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I have a few places I was going to use exterior LED lighting:
Over a front door On a small balcony On a deck / some steps
You know the sort of thing, normally you'd have a couple of 100watt CFL jobs and 10 or so 30watt halogens that kind of business...
Now I know you can get off the shelf stuff, but I presume without 10 hours of blazing summer sun it will be an embarrassing disappointment.... therefore wondered about knocking up something a bit more hardcore...
Say v.efficient low power LED light(s) Decent PV panel (s) Maybe a small wind generator 12v leisure battery DC/DC constant current driver(s) PIR / occupancy / day night control (to keep demand low)
Don't forget to factor in the power consumption of the PIR sensors. They're often (always?) not micropower devices, I've heard.
Are you on grid? If so, is there any special reason for not connecting these lights, etc, to the grid? Grid electricity isn't much more expensive than the electricity out of a battery by the time you take into account the need to replace the battery after it's done its cycles.
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