DIY solar panels. NO FIT!

ynotchat

hi lovely people of MSE. first post and its going to be a boring one for most;
solar panels.

I would like to put in some DIY solar panels to power a lighting system (low voltage LED's) that light my Garage (integral), my shed, my garden (mounted on outside of house), my drive (again house mounted) and my loft.

The panels themselves (regardless of wattage) would be mounted on my Shed roof and would charge 2 leisure batteries (using the usual kit to monitor output/input and regulate/invert the power source). Important point (i think)...... it wont be fed back into the mains for a FIT tariff nor will it link to any part of my house power grid at any point.

The questions i'm mainly interested in answers on, are the legalities/regulations.
I'm pretty certain i can do all this myself with no regulations holding me back here as its just a set of 12v batteries powering lights on the inside of my house (with sensors to activate them) and on the outside of my house (also with motion detectors)........ my only concerns are the reg's (if any) that i may have missed regarding the cables running from the shed into my house (loft and garage) that will come into the property via drilled holes on the exterior (and sealed for waterproofing) then run along my loft and garage ceilings to power LED lighting.

I'd say it was no different to me taking a high powered torch into the loft (bar the cabling) but i was hoping a down to earth UK sparky might back me up with this statement. Does the cabling make a difference here? Do i need to inform my insurance company I have lit the loft of my house with batteries from the shed (charged by solar power)... seems odd that i would, but i dont want to invalidate my house insurance. I'm struggling to get any help from google on this as most of the time people want to plug their solar panels into the grid to get money, but i dont... i just want solar panel to provide me "free" light for the area's in my house i dont spend long in.


now for the not so important techy questions:
notes: budget is around the £400-700 range.

1. to power a good size loft (4 bed detached house - guessing around 6 LED bulbs or equivalent strip lights), 2 area's of the back garden (est 2 x 20w LED flood lights), 1 drive way light, my garage (2 LED bulbs) and the interior of the shed (1 x LED bulb) what type of batteries would you recommend I purchase (i'm assuming 2 x battery by the way for resiliency and that most systems i see built this way have multi battery).

2. any recommendations on lights? high lumen (not so bothered about the power draw though obviously ones that don't drain an entire battery in under 1 hour)

3. recommendations for inverters/monitors/regulators that have long life and stability in mind (i dont want to be going in the shed every week worrying about these things mounted on my shed wall).

4. feel free to call me a wally in the comments and tell me to go purchase a "real" system for £4000+ and that i'm wasting my money on this as the batteries wont last long and im on to a losing idea (and visa versa if you have a winning solution you want to brag about).

Sorry, hopefully i've not bored you too much, and thanks for reading thus far!

Tony. :beer:

ynotchat

You nincompoop don't waste your money on this, go buy a £4000 system done by an expert where you get paid for the power instead.

Richmc

Perfectly feasible although I'd advise getting an electrician involved as most electrical work done will need to be signed off, depending on your level of expertise an electrician would be able to sign off most of the work. Doing it this way you know it won't affect your home insurance.
there are loads of specialist web sites out there that sell kits, Panels chargers and inverters if you need any 240volt power, you just need to search. By specialist I DON'T mean Maplin.
Loads of LED's on eBay, just remember to go for warm white and I think the energy saving trust has guides as to power rating/lumens/equivalent wattage etc.
All the donkey work is easy enough to DIY, just remember to get it checked by an electrician. Good Luck

Heedtheadvice

Just a point or two. Not to put a dampener on it just things to think about!

You intend to generate DC to charge extra low voltage batteries (note need to allow for failure modes and gassing even for some leisure batteries) and losses owing to charging discharging...
Then use an inverted to transform to low voltage mains level (240v) to distribute. More losses. Voltage now has safety implications....
Then fit led bulbs with integral power conversion to provide the extra low voltage required by the LEDs (more losses).
Having 'worried' about the legalities and safety of routing mains cables etc.

I'm sure you get the point by now? So, why not just go for extra low voltage exterior led flood lights (12v DC off the battery ) and a 12v set of pir controllers or floodlights with integral ones?

Power drawn is low so cheap lightweight cabling, floods are quite cheap 10watt each probably plenty, no inverter to buy.......

Just a suggestion.........
Search "12v exterior led floodlight pir" or without "pir" will give lots of results.

prosaver

Just put a few bulbs in and wire it to the mains. About 60 pound.
.i heared it takes 25 years to get your money back... on solar power
I dont know about a small garage maybe 50 years as u are not in it all evening