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.
Solar Street Lights Save $221,000
Most people know that swapping old style on-grid street lighting for solar powered versions will save money. But how much?
Managers at Lockheed Martin’s Orange County campus in Orlando found out when they changed their 25 year old street lights for solar street lighting.
Quoted in the Orlando Sentinel, the campus revealed the 35 new solar street lights will cost about $342,000 over 20 years. That includes purchase price and maintenance – of course there’s no ongoing lighting expense because they’re solar powered.
Sound like a lot? Not when you hear how much traditional street lights would cost. Including new wiring and ongoing electricity bills the cost would have been around $563,000.
The good news a similar savings ratio is available those of us in a residential setting. Even if the cost of a solar street lamp is beyond your budget, lower power solar landscape lights can be an inexpensive ‘in’ to outdoor solar lighting.
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%.
Solar Street Lights – Not For Just Streets
The use of solar street lights has really taken off recently. Many states in the US and many countries around the world now use solar powered street lights as part of their regular street lighting plans.
Sometimes a solar street light will be used to provide light where previously no road illumination had been provided – either because of cost considerations or the impracticality of putting an on-grid light in a particular place. Other times a new solar light will replace an normal light to pass on cost savings to the state or authority involved. Of course, you don’t have to be a governmental organization to enjoy the same economic benefits.
Most solar powered street lighting is sold in stand alone units – each unit being just like a normal street light except that at the very top is the solar panel used for recharging, while the actual light itself is a little further down the pole.
Installation is usually pretty straightforward. And of course, you don’t have to use them on a street – they make great deck or garden lights too. Prices depend largely on the robustness of the construction and the power output of the light and range from around $190 into the four figures range.
Solar LED Address Numbers
House guests will never get lost again once you’ve installed a set of solar powered address lights. As soon as the sun goes down, these Solar LED Address Numbers automatically switch on two large white LED lights. This gives a backlighting effect to the cutout numbers – allowing your house number to be clearly seen from some distance.
The LED lights will run for eight to ten hours on a full solar charge.
Handy Solar Keyhole Light
Now here’s a highly practical use for solar powered lighting – the solar keyhole light. One flick of the switch and the whole door lock and handle is illuminated. No more fumbling around in the dark stabbing hopefully at the door with your key.
The light will stay on for ten seconds before automatically switching itself off to save power. On a fully solar charged battery the solar key hole light can be used around seven hundred times – which should be enough attempts to get the key in the door for anyone.
Installation is easy, just stick it to the door with the supplied adhesive pads or screw it to the door. Comes in a choice of white, brass or chrome finish.
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!