01-14-2016, 03:31 PM
(01-14-2016, 03:05 PM)ookpik Wrote: Perhaps the motion detector feature isn't appropriate for trail lighting. That would in turn require a larger solar panel and bigger battery to power the light continuously during a winter night. And of course this unit is too flimsy for trail illumination. But it demonstrates what's possible these days with current technology. There must be some "industrial strength" versions of this concept that would work well on public trails.
You're correct about that: the trail is meant to be continuously lit, not on-demand lit. Maybe a future project could try and coordinate how many lamps to light up for a cyclist, for instance. So you're talking about something that has to be lit a couple hundred times longer per day.
Also, your garage light is no doubt relatively low, so that it illuminates that patch of driveway well. On a trail, that's a vandalism concern. As well, if it's low, it's not going to throw useful light very far, and if it's high, it has to have a higher output to cover a greater area.
I did find a solar powered trail/pathway light, though. These products do exist. http://www.solarlighting.com/sites/defau...hure_0.pdf http://www.firstlighttechnologies.com/productshome.aspx
The panels are quite substantially larger, but they look like they'd work. If the panels are not obstructed by trees, or snow, and if they can gather enough power during short winter days to shine on long winter nights.
The only thing I could find (in my admittedly short search) about the suitability of solar lights for trails came from here.
Quote:Solar lights power themselves and are the most environmentally conscious option. There are no interconnecting wires with solar lighting, which means repairs are contained to a single fixture at a time. However, solar-powered lights are not recommended in places with significant tree canopy or in northern regions where natural light is limited. Photovoltaic cells of any size can also be very costly upfront. Still, installing solar lights on trails in more sunny regions, like the Metropolitan Branch Trail in Washington, D.C., can mean little to no cost of operation.
It's true that LED lights produce a lot more lumens per watt, but there are still hard realities about how much power you can get for a panel that can be fit to an individual pole. If you exceed that, you need to wire the pole to something (even if it's a bigger panel somewhere.)
At least running with LED lights (which the Spur Line trail lights are, I believe) means that they're low impact on the grid and on the annual budget. Assuming they can get the wiring to stay in place!