ToughButterCup Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 A bout of local petty-crime nonsense has prompted me to install CCTV. God, what a can of worms! Within the limitation of daytime CCTV, has anyone any experience of solar-powered CCTV? The idea appeals to me, but I thought I'd test that appeal here first before launching the idea on the ultimate authority. SWMBO. Bless her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 Assuming you literally mean "powered by solar energy" rather than "light-triggered", I think you'll struggle to get sufficient power during a lot of winter. We have an 8.5kW array and there are long periods in winter where we get zero output while it's still technically "day". Perhaps if you have a big enough battery to get you through the dead spots you'd be ok, but given the lack of insolation during winter I'd definitely prefer to have a permanent power supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddal Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 A typical CCTV camera doesn't use a lot of power - a few watts I think - maybe up to 20w if using IR at night. However you usually have to run a wire from the camera back to a recording device - so you can normally use the same run to provide power to the camera. Most modern IP cameras have PoE (power over ethernet) so you can use a single ethernet cable for both the signal and the power. Some cameras can record onto a local storage card - and a solar solution could make sense there for locations too remote for wiring. However if someone nicks the camera the footage is gone too! Also you would need a panel, a battery and some electronics to make it all work together - so I doubt it would be cheap. However thinking about it - there are fairly cheap solar kits for 12v lighting you might be able to use (CCTV cameras normally use the same 12v system). -reddal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I've looked at doing it, but the power demand for "always on" cameras is just far too high. I just have a single hi-res outdoor camera, modified to take a small 50mW 5.8HGz video transmitter, and the current drawn at 12V is around 90mA or so. That might not sound much, but if I were to make it solar powered I'd need at least a 20 to 25W solar panel to power it reliably, plus a battery capable of delivering a usable capacity of at least 1.5 to 2 Ah at 12 V, which realistically means using a battery of around 5 to 6 Ah minimum to allow for a reasonably long life. The best solution for very low power is to use the PIR triggered cameras with built in DVR's, that record to an SD card only when motion is detected. Making one of those solar power should be pretty straightforward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddal Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 27 minutes ago, JSHarris said: The best solution for very low power is to use the PIR triggered cameras with built in DVR's, that record to an SD card only when motion is detected. Making one of those solar power should be pretty straightforward. Is the power usage when only recording on motion really a lot less? The camera electronics still need to be active to detect motion - they don't have to do the compression and saving to the card most of the time - but maybe that doesn't save very much? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 8 minutes ago, reddal said: Is the power usage when only recording on motion really a lot less? The camera electronics still need to be active to detect motion - they don't have to do the compression and saving to the card most of the time - but maybe that doesn't save very much? Yes, with the PIR triggered units. My neighbour bought a battery powered unit (I think it came from somewhere like Toolstation) about 18 months ago. It looks like a PIR triggered outside light, with an LED floodlight, but has a small camera and DVR internally. Unlike the motion sensing on the DVR (which is what I'm using at the moment), the camera is only powered on when the PIR detects motion. If it happens to be dark the LED floodlight turns on as well as the camera and DVR. It records in blocks of around 30 seconds to 1 minute, I think, and the quality was pretty good. IIRC it was quite expensive when he bought it (I gave him a hand fitting it to the front of his garage) but there are cheaper ones around now, I'm sure. There is a problem with the recording being held inside the unit, so scrotes that realise they've been videoed could nick the thing, but it wouldn't be too hard to hide a unit somewhere. I have a spare car dash board DVR, the one that was fitted to the Prius that got written off a couple of years ago, and have thought of fitting that into a waterproof case, with a battery, solar panel and a PIR switch. The car dash cams all have a tiny current draw from the car supply all the time, (minute, a few uA) and automatically start recording when the ignition power lead goes live. It would be easy to just wire a PIR switch to turn 12V on to what would normally be the ignition wire, which would trigger recording for as long as the PIR was triggered. I have a 12V PIR module here that draws just 5uA when idle, and has a 12V relay that switches on when the unit triggers. It would make it easy to adapt a car dash cam in this way, with a standby power that is so low that a small rechargeable 12V battery and solar panel would run the thing reliably for a few years, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddal Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 2 minutes ago, JSHarris said: Yes, with the PIR triggered units... Ah yes - I see your point. Nice idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted May 23, 2016 Author Share Posted May 23, 2016 Right, got the message. I'll need to run a POE cable to the container. Even I think I can do that! Thanks Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 You can get external grade CAT5 which is much tougher - good stuff to use when you've got a mix of trades around who may not know what is what ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted May 25, 2016 Author Share Posted May 25, 2016 Hmm. Yes, thanks Peter. I'm going to bury it in the Temporary Amphibian Fence (TAF) trench, along with the electric cable. Someone's going to tell me not to do that aren't they............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Construction Channel Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 Not if you don't ask them first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 On 5/25/2016 at 08:21, recoveringacademic said: Hmm. Yes, thanks Peter. I'm going to bury it in the Temporary Amphibian Fence (TAF) trench, along with the electric cable. Someone's going to tell me not to do that aren't they............. Electric cable to what..?? If its armoured and not massive power then an external shielded CAT5 won't really care - you're not running a high end banking app ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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