Hello. I am new to solar, keeping backyard chickens, and ponds. Have a small flock of 6 chickens that we got in April and they just recently started laying eggs in the summer. Their coop is far away from the house and near a bunch of trees. Chickens need 14-16 hours of daylight for maximum egg laying and can stop laying if there is less than 12 hours. Currently as summer is nearing the end we are getting less than 13 hours of daylight, but I think due to the coop placement near trees the chickens perceive it as less as they go to bed early. So I need to give them supplemental light.
I also have a new small pond that needs a filter to keep it clean and looking nice.
I found a chicken lighting system that has 3 small LED lights on an automated timer that runs off of 12VDC. It draws 15 watts when the lights are actually on, and a very small amount to run the timer 24/7. I just need to run it 3 hours each day from about 4 am to 7 am.
Next I am still looking at different pond pumps, but leaning toward one that runs at about 50 watts. It doesn't need to run 24/7, just as much as reasonable. Maybe 8 hours would be good enough, and doesn't need to run when the chicken lights are on.
So I thought the harbor freight thunderbolt magnum 100W solar kit would fit the bill so I bought that yesterday along with a battery and set it up today. I'm waiting for the chicken light to come in the mail in a few days. Haven't ordered the pond pump yet, but will soon. I have a few questions/concerns about the setup.
The harbor freight solar controller has a setting called "output duration". It only accepts values between 0 and 15. Does that mean it can't run my chicken light? Does it start a 15 hour timer when it detects a load and then come back on again after 9 hours? Or does someone need to push a button on it each day to run a load? If it can't run off the controller, can I just run the chicken lights directly off the battery? What benefit/purpose is there to run the load thru the controller?
What about when I get my pond pump? Should I connect that directly to the battery or should I go through the controller? I could get a timer for it to run it just 8 hours a day or so, but what I would really like to do is run it as long as possible while ensuring there is still enough charge to run the chicken lights 4-7 am the next morning. Any way I can do that?
I also have a new small pond that needs a filter to keep it clean and looking nice.
I found a chicken lighting system that has 3 small LED lights on an automated timer that runs off of 12VDC. It draws 15 watts when the lights are actually on, and a very small amount to run the timer 24/7. I just need to run it 3 hours each day from about 4 am to 7 am.
Next I am still looking at different pond pumps, but leaning toward one that runs at about 50 watts. It doesn't need to run 24/7, just as much as reasonable. Maybe 8 hours would be good enough, and doesn't need to run when the chicken lights are on.
So I thought the harbor freight thunderbolt magnum 100W solar kit would fit the bill so I bought that yesterday along with a battery and set it up today. I'm waiting for the chicken light to come in the mail in a few days. Haven't ordered the pond pump yet, but will soon. I have a few questions/concerns about the setup.
The harbor freight solar controller has a setting called "output duration". It only accepts values between 0 and 15. Does that mean it can't run my chicken light? Does it start a 15 hour timer when it detects a load and then come back on again after 9 hours? Or does someone need to push a button on it each day to run a load? If it can't run off the controller, can I just run the chicken lights directly off the battery? What benefit/purpose is there to run the load thru the controller?
What about when I get my pond pump? Should I connect that directly to the battery or should I go through the controller? I could get a timer for it to run it just 8 hours a day or so, but what I would really like to do is run it as long as possible while ensuring there is still enough charge to run the chicken lights 4-7 am the next morning. Any way I can do that?
