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I'm in the middle of purchasing a new flat which has a garage in a block, I'd like to set this up as a gym/workshop so ideally need to be able to at least have some lights in there, any suggestions on the best way to power this as I won't have main electricity in there?
You can get small solar panel kits for lighting but I don't know how effective they are, it would be nice to be able to run a gheto blaster as well, but I don't know if that is asking a bit much.
You'd need a good few hundred quids worth of solar panels to charge a battery bank (another couple of hundred quids worth) and invert it (another hundred quid+ for one that will cope with running anything more than lights or a stereo) and you're sorted. But beware any panel rated at say 80W - thats the absolute MAX it will produce in perfect insolation aligned with the sun with no clouds and near the equator, so factor that into your sizing! And then don't expect the panels to be around for long, they've being pinched from the top of parking meters ferchristsake lol.
What if it was just for lights? I have seen £20-£80 jobs that claim they can light between 9 and 16 meters squared.
There have been a couple of threads relating to this over the last few weeks. Try searching garage/shed/power etc.
Just get one of those car 'power packs' with a built in battery, 12v socket, and inverter for 240v socket. Should easily run one or two energy saving lights, then just carry it back inside to charge it up.
DX light ?
JC - if you're going LED lighting, or CFL with a cheapo inverter then you should be OK with a small battery pack, but remember that those car-starty-inverter pack thingies run off an SLA battery and it'll be dead in 2-400 charges. Cheap to replace if you're ok with a screwdriver though. Lighting is definitely a lot easier on the power supply than rotating machinery etc.
I think it will probably just be lighting, Apple can supply the music, and/or my laptop so I could do away with the need for mains sockets, I suspect, any requirements for power tools then I will just have to run 10-15 meters of extension leads out of the window of the flat!
If it's just lighting you're after then have a look at REUK ( http://www.reuk.co.uk/Put-Together-an-REUK-Solar-Lighting-Kit.htm)
You can get better (brighter for similar cash) LED lamps from DX ( http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13725).
To make that light go a bit further I also recomend painting the inside of your shed white.
I've got this type of set up and it works very well for lights and my extension cable is just about long enough if I need power tools.
You'll need enough power for you flatscreen telly in there as well now that you've realised that putting it above the fireplace is a crime. 🙂
Extension cable?
Depends how far the garage is from the flat, and whether you can run a permanent connection, i.e. an armoured cable run (above or below ground).
Ask a local sparky - can't do any harm to get a quote. We paid about £300 for a 10m run (but that included lighting and multiple sockets in the garage).
SM