We bought four 12 packs of outdoor solar lights ($9.97, Walmart) and two packs of screw-in hooks and light up our home from dusk to dawn. We have placed them throughout the house, so if anyone gets up at night they can see to walk around. It is soft lighting, so a couple in each bedroom serve as non-invasive night lights. To light up our whole home cost about $45 in solar lights and hooks. We simply put out the lights to charge each morning and bring them in before sunset.
We also have solar lights positioned on the main out buildings on the farm, along the driveway from the gate to the house, and other key locations. We even bought some solar motion detector alarms for the corners of our garden area that are still going strong over 4 years later masha'Allah.
We have a few solar charged LED lightbulbs that we use for bright light in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. What happens if we have a couple of very cloudy days and they don't charge well? We have a couple of standing lamps which we plug into our inverter (running from the solar charged battery bank) for bright light.
No lighting bills, no continual expense for candles or oil for lamps, just light from the light Allah sends. Al hamdulillah!
Salaam 3laykum wa Rahmatu Allah wa Barakatu
ReplyDeleteMashaa Allah walhamdulilah, what an awesome idea. I am going to adopt this method in Shaa Allah. Jazak Allah Khir
Wa alaykum ussalaam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh Maisah!
DeleteAlhamdulillah that you find it a good solution too. Another thing we did,but my photos were so bad I couldn't include, is put the lights in bud vases in places where they couldn't be affixed to the wall. We got a bunch of vases from a charity shop for 25 cents each. We even have a couple of larger vases and put the top of some larger solar lights on them to make lamps. The possibilities are endless and beautiful masha'Allah. Baarak Allahu feekum!
How about your refridgerator? That is a major power consumer. And what about water heater? Here solar water heaters are readily available.
ReplyDeleteAs for long-term cold storage, we have a 14 cubic foot solar freezer, meaning it is DC powered. It consumes a maximum of 85 watts per hour.
DeleteWe have a chest freezer converted into a refrigerator with a device easily found online for around $50. All refrigeration runs off three 100 amp hour AGM solar batteries, charged by five 100 watt solar panels.
This set-up provides more energy than the appliances need and also serves us for other power needs at times.
We have no contrived hot water heating system. We heat water on the wood stove or stove top as needed. We have thermal tanks in our bathroom to keep 10 gallons of hot water available for washing.
A DC powered heating element can easily be used in a water tank, using between 30-60 watts per hour to heat water. This can be powered by solar.
However we haven't bothered to set that up, as our system at present is just fine, al hamdulillah.