Xmas Lights 2015

[brad.midnite]

I bought my first home in October. We hosted Thanksgiving and then scrambled to hang some lights.

For fun, I cobbled together some relay boards for switching the 120 VAC LED christmas lights. There were two circuits of lights, so I built two relay boards. I sealed the cases with liberal helpings of silicone.

The garden shed roof has a steep slope with 2x6s nailed down for safety. It seemed a good temporary method for mounting the panel.

I put The Brat in the shed and placed my Fluke-meter in series with the battery connection. This serves two purposes. The first and most important is the meter's built-in 10A fuse protects the thin wires used to control the relays from short circuit in-case of malfunction (example, lightning strike). Secondly, it monitors current flow.

I have The Brat set up for 5 hour load control. Dusk is occuring at ~ 4:30 PM (getting a little earlier each day).

It's been fun to drive home each night with my lights on.

http://imgur.com/a/B2oUr

[Doug]

Very Nice!

I never thought of using a Fluke meter for lightning protection, I've been using SPDs.

-D

[Halfcrazy]

Pretty cool, I have my Brat in my wood boiler building with a 40 watt incandescent 12v bulb. It also powers a wifi bridge and 2 cameras and the data logger for the boiler. The light comes on in the evening for a few hours so the wife can see to go feed the animals

[Zambian Kid]

Really cool setup. How exactly did you connect up with the meter?

Looks very festive!

[brad.midnite]

In series with the ammeter portion of the meter.

[Zambian Kid]

Where exactly did you connect both ends of the meter? I'm not very good at these things so as much help and detail would be much appreciated

[ClassicCrazy]

Where exactly did you connect both ends of the meter? I'm not very good at these things so as much help and detail would be much appreciated

The meter would be in series with one of the power leads - so imagine putting a switch in the circuit to turn the power on and off . The amp meter would go in the same way as a switch - in series.