Solar lights any good?

I was looking at some outside lights at weekend. I have a raised patio path about 10m long 1m wide that descends past garage and shed doors. I want something to light the path especially where steps are and possibly to make seeing door locks more easily. I wondered about using some solar lights near the path. I worry though that they will be rubbish and not really light anything. What are other people's experiences with solar lights?

 

We've about a dozen solar lights.
They're pretty common, a round globe on top of a steel tube. They range from about three to six pounds. They've never been much good for "proper illumination," just for decoration.



An added problem is damp, it rusts the battery terminals. I've already taken them in, dried them out, removed the batteries, sprayed the contacts with switch cleaner, wiped over the metal parts and steel tubes with WD40 and put them away for next year.



In the garden we've seven mains voltage lights, on the garage, shed and tea-house, two 30w low voltage lights on a couple of fence posts and two 12v bulbs in our Japanese lanterns, all controlled by four switches on the wall behind our lounge curtains. Plus a 150w PIR on the back off the shed.


As you can see the solar lights are "out-shined" by the 30w spotlight on the fence, the 2, 60w porch lanterns and 2 100w spots, on the wall of the garage behind me.




The problem is the amount of sunshine we get, never enough in the Winter,

You'ld be better off with a couple of PIRs. We have two on the wall, illuminating the drive down the side of the house and a porch light and spotlight, on the front.

Our neighbour had a solar light over their back door, it wasn't cheap. he's since swopped it for a PIR.

 

For seeing door locks I have bought some very cheap units on ebay that use AA battery (rechargeable) and sit just above the lock. They switch on as soon as you move hand near them. Battery lasts well. This link gives an example, though there are plenty of suppliers.
Automatic Smart Motion Sensor PIR Door Keyhole Lock Induction Night Lights Lamp | eBay
I agree with @Doghouse Riley re solar. Though I have a few, they provide very limited light, and in midwinter barely an hour or so after dark. Also very hard to tell in advance when buying online as to their light gathering - no-one quotes any sizes of solar panel or other stats.

 

I personally wouldnt bother with solar lighting imho.

I would recommend MrBeams lights. Battery operated yes but these little darlings give excellent light output. I think mine is 300 lumens.

Pic.

 

All this Solar power thing. Simply my take on it. Yes, solar panels etc for household and domestic use, great.

Coming down to the smaller projects. For example, pond fountains, lights etc. Apart from my local fox, chomping off the fountain etc. I truly believe there remains much to learn. My neighbour, sadly is still in a childlike frame of mind.

I notice that she often adds new dingly-dangley solar powered lights around her garden. The units come in all shapes and forms, and must be amusing to the night dwellers of the animal world. Yes at times I feel sorry for my neighbour's simplicity of life. I have noted that a solar powered bulb that has been alight for a few weeks, has, tonight died.

A few years back. I purchased a dozen SP lights that spiked into the ground along the garden path. Within a week or so, the path was once more in the dark. All in all. I'd keep my money in my pocket.

 

I saw solar lights in gardens and they looked great so i decieded to buy some and they did look pretty at night. i bought 20 but gradially 1 by 1 faded and after a couple of weeks especially as the dark nights are here 6 out of 20 light up now lasting less than an hour so by December i wonted be surprised if they all gone
They are not really bright at all so please dont waste your money

 

Thank you all for the feedback. I suspected they might be too good to be true. Will look at properly wired in lights.

 

The majority of solar lights are really for decoration - lining pathways etc. - some years ago I had a 60 led solar floodlight - nowhere near as good as a mains powered light.

In terms of mains powered lights I can recommend the led range from B&Q - I've just installed an IP65 rated 11w led spotlight - safe to leave outdoors and easy to connect up - it up lights a silver birch tree in our garden and looks great.

One other thing I will say - be considerate when placing the lights - you don't want the lights to be shining in the direction of a neighbours window and if you live in a built up area try not to leave bright lights on all night.

It sounds like a mains powered pir light attached to the garage is the way to go - an easy job if you already have a mains supply in your garage.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, definitely want to avoid light pollution, aim probably aiming for a few lamps to give nice points of light rather than a flood. Controlled via a switch / carefully placed motion detector. Mains power is very easy to access as newly constructed garage&shed where i ensured a separate feed from the fuse board.

 

Yes they are really for decorative purposes only. The contacts on the cheap ones like ours have a removable cap to the battery compartment. The contacts in them tend to rust so some don't connect propery after a while. I resolve any with this isssue with a piece of multi-strand copper wire pushed down the side of the steel strip and make a lttle pad with the other end of the wire over the top contact point of the battery, so they start working again.

The mains lights we have in the garden are on the garage circuit. In 1985 before I had a concrete raft laid, on which I built our patio, I ran a four core plus earth armoured cable from the garage to under the floorboards of the lounge. This enabled me to have three switches to control different groups of lights (at the time there were none, just a bit of foresight, they got added over the years) A fourth switch is for the light on the wall next to the French windows, that's on a spur off the ground floor supply.

For the low voltage stuff there's two transformers screwed to our tea-house ceiling.
One powers the two Blagdon halogen spots on the concrete fence posts. They're waterproof and come wirh four different coloured lenses. You get a choice of mounting options.







They are surprisingly bright. This is the other one. Replacements bulbs are dirt cheap if you buy them on e-Bay I bought ten for £7. But I've not had to replace any since 2016.

The low voltage cables are attached to the concrete bottom panels of the perimeter fence around the back and side of the garden.




The lights in the two Japanese lanterns are re-cycled 12v pool lights.

Here's the other one of these.





The PIR on the back of the shed came in handy to watch through our French windows, the antics of the six fox cubs that were born under the tea-house last year.