Garden Buildings and Solar Power
There are all manner of intriguing new possibilities waiting to surprise and amuse anyone who might be toying with the idea of adding solar power to their garden shed. Not so long ago the humble wooden shed was seen as really no more than a handy store for garden furniture, toys and garden machinery and tools. But not any more.
Today’s shed is not just a place to store lawn mowers and garden tools, but has the potential to become a fully functional workshop, gym or simply a place to relax in comfort. Space is at a premium these days and even a small 10′ by 10′ shed offers 100 square feet of highly flexible extra space.
It goes without saying however that none of this is going to amount to anything without electric power (for lighting and operating assorted devices). Your options are twofold: run out a power line or mount some solar panels on the roof.
The first option means you need to somehow run (and protect) a power line from an isolator switch added to the household mains supply. Far and away the easiest means of mitigating many of the problems inherent in doing this is to first convert the mains supply to low voltage, typically using a 12v transformer. Gardens in general and wooden sheds in particular don’t mix well with high voltage electricity.
The alternative is simply placing a solar panel or several on your shed roof and hooking it up to a battery in order to collect the electricity. Working out the size and quantity of panels and batteries is a function of how much electricity you want. Once the panels and batteries are in place then connect your lights (energy saving LED lights are best) and switch on your solar shed lighting.
If you want to expend even less effort than this then there is an option available for you: an integral solar shed light kit which contains everything you need and is simplicity itself to install. These systems are often found pre-installed in brand new sheds, so popular has solar shed lighting become
But why stop at solar lighting out in your shed? Solar powered CCTV can offer protection to parts of your property that would otherwise be difficult to cover. Solar CCTV systems consume little power and use wireless connectivity to transmit images to a number of possible destinations: web space, local hard drive, email and phone.
Because solar CCTV cameras are wireless they can be concealed in all manner of places and should an intruder spot one it’s already too late – the camera would already have transmitted the images and their only realistic option would be to back off and leave promptly.
If you are interested in finding out more then this great article looks at solar sheds in much greater detail.
Tags: cctv, garden, garden buildings, Gardening, home, lighting, security, solar, solar cctv, solar panels, solar power, solar shed light, wooden garden shed