Amazon has been running a nice sale on cheap solar lights the past few days. Its been an idea of mine to have a new set of solar lights, but I really wanted to get the copper finish ones. I’ve been clicking around the web for a while and finally found a set that seemed to get good reviews. Best of all they are cheap. I don’t mean cheap in quality, I mean cheap in price.
A few of the customer comments were that these solar lights work exactly as described and are easy to assemble and install. The quality was listed as mostly very good, with some reviews rating them average. Others did rate them as poor, but honestly they were less than 50 dollars for a set of 8 lights. I mean seriously what do you expect? I disliked the fact that the product was made in China, but what can a guy do? Everything is made overseas and it makes me sad to see that. I just wish there were more choices from the online stores that stamp the products with where they are made. I would gladly pay more if I knew it was keeping jobs here. Anyway, sorry to get off on a tangent.
The cheap solar lights set of cousre come installed with batteries, but almost all the reviews have said to do one of two things with them. 1) Yank the batteries and put them in a battery charger for several days before installing your lighting. This will ensure they are charged up to optimal level and will perform to the best that they can when you install them. 2) Take the solar lights and put them in the brightest part of your yard in direct sunlight for several days or even longer. The premise is the same…which is to get the batteries charged up and ready to go.
As far as lighting output, most folks said that these lights were adequate to good. For many they were using them as pathway solar lights. A few reviewers even decided to use these in replacement of their deck solar lights because the lighting was good enough. Basically they pointed to the fact that they emit a soft glow from the solar powered led bulbs, which seemed to please most people. Some said of course that the lights weren’t as good as electric lights. No kidding. I’m not sure if there are any solar lights that could match the light output of a low voltage lighting system. If there is , I’d sure like to ivestigate it further.
The key to all solar lights is to place them in direct sunlight for as long as possible. The more light they receive the better they will light up. Some of the reviews suggest 6 to 7 hours of direct sunlight. I think I’m going to try that and also try to pick placement in my yard that will accomodate the most direct sunlight.
Our back yard has three large trees that provide a significant amount of shade where we installed these lights. There are some areas that receive direct sun light during the day and there are areas that receive no direct sun light at all – just ambient light. The lights that are located in these areas have to be removed and relocated to areas where they can receive a direct charge of sun light at least once every couple of days. I don’t have a light meter so I’m not sure exactly how many foot candles of light my fixtures are receiving, but unless they are receiving direct sun light for several hours a day, the charge on the battery goes out after a couple of days.
I still give this product 5 stars because they perform exactly as described and are well made. It would be unfair to give a poor score because some lights that are located in heavy shade require to be located so that they can receive direct sun light. I consider the slight inconvenience of having to move these lights every other day to an area where they can charge as the trade off for not having to run conduit and wires. Not only that, but even if you do go with a hard wired light fixture, you then have to deal with the problem of water and moisture getting into wiring and causing the lights to fail – this can be a major problem for hard wired systems. So, with all things considered, I am still happy with the performance of these lights.
In summary, if you plan on placing these fixtures in areas with moderate to heavy shade, be prepared to have to temporarily relocate them to areas where they can charge receiving direct sun light probably at least once every other day in order to maintain a proper charge on the solar battery. If this is too much of a bother and you intend to install in a shaded area, you might want to consider a hard wired system instead.
