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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Wrenches</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>a general contractor working on upgrades to a VA
hospital has come up with the big idea to use a series of lighted directional
signs and landscape lights along the driveway and walkways leading to
the building complex. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>To come up with a design to power these standalone natural
stone monuments to government overspending and using the GCs choice of
12 VDC, 24 W lamps, <FONT face=Arial><A
href="http://www.greenenergymgmt.com/t8.html">http://www.greenenergymgmt.com/t8.html</A> ,
</FONT>I began with my years old off-grid sizing worksheet. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>It dawned on me that simply scaling the design
factors down by a factor of ten might not give the efficiency results like
a full sized off-grid house would. I'm going on the assumption that off-grid
design has become more fine tuned considering the choices of MPPT and other
controller technology helping to extend battery life. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Anyway, the entire BOS will be outdoors and
battery housing will probably not be insulated from temperature extremes,
considering that they may be in full sun all summer, I want ample
ventilation. Probably will use 2-6V AGMs to power the 4 lamps through a
Morningstar 10 A 12V controller. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I looked for pre-manufactured DC lighting kits but came
away with little that appealed to me. Unless someone can point me toward a very
reliable kit I will go with a scratch built system, battery box on a short PV
pole style. Any tried & true design advice would be much appreciated.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>best regards</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><STRONG><FONT size=2>Jim Duncan<BR>North Texas Renewable
Energy Inc<BR>4029 Aragon Drive<BR>Fort Worth, Texas
76133<BR>817.917.0527<BR></FONT></STRONG><A
href="mailto:ntrei@earthlink.net"><STRONG><FONT
size=2>ntrei@earthlink.net</FONT></STRONG></A><BR><STRONG><FONT size=2>Serving
North Texas since 1994.<BR>For more information </FONT></STRONG><A
href="http://www.ntrei.com"><STRONG><FONT
size=2>www.ntrei.com</FONT></STRONG></A><BR><STRONG><FONT size=2>References?
</FONT></STRONG><A href="http://www.findsolar.com/"><STRONG><FONT
size=2>http://www.findsolar.com/</FONT></STRONG></A></FONT></DIV>
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