[turnipturned]

Hello folks.

Right, situation is, potentially buying a house with a garage. However there is no power supply to the garage, the garage is disconnected to the house and is about 50m away from the house on the other side of other houses. No chance of running an extension cable from the house. Anybody being in the same situation? Clearly I want to put a board up in this garage and would like some light and possibly be able to play some tunes. There is also a small bit of land surrounding the garage. What do people think the best option for getting some kind of power supply to the garage.

My thought so far:

Leisure battery- How long do they last? Any recommendations?
Small quiet generator- can put outside next to garage..... how quiet are they really and its a good way to piss off your neighbours?
Solor panels- Its in Yorkshire...
Small LED rechargeable floodlight- use one for night time bouldering but they are a bit rubbish for a garage.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dan

[SA Chris]

Run mains power to the garage. Long term fix. A good sparky should be able to do it for a couple of hundred quid max. Get some free quotes from someone local. A power socket in there would be handy too.

[tomtom]

Dan - I've a couple of sizable 0.5 by 0.2m solar panels in the shed I could let you have for a few fuck alls - busy next couple of days but dm me. Could work fine with an old car battery and some led's.

[Dolly]

Run mains power to the garage. Long term fix. A good sparky should be able to do it for a couple of hundred quid max. Get some free quotes from someone local. A power socket in there would be handy too.

Agree.
Thats what I did for my climbing shed which is about the same distance away.
It will cost a lot more than 200 quid though to get it done properly

[SA Chris]

As much as that? Guess it depends where the mains power is. Solar Panels is a giid suggestion, not sure how much power you will get for midwinter session though.

[SamT]

not sure how much power you will get for midwinter session though

On a day like today - plenty!!

Way to work out if solar panels are an option is to work it backwards.

i.e. - work out your electrical load first. e.g. the power, in watts, of all your lights and stereo etc.
Then work out how big your batteries need to be to sustain that level of power for the desired durations.
Then work out how big your solar panels will need to be, in order to charge the batteries back up in between demand for them.

Google 'Off Grid solar power' and start reading.  - Probably a load of good stuff from the canal boat fraternity.

You may find that after buying big enough batteries of the right quality, charging circuitry, enough solar panels,  inverters, led lights etc etc, that running a cable up garden may well be the cheapest option.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

garage is disconnected to the house and is about 50m away from the house on the other side of other houses. No

Initally I thought the same as Dolly and Chris, however running some armored cable across your own lawn is pretty simple, getting permission to run it across other peoples property is a whole other ballgame. Could be big money and take years.

Similarly getting a direct mains and meter in the garage will be pricey.

LEDs and solar might be the way forward. LED floods have come on loads recently. Generators are quite noisy unless they are very expensive ones, can't be used inside and are at risk of being stolen.

[Dolly]

Ah I didnt spot that - sorry

[SA Chris]

Any other garages nearby with lighting? Might be able to negotiate with owners?

[lagerstarfish]

I've got a couple of work lights that were 500w halogen floods, but are now 28w energy saver replacements (£10 from Maplin)

I can run one fine off of one of those cheap car starter power pack thingies (£30 from Maplin) with a 12v socket for a couple of hours - using an inverter

I think I tried running both at home as a test, but can't remember how much time I got - the maths suggests that 28W will pull under 3 amps via an inverter, so blah blah blah whatever the amp hours say on the power pack - I think the output sockets on those things have 13A or over fuses which suggests that pulling 6A would be fine

I expect that a leisure battery would be more suitable, but I happened to have one of those power packs

the housing/reflectors for the lights work well


lights originally like this, but I put them onto separate plugs so they can be used separately - and changed the bulbs as mentioned
http://www.screwfix.com/p/double-tripod-site-light-2-x-400w-240v/71555#

[turnipturned]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Tom that would be amazing to try it out and see how they work (amusing we get the house, will DM you if it goes through!!).

Yeah knowing how much my Parents paid to get direct mains to there new house I recon it won't be worth it, it seems electricity companies just make up the price as there is little competition.

Does anyone have a leisure battery for there van? Also thinking of getting a van at some point so could useful as use it both in the Van and the garage kind of thing? How long do they last full charged and any suggestions for good ones?

Thanks again