Posted by Vaughn on February 15, 2012, 1:51 am
On 2/14/2012 8:27 PM, clare@snyder.on.ca wrote:
> For the low voltage wire a cheap garden hose works to allow relativly
> simple cable replacement - just make sure to pack around it with sand,
> not gravel.
I've seen people bury garden hose, then been really sorry when it
collapsed from the pressure of the backfill. PVC is cheap! Perhaps
cheaper than garden hose.
That said...I have used old "throwaway" garden hose as conduit to
protect irrigation cable. In that case, I expect the hose to collapse
underground and consider it a bonus if it doesn't.
Vaughn
Posted by (PeteCresswell) on February 14, 2012, 8:44 pm
Per Vaughn:
>Actually, UF isn't all that cheap, but the problem isn't the cost of the
>cable or the cost of the conduit, it's the cost and disruption of
>digging the ditch. You can repair damaged UF once or twice perhaps, but
>to replace it you need a whole new ditch. If you put conduit in the
>ground and plan ahead with extras, you only need dig the ditch once.
I've decided in favor of the ditch and 2" PVC conduit. Home
Depot here has something called a "Ground Hog" that rents for
something like $20 for the day and cuts a little trench just
about the right width. Guy at Home Depot says it will even chew
through certain kinds of rock (we're on a shale ridge...).
--
Pete Cresswell
Posted by T. Keating on January 28, 2012, 3:48 pm
wrote:
>I'm looking in to putting an IP camera on an outbuilding and
>maybe one of those flood lights that is triggered by motion.
>Running AC to the building sounds more formidable the more I read
>about it.
>OTOH, a wireless version of the IP camera's 24-7 draw is less
>than 10 watts and the flood light could be set up to only shine
>for a minute or so after detecting motion.
First things first..
Purchase camera.. Measure actual power consumption.. Night/day..
Ten watts of 24x7 power dissapation in any of these smaller cameras
would melt them into slag. (hint, no vent holes, requires low power
consumption.)
http://www.google.com/search?q=wireless+camera+outdoor&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&
Once you've got some real power consumption numbers... start over.
>Unencumbered by any knowledge or expertise, I am led to thinking
>maybe this could be a solar application: automobile battery and
>el-cheapo inverter in the shed, collector panel on the roof, some
>sort of box to facilitate panel's charging the battery...
>Is the scale/complexity of something like this small enough so it
>would compete favorably with a couple thou to hire an electrician
>to run 120v to the outbuilding?
Posted by j on February 14, 2012, 12:39 pm
On 1/25/2012 5:50 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
> I'm looking in to putting an IP camera on an outbuilding and
> maybe one of those flood lights that is triggered by motion.
> Running AC to the building sounds more formidable the more I read
> about it.
> OTOH, a wireless version of the IP camera's 24-7 draw is less
> than 10 watts and the flood light could be set up to only shine
> for a minute or so after detecting motion.
I did some looking to see what they really draw. It looks like about 4W.
I found this:
http://www.micropowerapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Five-Dirty-Secrets-WP1.pdf
Which claims to draw 1/10 as much. In your application power draw is key.
There are a number of solar security light setups on the market. Get a
large one and run the IP camera off the security light battery.
Or, you may wish instead to get a motion monitoring dvr. The one I have
lasts a week on a charge, records in the dark with IR leds, is about the
size of a pack of cigarettes and is under $00. Records several hours
and loops back to the beginning when storage is full so you always have
the last several hours of triggering events. That could be charged
easily on a 6V solar panel.
Or just run power out there. There is outdoor rated wiring, not much
money. Slit a trench and be done. Put it on a GFCI circuit breaker.
Jeff
> Unencumbered by any knowledge or expertise, I am led to thinking
> maybe this could be a solar application: automobile battery and
> el-cheapo inverter in the shed, collector panel on the roof, some
> sort of box to facilitate panel's charging the battery...
> Is the scale/complexity of something like this small enough so it
> would compete favorably with a couple thou to hire an electrician
> to run 120v to the outbuilding?
Posted by Jim Wilkins on February 14, 2012, 1:34 pm
> Or, you may wish instead to get a motion monitoring dvr. The one I have
> lasts a week on a charge, records in the dark with IR leds, is about the
> size of a pack of cigarettes and is under $00. Records several hours and
> loops back to the beginning when storage is full so you always have the
> last several hours of triggering events. That could be charged easily on a
> 6V solar panel.
> Or just run power out there. There is outdoor rated wiring, not much
> money. Slit a trench and be done. Put it on a GFCI circuit breaker.
> Jeff
"Game" or "Trail" cameras do that too, and are waterproof (?).
This one is small enough to be inconspicuous.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tasco-5MP-Trail-Camera-with-Night-Vision/16933396
The LEDs are visible at night if you are already looking towards them, and
if you aren't it won't catch your face. It works better if combined with
other motion-sensitive lights to extend its short range and conceal the
dimly visible IR LEDs.
In the daytime it works pretty well, though don't expect to read license
plates beyond 100 feet. The trigger time is too slow to catch someone
walking past quickly.
> simple cable replacement - just make sure to pack around it with sand,
> not gravel.