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.
Wal-Mart Switches to LED Lights
Wal-Mart Stores is planning to fit LED lights in 650 new and renovated stores. The type of LED bulbs Wal-Mart will be using is the LRP-38 by Cree – designed to last up to 50,000 hours and consume 82% less energy than the type of lighting it’s replacing in Wal-Mart stores.
The company has stated that its goal is to double the amount of solar power it uses over the next 18 months as part of its Wal-Mart Project Impact, which aims to have refitted around 70% of its stores by 2012.
Terracotta Decorative Solar Light
Usually we prefer our solar lights more utilitarian than purely decorative but these do look good, don’t they?
You’re looking at the Solar Sphere Terracotta with Circles from My Solar Shop. They come in a pack of four and would be pretty nice accent lights for deck lighting, tabletops or even indoors.
Eight hours of free solar lighting for each full charge.
Are Indoor Solar Lights Right for you?
While many people have heard of solar garden lights for drives and pathways, fewer people consider buying indoor solar lighting. There many areas around the house where it can be difficult or expensive to install traditional, mains powered light systems – garden sheds, garages, gazebos and so on – but these are all ideal locations for a little bit of solar powered magic.
Because there aren’t any mains wires or cables to deal with indoor solar lighting is very easy to install. The most important thing to remember is that your solar panel will need to be at least approximately south facing so that it can capture the most amount of sunlight.
Make sure the spot you choose is free of shade caused by buildings or trees for most if not all of the day.
Kits for indoors are often more expensive than outdoor solar lights – but remember the extra cost will be offset by the reduction in electricity bills and over a relatively short time period will pay for itself.
Solar Desk Light
The Sunnan desk lamp is a light that’s strictly solar powered. Inside the base of the light sit three rechargeable AA batteries connected to a small solar panel.
With between nine and twelve hours of daylight the batteries will be fully recharged and give out three hours of solar light after dark. You can find these solar lamps in Ikea – who are currently donating one Sunnan solar light for each one purchased to children worldwide who live in a home without electricity.