Wrenches a general contractor working on upgrades to a VA hospital has come up with the big idea to use a series of lighted directional signs and landscape lights along the driveway and walkways leading to the building complex. To come up with a design to power these standalone natural stone monuments to government overspending and using the GCs choice of 12 VDC, 24 W lamps, http://www.greenenergymgmt.com/t8.html , I began with my years old off-grid sizing worksheet. It dawned on me that simply scaling the design factors down by a factor of ten might not give the efficiency results like a full sized off-grid house would. I'm going on the assumption that off-grid design has become more fine tuned considering the choices of MPPT and other controller technology helping to extend battery life. Anyway, the entire BOS will be outdoors and battery housing will probably not be insulated from temperature extremes, considering that they may be in full sun all summer, I want ample ventilation. Probably will use 2-6V AGMs to power the 4 lamps through a Morningstar 10 A 12V controller. I looked for pre-manufactured DC lighting kits but came away with little that appealed to me. Unless someone can point me toward a very reliable kit I will go with a scratch built system, battery box on a short PV pole style. Any tried & true design advice would be much appreciated. best regards
Jim Duncan North Texas Renewable Energy Inc 4029 Aragon Drive Fort Worth, Texas 76133 817.917.0527 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Serving North Texas since 1994. For more information www.ntrei.com References? http://www.findsolar.com/
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