I was thinking of rigging a cheap light feeding system for the BGs. Do LED lights attract bugs well in a very dark area??? Tell me what you guys think. They have some other models I was looking at as well. I was thinking of putting it on a pole out over the water from the dam.


http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_...84+4233&pos=n12

Whatever you do, make sure you install a GFI (Ground Fault Interupter) in there somewhere. Electricity and water invite Murphy every time.

yeah, just started looking at some submersible solar lights but I think I might find something that works since I have no power down to the pond.

Keith,

That looks like a nice light, and at $30 you can't go wrong. I may get a couple myself. You can't beat solar for safety and reliability. I suspect it would store up at least a couple of hours of light even on a cloudy day.

I don't see why bugs wouldn't be attracted to an LED light. If I remember correctly, they were attracted to my LED flashlight last summer.

they also have some small white floating ones for like 20 a piece which could go inside a feeding ring or something. I would really like a submersible spotlight rigged to a solar panel and battery setup but the rig will cost more than $30 and even if you ruin a $30 dollar light, so what.

I've had some different types of solar lights in the past and they don't give off very much light at all. I think they are more for decoration than anything.

Bobad, was that you that was working on a solar powered bug whacker last year? If so how did that project turn out.

I'll take the $30 gamble and see how it works out. If nothing else I'll have a new patio light. The reviews say that one really is bright but I'm sceptical too. It has 3 led's and the old solar lights were incandecent so I thought maybe they have a better product now with the leds, guess well see. I have a little LED flashlight that is pretty dang bright. This field the pond is in is pitch black at night so if it is decent I think it will make some additional bugs crash into the water.

found a good one with 16 LED lights that is supposed to be very bright and is reasonable:

http://www.gardeners.com/Powerful-Solar-Spotlight/default/35-070.prd?SC=XNET8019

I almost bought the wrong light. It turns out the up side to LED in the outdoors is that they emit a different spectrum than bugs see so I found a solar powered flourescent that will work much better. Unless you use UV LEDs they wont attract bugs. There is a UV LED solar bug zapper you could hang over the water if you wanted to feed your fish cooked bugs. Here is the link to what I think will be my first purchase in this area:

http://www.solarhome.org/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=132

or:

http://www.solarhome.org/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=105

I'm looking for a cheap solar outhouse fan with light; that with a storage battery might be the starting point. Let me know if you find anything like that.

Chip

http://www.sunsoglobal.com/index.php?cPath=66

here ya go. This solar stuff is so cool. I found this system that would be so cool. Check this out:

http://www.solarhome.org/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=537

you could power a feeder, lights, air pump, and watch the football game down by the pond. Pure greatness!!!

I have always wondered that if you mounted a mirror a foot below the water directly under the light would the bugs fly toward the reflection thereby hitting the water? Clear water would be a must and you would probably need to clean algae off the mirror regularly but if its mounted on a dock that shouldn't be to hard. Any volunteers?

Well, cheap is out the window but check out where I am so far. I found out my dad has a brand new husky 400watt power inverter out at the land so today I built the light and the 20 watt solar panel will be the last step. I am going to go ahead and install the light over the water and use a charge from the wall for fishing for now and I hope to have the system connected to a solar panel in a month. I am using a 13 watt 2700 kelvin cfl for the infared bugs and a slightly stronger 19 watt 6500 kelvin for the UV blue spectrum. I will run the rig for 4 hours each night on a timer so the wattage draw will be 128 watts and with a 20 watt solar panel on the average day I will charge back in about 200 watts. I will be upgrading the inverter to a husky 750 watt inverter for $85 later but the 400 should get me by for a while. I am not a good electrician or carpenter but the rig is sound:)

Sorry for the delayed reply FT.

I was planning one, but it got kicked to the back burner. When I complete a couple of other projects, I can get on it again.

