[Deborah DeLuca]

@jrward 6251 wrote:

Deb,

I Don’t normally post on these things because I believe there is more to be learned from listening than talking but I did some figuring and thought you might find my info useful. I don’t know anything about oxen but a large team of draft horses can generate just under 2 killowatts of electricity continuosly for a normal work day. This works out to 167 amps at 12 volts. These numbers do not figure in mechanical inefficiencies but it looks like if you go with L.E.D.’s or other high efficiency lights a team should be able to generate enough juice in a couple hours to light a decent size barn all night. Also, the rope and weight is a good idea but the mechanical losses will be huge. I would stick with a 12 volt system and car batteries

that information is awesome, thank you! we have compact flourescents in the barn right now, and they are on for about 3 or 4 hours each day. do you use your draft horses to pull a crankshaft, or do you use a different method to find their kilowatt output?

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