Have you thought about using solar panels to light your layout's towns?

Kenn. I've thought about it but haven't done it yet. I'm anxious to see if anyone responds. What I have done is to get an Edmund's Scientifc catalog, came last week, to see what solar panels they had available for a potential project like this. Terry

A heads up. The was just an article recently published in Garden Railroad magazine about using inexpensive outdoor solar accent lighting and their conversion ( looks easy) to power lighting for buildings etc.

At work we do alot of PV system designs for commercial companies (Independent Power Producers putting in , say one square mile of them and connecting them to and selling the power into the grid).  I've looked into to installing them at home - I have an EV (Chevy Volt) and know several folks who add PV to their roof to provide the power to charge their car free.  It can be done. There is no way to justify the initial cost of a small private PV layout on the basis of payback.  But as a project it might be fun. 

 

From my perspective, if I'm going to go to the hassle of installing PV to run lights or accessories on the layout, I'd go ahead and do the whole layout.  It will be quite a project to install a good, dependable working system regardless of size, and once you've made that commitment, the cost of adding capacity is not that much more until you decide to tackle really big electric loads (like the whole house, or an EV).  I thought about running my entire layout off of PV: I have 1.4 kilowatts of installed transformer (to track and accessories) but usually use only about 300 - 400 watts maximum.  I figured a target of 500 watts capacity for eight hours during the day, including room lights by no the TV and radio.  That means, realistically, about 2 kW or even 2.5 kW of PV on my roof (even a capacity factor of .25 is a bit optimistic for a fixed, roof mounted PV system so I figured .2 = need five times the demand you want to serve), feeding into a storage battery (a single car battery would be enough to smooth out power availability due to clouds, sun angle, all day, but I'd install two, providing an abiltiy to run at night from stored power for an additional hour or two, and a good inverter system to make the AC to run everything in the room, with breakers.  That would cost about $3500 all told - or about what three really good Legacy locos would cost, new.  The part of the system inside the hour would occupy about three cubic feet (under the layout, no problem).  Nice project, but I do it at work so it would not be new or an adventure, and frankly I'd rather have the three Legacy locos.

 

 

 

Awesome concept.  Lee, you are one in a million.  Maybe two million.  Your energy alone could power a GG1.

OGaugeGuy, it sounds like you've been watching the same Transformers (1985) episode that I have (The Master Builders). Are you referring to something like a building-sized solar power plant to supplement a layout's interior power needs (street lamps, traffic signals, station/platform/building lighting)? Or individual panelling, mounted on which ever building or element it's connected to (similar to the solar panels atop of some free-standing School Crossing signs in Houston, TX)?

-- Señor J.

I prepared a Request for a Federal Grant from Obama to "go green" , but haven't heard back yet.

Only if the panels were in 1/4" scale.....

I think he is only interested in subsidizing railroads that are 1:1 scale!