In the winter, I like to stay in my shed for a while but it gets dark very early. This usually means I have to work by torchlight or wait until the next day to continue. In this instructable, you will learn how to wire the electrics, solar panel and solar charge controller into your shed. I used this kit since it wasn't too expensive and came with most of the things you need. All you need to supply yourself are: a 12V, 7ah sealed lead acid battery (doesnt have to be 7ah), Some wire (flexible or not, whatever is best for you) that can take at least a 12V current (I used a cable rated at 415V since that was all that I had laying around), some cable clips, some connectors that are appropriate for your battery (I used spade connectors and ring connectors since I have 2 batteries), and a piece of plywood as the solar charge controller's backboard (optional). I found that the instructions weren't that clear so I thought I'd make this instructable on what to and not to do.

Supplies

Materials:

Solar panel kit

12V 7ah Sealed Lead Acid Battery

Some plywood (whatever size you want to fix the solar charge controller to)

Screws (4 to fix the plywood to your shed and 4 smaller ones for the charge controller)

A Light Switch or A heavy duty switch

A wire rated at least 12V

Tools:

A terminal screwdriver

Wire cutters/Strippers

Crimps

A drill

A hammer

A Phillips head screwdriver bit (only if your screws are Phillips head, if they are flat headed, use a flat head bit)

2 Drill bits, one slightly larger than your wire and one for drilling pilot holes for your screws

A saw (only If your plywood is too large and you need to cut it)

Step 1: Preparation

If your plywood needs cutting, cut it to the size that your solar charge controller will fit onto and some extra space for a light switch if you want to have it next to your controller. The dimensions of the solar charge controller are roughly: 13cm by 7 cm by 2.5 cm. Next, you need to drill 4 pilot holes in each of the corners of your plywood to attach it to your shed (I only drilled 3 since I only had 3 places to attach it). Next, mark out the 4 corners of the solar charge controller and drill a pilot hole on each of the marks. Keep the charge controller in the place where it will be screwed in, and mark 3 points between the ports *(as shown above in the picture). In the centre of the the marks you have just made, drill a hole on each using the bit that is a little bigger than your wire. After that, cut the wire that connects the charge controller and the battery to the right size so you don't have any excess wire (add about 5 cm extra on each end for stripping the wires). Bear in mind that the more wire you have going to the battery, the more resistance there is so you will want to keep the wire as short as possible. Once you have cut the wire, strip about 5cm of the mechanical protection to expose the inside wires. If you have a ground wire as well, you can cut that off since you will only need the positive and negative. Strip about 1cm of the the insulation from the positive and negative wire. Do the same on the end of the black cable that comes with the kit for the solar panel. Also strip the wire on the positive and negative wires of your lights. Since I have 2 lights, I connected the 2 positives together and connected the 2 negatives together as well using connectors.

Step 2: Connecting

Now, we need to connect the stripped wires into the ports on the charge controller . Make sure that the solar panel wire is not plugged into the solar panel and your battery is not connected to the other end of the cable. Also make sure that you poke the wires through the holes that you made under the ports from the back (only the middle one in the image above is tucked through). Next, you need to screw your piece of plywood onto the wall of your shed. Make sure you screw your charge controller in to the plywood first, before screwing the whole thing in to the wall

Step 3: Tip

Keep in mind that you should always screw into the beams in you shed and not the planks. The planks in your shed won't be thick enough and your screws will go straight through it. On the other hand, if you screw into the beams, there is enough wood to provide a secure grip without having as much of a worry about anything going through the other side.

Step 4: Connecting the Solar Panel, Battery and Lights

This step needs to be done in a specific order. First, you have to connect the battery to the other end of the battery wire that you've have connected to the charge controller making sure you have the positive and negative the right way round. Next, you can connect the solar panel connectors together (shown above). Last of all, you can connect the positive and negative wires of the lights to the lights wire. (I used connectors to connect the wires together since I had 2 positive and negative wires. If you want to disconnect everything, you have to do it in the opposite order: Disconnect the lights, then the solar panel and finally the battery. If you don't disconnect the battery before the solar panel, the charge controller won't have anywhere to put all of the electricity being produced, so the charge controller will get fried.

Step 5: The Switch

If you are mounting your switch to the plywood next to your solar charge controller, you can ignore the part of preparing the wall to attach the switch (still read this step since you will need to read some instructions at the end). First, to be able to attach the switch to the wall, we need to have a plank to go across between the two beams. Cut your plank to the desired size that will fit snugly between two vertical beams in your shed. Sand the plank if necessary and do what you like with it to prepare it. You could paint it or stain it, it's up to you. Once you have your plank prepared, put it into the place where you would like it to be. It should not slide in too easily and should stay in place once left alone. From either side of the beams, screw through the beam and into the end of the plank. Do this twice for each side of the plank.

Step 6: Aesthetics

Find a place where all of your wires can run to leave your shed. My wire was 8mm so I used 8mm cable clips. You could also use some trunking if you want to cover everything, but, I didn't have any so I made do with just cable clips. The best way to make your cable clips look neat is to use some tool (I used a screwdriver) and put that on top of your first cable clip and where the top of the screwdriver is, is where you put your next cable clip. This will make sure they are spaced out evenly. (The first picture above shows my shed at night with the lights on)