Generator Shed LED Lighting Control Box

thingiverse

We live in hurricane prone central Florida. Power outages are common. Sometimes due to a major storm, sometimes due to a lightning strike. All part of the price of living in paradise. Murphy's Law likes to complicate matters by often having these events occur at night. With the grid down, things get very dark outside. Searching for a flashlight while setting up the generator is necessary, but frustrating. LED strip lights are cheap, and so is the aluminum channel to mount them in. With a little effort, I now have three 3-meter LED strips to illuminate the contents of the generator shed, and the surrounding area once the doors are fully opened. By adding a door switch, the lights will automatically come on when the shed lid is lifted. I could have simply wired the battery to the LEDs and the switch, but I have a bunch of spare components from other projects laying around. I wanted the ability to turn off the lights during the day, or during extended outages. I also wanted the ability to recharge cell phones, or run other 12V appliances. I added a second switch to turn those off when not needed to avoid any parasitic loads. I made these from 3mm thick Baltic Birch plywood. The wood was stained, clear coated, and assembled with epoxy. The bottom plate is screwed in place in case I need access in the future. The text under the switches is laser engraved The full project is detailed here: http://2manytoyz.com/Generator-Shed-LEDs.html