000 of them on the house at the moment...  :Biggrin:  
Most run at either 24 or 36 VAC although other voltages, some of them somewhat obscure, are occasionally used.  
12V is relatively uncommon apart from small pre-fabricated "santa" type displays, illuminated inflatable and blow moulds using halogen lamps, projectors etc. 
So 24V is most common but 36V is also fairly common. 12V is next but not really that widely used. Then comes all the obscure ones like 39.6V and so on that you won't find used anywhere else and which are generally manufacturer specific as far as fairly lights are concerned. 
Just running some 24V lights straight from a 24V battery would be easy as long as they don't have a controller that requries AC power. But then a cheap inverter from Jaycar etc would also be pretty easy.

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## rrobor

You would still need a very large bank of batteries to store sun power so it becomes not viable. As far as the inverter thing NigeC states that has been done for as long as there has been electricity with a transformer and a full wave bridge rectifier.

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## SilentButDeadly

One could buy these.... The Environment Shop - Sustainable Living, Efficient Lighting, Solar Power, Solar Hot Water, Rainwater, Greywater   
There's other models too.

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## NigeC

That one looks like the goods without the hassle of having to make one, you gotta love the Chinese. 
15000 hey Smurf! should have sent you to Copenhagen!!

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## rrobor

Yes well, is thats where its at.

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## watson

> That one looks like the goods without the hassle of having to make one, you gotta love the Chinese. 
> 15000 hey Smurf! should have sent you to Copenhagen!!

  Why do I keep seeing Images from National Lampoon's Christmas??   :Rotfl:

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## rrobor

Asa been a bad man again

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