I think I will need a 15-20w solar panel, a small charge controller, a cheap 12v utility battery, a timer, and 12v motor and LED light. Since very little power is required for the light and rotating wire, I will look for an efficient little 12v motor. An important key is to prevent the battery from discharging below 80% of full charge. If it discharges below 80% too many times, it won't last more than a few weeks.

Clear or muddy water reflects light just about as good as a mirror. Maybe you could mount the light very low, shining on the water at an angle. It wouldn't cost much to try it!

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95388

From what I've been reading they say to stay below 50% battery consumption for long time use. I guess we'll see. Maybe I'll just run it for a couple of hours.

I think 50% would be OK for a deep cycle battery, but it would quickly ruin a standard battery.

Are you just using the light to fish by or are you intending to have the lights draw in the bugs and the end up falling in the water?

So you are using AC to power your lights? inverted from the dc to ac. I may be thinking in the wrong direction(I do that often) Would you really need a bigger wattage inverter if you are only using 128 watts. where would the bigger inverter come into play? If you used more watts you would be required to have more Battery standby to be converted.

Have you seen any of the bug wackers in the forums? I am waiting for the bugs to get to flying this year because my fish are big enough to eat them now.

I am going to be fine with the inverter but like you said, more battery will make the system great. I'm going to use a 35 amp hour connected to the inverter which also has a 17 amp hour battery its self. I will use a 30 watt solar panel to recharge the system. It's been a task getting my head around the best way to do this. The only thing I wonder about is the fan constantly going in the inverter. It has a one year waranty and is cheap so I guess I'll roll ahead. I was not going to do the feeder with the moving parts becasue of the wattage requirements but those sure look cool. Maybe one day when I have more power down there.

I will try to get to the pond and fire mine up tomorrow to see how much amp draw it has and let you know.

The fan doesn't use much juice, and will run reliably for years. However, the inverter itself uses a LOT of current to do the conversion from DC to AC. Inverters add 20-25% to current usage just to convert from DC to AC. There are cheap 12v lights, timers, and motors that are much more efficient and safe than their inverted AC counterparts.

The lights are dual purpose; both for lighting the area and to draw additional bugs. I know it won't feed them enough to make a big difference but I bet they'll like it. As far as the ac/dc 12 volt issue, since I have started down this path this is how the setup is designed so I'll have to continue with the ac power. I'll be drawing a small percentage of available power so hopefully even with the inefficiency I will be ok. One day maybe I can add a small "wacker" to the bottom of the setup. I have nice thick wood to screw into but would need a low wattage ac motor to do the wackin.

Ok here is my set up running about 2 foot off the water And here is the amount of amp draw while it is running, which it would actually be about .9 amps because my amp gauge would'nt zero out so it was starting with a .2 without load so I figure just under 1 amp load. I am not sure what that equates to in wattage right off the top of my head and I cant seem to find my chart here it is from the reflection of the water

1 amp at 120 volts is 120 watts.

watts = amps x volts

I would like to draw less than 100 watts a day so I can recharge with 15-20 watt panels with ease. I'm looking at a linkable 15 watt I could link more to later and they are only $79 on amazon. With this requirement I can use my dad's husky 400 watt inverter w 17amp hour battery and have the system up and running. Later I will swith to the xantrex hd600 watt inverter with 28 amp hour battery for $110 and link one more panel. Then maybe I could put a wacker on a timer for 2 hours and use just the lights for 2 or 3 more.

solar bug wacker

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95500

Thanks for the link cliffbrook. I think I'll try one of those before I attempt to re-invent the wheel. If it works even half way, it's worth the $15.

EDIT: In reading the description carefully, it doesn't sound very powerful.

HF description reads: "Lantern style lamp kills mosquitos and small insects attracting them to the ultra violet light".

I zeroed in on the word "small", which probably means it will not kill larger insects such as junebugs. Incidentally, mosquitoes are not attracted to lights. But at that price, it's still worth a try!

I saw those but now I am looking forward to having a bright light and a dc outlet with the inverter. I may try a couple of those too some day. Let us know how they work!!!