Solar Powered Courtesy Light
If you need some extra lights in a dark front door entrance, garage or poorly lit area of the garden or the outside of your house you might want to consider this solar powered courtesy light.
This cute solar powered gadget senses when motion is detected nearby and powers up the light. It turns itself off again automatically after one minute.
Because it’s solar powered, no tricky electrical wiring is needed and it’ll work even in areas outside where non solar lights would be difficult or expensive to install. When fully charged, the LED light gives off almost as much light as a normal 60W light bulb and will light a similar sort of area.
Owls, Frogs, Gnomes – Fun Decorative Solar Lights
You have to hand it to PnR Solar Store, they really know how to add some fun to the whole solar garden light game. Not only do they have a huge of novelty lights, they’re all on different themes.
Favorites? Hard to choose. But it’s difficult to resist the Snowman Solar Light or the Ladybug Solar Light.
Prices are pretty good too, could be a great way to have some solar fun in the garden.
How to make Portable Solar Garden Lights
Here’s a quick tip to get a little more out of those inexpensive stake-style solar garden lights – the kind with a small solar panel and light on top of a stake that you drive in the garden earth or driveway.
Instead of putting the stake into the ground, put it into a plant pot filled with earth or stones. Now you’ve got a portable solar light – especially useful if you tend to get the most daylight in a different place in your garden, driveway or deck from where you want the solar light at night.
Even better, you can make each solar light look more decorative by using some colored stones inside the pot instead of plain stones or earth. Decorative stone cost more, so fill the pot with garden earth and just add a layer of decorative stones to the top.
Spotlight on Solar LED Lights
One of the biggest trends in solar lights these days is the use of LED lights. Yes, LED is like the lights in those early calculators – but thankfully the light from LEDs these days is a lot brighter.
LED lighting technology is still relatively new and therefore still quite expensive. No doubt the price will come down as they become more commonplace but for the now when you come to buy them you may well find solar LED lights to be twice the price of normal outdoor & garden lights.
What’s up with that? Is that a rip-off?
No. Bear in mind that led bulbs can last 15 years or longer that normal light bulbs. Better still, they typically use 60 -70% less electricity. If you have solar LED lights, of course, your electricity cost savings will go up to a pleasant 100%.
Follow Your Path with Solar String Lights
Along with solar rock lights, solar string lights are one of the easiest and most flexible ways to get started with solar lighting in your garden.
As the name suggests, these light kits have LED lights on a string – a bit like Christmas lights but with less tinsel :)
Where they really shine – pun intended – is if you want to provide a line of light around an irregular shape like a curved path or drive, for example. Because the lights are on a string, it’s very easy to position the cable and lights so that they follow unusual shapes.
Check out these solar string lights – 14 bulbs with a string that’s 420 inches long, meaning you can place your solar lights up to 32 inches apart. What we like most about this particular solar kit is there’s only one charging unit needed for the whole lot and each light has its own hook, so you can get creative by hanging the lights in trees, bushes or fencing.
Rock Solar Lights
Have we found the cheapest solar rock light ever? At less than $10, the Mini Solar Rock Spot Light B from Silicon Solar really looks like it came directly from a rock quarry to your garden.
Each solar rock light is a self-contained unit, so no trailing wires and setup is instant – just position and relax.
It’ll switch on and off automatically at dawn and dusk but there’s also a manual overide switch if you need it.
One great thing about rock lights is if you change your mind about where it should go you can move it instantly – no clamps or screws to worry about. Landscape solar lighting for the lazy!
Cheap But Good Solar Lantern
No one likes a nice solar lantern more than me – trouble is they can be expensive. Here’s a solar lantern from 21st Century Goods that’s both good on price and features.
The Soladyne 7450 solar lantern comes with 12 bright LEDs and a built in solar panel that can provide 7 hours of eco-friendly light from 10 hours of bright sunshine. What if you don’t get 10 hours of bright sunshine on any particular day? No problem, it comes with a hand crank for when solar charging isn’t available. One minute of winding will give you half an hour of light.
Alternatively, you can charge the lantern using a 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter (included) or with an optional AC charger.
Quality Solar Deck Lights
Although it’s easy enough to source solar powered deck lights these days, the problem is often that its difficult to find lights that actually give a decent amount of light. This is particularly a problem with cheaper types of deck lights – they usually don’t have a very bright light to begin but also often only have limited openings for the light to come out from.
Not so the solar deck lights from Kansas based Moonlight Decks. The lights are big – three inches tall and 4.5 inches in diameter – and designed in transparent acrylic so the light is bright and emits in all directions.
Solar Patio Umbrella Light
Solar patio lights come in all shapes and sizes but the this has got to be one of the more ingenious – the solar powered patio umbrella light.
Providing a generous nine feet canopy with a UV and water resistant coating, the umbrella has sixteen LED solar lights in the spreader rods attached to the ribs. These LED lights are how the umbrella provides ambient glow lighting in the evening.
Solar charging comes from a weatherproof panel at the top of the umbrella which provides the rechargeable batteries with eight hours illumination time.
Cozy Solar Lanterns
Energy efficient lighting meets modern design in these cozy solar lanterns from Earth Tech.
The Soji Modern lantern will automatically charge itself during the day and switch on at dusk to give a warm golden over your garden, deck or path.
Each 9″ x 9″ lantern comes with two high powered Amber LED lights, solar panel and rechargeable battery.
Soji Modern lanterns come fully assembled and ready to go and are available in three color patterns – Pure White, Peal Motif and Mineral Motif.