Solar Lights

[LovelyLadyLux]

Been working on my gardens and getting this that and the other planted. Am getting to where I have most of my pots filled but I had 2 square tall (2') ceramic planters I'd boght at a garage sale that on getting them home just seemed too tall and skinny to plant anything in. I arrived at the idea of filling them with gravel and then bought 2 solar lights (on stakes) and stuck them in the middle. The solar lights are 12 lumens so give quite a bit of light for up here on the deck. Actually wish I'd bought more of them as they are really quite nice and do give lots of light.

My question is - I have quite a few solar lights on stakes. I put the cheapy ones out front of the house as I figure for $1 each nobody is going to steal them and they quite nicely light up all along the garden wall. They last 1 to 2 seasons but at $1 on sale I really don't mind buying new ones every year.

I'm not too sure how long my 2 new 12 lumen lights will last BUT I have probably 8 to 10 solar lights that are seemingly dead. Here it costs as much to buy new batteries as it does to purchase new solar lights but does anybody else have them and how long, how many seasons, are yours lasting? Do you do anything to extend their life?

Most of my mid-priced range solars (the $5 range ones) seem to last 1 season and then kaput they die with the exception to 1 stainless steel solar light I bought about three years ago, planted it in a plant pot of gravel and left it out there day in and out and it is still faithfully lighting up each and every night. I had it under the house # as an extra 'this is me here in this house - see the number' idea.

I love solar and wouldn't mind investing in solar for lots more functions if I figured it would last

[Horus]

LLL, I find that if you open them up and charge up the batteries in a suitable charger they usually work again. A good way to test them is to put a normal battery in, cover the solar panel and see if they light up, if they do then try charging the battery.

[Grandad]

I don't have any solar lights but I do have several around the back yard that run from the mains. Low voltage wires are buried between the slabs.

Just as a point of interest re 'solar' LLL. Is it popular in Canada to have solar panels on the roofs of houses. It is here because any surplus can go back into the national grid and they can be cost effective. Quite a big outlay on the initial installation though which can take many years to recoup.

[LovelyLadyLux]

@ Horus - I never knew the original batteries could be re-charged so will give that a go first before I turf out all the lights. None of mine go all night but they are definitely pretty during the evening and if they totally go out by 2am/3am I figure at least they've provided that much light.

@ Grandad - Solar is getting more and more popular here. I think most people are like me in that they only have the garden solars and small re-chargeable lights. I don't really see too many of the roof top panels - BUT - that being said I also live on the Island so we're a bit 'behind.' Not by much but it costs more to have anything shipped from the mainland so we usually run a few years behind latest developments.

I'm good getting electricity off the main BC Hyrdo source but I'd definitely like an alternate source that I could benefit from.

[Horus]

I never knew the original batteries could be re-charged so will give that a go first before I turf out all the lights.

Yes LLL they all contain a Metal Hydroxide rechargeable battery and if they don't get enough sunlight they will fade quite quickly, so every so often take them out and charge them up, its no problem in Egypt but in UK and probably Canada they need a helping hand.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Never knew that and I will get them all into the re-charger! SOME of my lights have come back now that I've put them out into the front garden which gets full sun all day long (at least it is getting full sun all day long now) but it does make sense to give them a helping hand via re-charging. I'm not sure why I thought solar light batteries were different and didn't need the boost of an electrical charge now and again.

Guess overall although I 'like' the idea of solar I don't really know that much about solar (and it isn't like I'm heading back to physics 101 to re-learn some of these concepts)

[Horus]

A good rechargeable battery costs money LLL and as the solar lights are usually quite cheap to buy I doubt if the battery quality is very good to start with.

[LovelyLadyLux]

We get two types of solar lights here. Super cheap - the $1 ones I have out front of the house (the anti-theft ones as they're so cheap they're not worth stealing) OR Super expensive $10+ each and of these I have 2 on my back deck. Interestingly enough almost all my $1 ones are going however the $5 ones I've got in the back garden that I found in the USA and brought up to Canada are the ones that are lagging. These middles ones seem reasonable well made (black molded plastic) but almost all of them are not really lighting up. Will get the batteries on the charger and see what I can do.

I answered an ad here locally (but then never heard) of a man giving away a 12" x 24" solar panel. In his ad he said it was new but he didn't know what to do with it. I didn't either but I figured if I had an actual panel I'd figure it out (with a little 'help from my friends' here! ) but I've never heard.

Solar is, I believe, the way to go however it would be difficult to run here winter months as we point blank don't get enough sunlight to run it. It would have to be develop and refined to pick up minute amounts of light for it to be viable here year 'round.