Instruction Manual
VLB-67 LED Beacon
© Vega Industries Ltd, July 2014
VLB-67 LED Beacon
Page 36 of 52
VLB-67 V1.0.17
APPENDIX E
VLB-67 SOLAR POWER CALCULATION EXAMPLE
DETERMINE THE POWER CONSUMPTION FOR A VLB-67 FOR A SPECIFIED RANGE AND
FLASH CHARACTER
To determine the power requirement of the VLB-67 the following information is required.
1. The flash character
2. Colour of light
3. The range of the light in NM
4. Whether GPS synchronization is used
5. The longest period in hours the light will operate
Lowering the energy requirement can be done by:
x
Lowering the range of the light and
x
Lowering the duty cycle of the flash character.
Only night operation is considered in the calculation examples provided below.
Step 1
Calculate the Power Consumption of the VLB-67
Note: The effective intensity is the intensity the user programs into the light and corresponds to the
nominal range of the light. This is the intensity required for a “fixed on” light to be seen at that
distance. The peak intensity is the intensity required to see a flashing light at the same distance.
The peak intensity increases the shorter the flash. The VLB-67 is programmed in effective intensity
and performs automatic Schmidt Clausen correction for the programmed flash Character to
increase the peak intensity depending on the duration of the flash
Example 1:
Calculate the peak intensity and the power consumption for a red VLB-67 operating at
night fitted with an internal GPS pulse sync unit. The calculation is made for the longest night to
determine the highest energy needs of the light
x
Night range = 4.0NM at 0.74T
x
Flash character = Fl 5s 0.3 (on for 0.3 sec off for 4.7 sec)
x
Operating hours at night (longest) = 14 hours
Determine the peak intensity requirement for night
Atmospheric transmissivity
0.74
Range required
4NM
Night effective intensity (Appendix B)
37Cd
= A
Character period in seconds
5 sec
= B
Flash duration in seconds
0.3 sec
= C1
Duty Cycle = C1/B
0.06
= D1
Schmidt Clausen Factor = ((C1+0.2)/C1)
1.667
= E
Peak intensity = A*E
62Cd
= F1
Note: If the character has a multiple flash the peak intensity will need to be calculated for each of
the flash periods. C1, C2…D1,D2…F1,F2 etc
