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I want to put put up solar LED rope, tape or fairy lights around my deck, but I need more than the standard 6ft between lights and solar panel. Is it possible to rewire to give me the 15ft I'll need to reach full sun? Plug-in lights seem to have the modular option, but solar doesn't. Is rewiring even possible? Any help is greatly appreciated.
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I guess I am a little confused. You want to extend the wire from a solar panel to run some LED rope lights. I think you will need some type of battery to run the lights when the sun isn't up along with a charge controller.
Extending the wire from a panel to a CC is easy but I think you need to provide more information about your system first. -
I want to put some lights that run under the railing on my deck for some low level lighting. But, the deck is under two full grown Sycamore trees and doesn't get any direct sunlight. With most solar lights the lead between the lights and the solar panel is only 6ft. I need to extend that to 15ft to reach full sun for charging. I want to know if its possible without ruining the lights, and (if possible) what is the best way to do this since the system is outside in the weather. I haven't bought anything yet, I want to get advice and buy the correct system.Last edited by MrsWoody; 03-28-2021, 11:30 PM.Comment
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I think I understand. Unless the lights have some type of internal battery they will not stay on unless the sun is out but it seems that is what you have.
As for extending the wiring. It really depend on the type and size wire that comes with the light/panel.
I have a flood light that also has a solar panel but it comes with about 20 feet of wire which allows me to mount the panel pretty far from the floodlight.
Do you have a make and model number of your light / panel system. Maybe someone can provide an inexpensive idea how to increase the wire length.Comment
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I haven't bought any yet. I was hoping to find out if & how to do it, with maybe some recommendations in the systems to look at.Comment
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My flood light and solar panel came from Harbor Freight. Maybe you can check for a solar lighting system with a long wire otherwise you will probably need to cut and splice a wire to extend the length. Even though it might handle the outside weather if you make the wire longer then it should be you might see a loss in charging.Comment
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They recommend keeping wire length short to keep to a reasonable voltage drop. Larger diameter wire can do the same job with the same voltage drop over a longer distance. So to increase the distance, you need to use larger diameter wire.7kW Roof PV, APsystems QS1 micros, Nissan Leaf EVComment
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THere’s some difficulty as mentioned. I’ve cut the wire and spliced in an extender cable.
My first solar project was a solar battery trickle charger. I extended the 6’ cable by 25’. I lost so much voltage, nothing from the panel made it to the battery. No good.
LEDs can be finicky, depending on the type on whether they work or not. Some have broad voltage ranges and could handle a drop, others don’t. If you can;t find the kit you want, I;d recommend you contact the manufacturer and if you’re told yes, and your confident in the response, follow what he says. Otherwise you could just be throwing away the cost of the LEDs if the idea does not work.Comment
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