Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.105] on Monday, January 13, 2014 at 23:04:43 :
In Reply to: OT......Is there a electrician in the house posted by Chris P [98.198.236.202] on Monday, January 13, 2014 at 21:51:16 :
I would go for solar myself. The standard panel these days is 250 watts peak, costs about $300. Add $200 for one deep-cycle marine/RV battery (no need for anything more) and a charge controller and you're up to about $500. If you want a light, there are dandy waterproof 12 V LED floodlights these days for $30 or so. If you can't find them, I'll sell you one.
If you want to go the AC route, the absolute cheapest would be to bury 12-2/UF, which I'm thinking runs about $150/roll these days. 1/4 mile will take you 6 rolls, so you're at $900 for wire, not counting digging the ditch. 2/2/4 aluminum is probably going to be close to the same. Start getting fancy with conduit and heavier wire, or with transformers on each end, and you can spend all kinds of money. I don't know the difference in price between an AC and DC electric gate, but they can't be much different.
If you tell me a load current I can calculate voltage drops for various wire gauges, but I really think if you pencil it out, solar/DC is going to end up at about half the cost of AC, which leaves you a significant budget for replacing the battery every 5 years.