Garden power supplies are a very specific area of home electrical systems. Moisture associated with being outdoors increases the risk of electric shock, so 230 V mains installations in the garden are a lot more expensive than in the home. That is why solar technology, commonly at a low voltage and at short distances, is often ideal.
Operate garden equipment and lighting via your home connection
An external power socket is the easiest way of connecting a power supply to your garden. You just need a waterproof cable feed in the wall of your home and a splash-proof power socket at least 60 cm above the ground. On the other hand, if you want to permanently lay cables carrying mains voltage in your garden, you’ll need an underground cable.
Insulation of underground cables not only reliably keeps moisture at bay, but is mechanically more robust than with indoor installation. An alternative, especially for summerhouses, stand-alone tool sheds and allotment gardens, is a solar power supply with an inverter that converts DC voltage from the solar battery into 230 V AC voltage where necessary.
Solar technology: Options available for the garden
Solar technology for the garden comes in two categories. One category consists of autonomous systems that use integrated solar cells to completely supply the power they need. The other category consists of larger, more powerful solar energy systems that charge up a solar battery with higher capacity and so supply power to several consumers.
In the first category, you can mostly find solar lamps that you stick into the ground with spikes, set up on a flat surface or hang up. Lamps such as these often only have very small solar cells with an edge length of just a few centimetres that only provide enough power for short summer nights, even if they have been in full sunlight during the day.
It is important to have deep discharge protection for the battery, which unfortunately is not available for all solar lamps.
Something else of interest is solar-powered fans that you can install directly into your roof, for example. These fans do not use a battery. Instead, they are powered directly by a solar cell. The more powerful the sunlight, the more power the fan generates.
Your own solar power plant for the garden
The second category of solar technology consists of solar modules, solar rechargeable batteries and solar charge controllers. The latter ensure that the battery is fully charged and not overcharged, but also that is does not drain back through the solar cells when the light fades. Also, the power consumers are connected to the solar charge controller that can protect the battery from deep discharge.
This solar technology is suitable for illuminating the garden and pergolas and for operating fountain pumps. It can also be used for a wide range of automotive and camping accessories, if the output voltage at the charging controller is 12 or 24 V rather than not 230 V.
Image: Adobe Stock
