Solar Lights Along Sidewalk

[ParatoOptimal]

I'd appreciate any advice/recommendations on solar lights of the type to put along a sidewalk. I have a dark side of the house with a sidewalk with flowers on one side and bushes on the other. They type that you push into the ground and maybe something I could mount on a picket fence or on a 2x4 and put the 2x4 in the ground. I'd appreciate your thoughts/expertise. I'm hoping to find something inexpensive. Everything I see barely provides any light. They could be of the type that stays on all the time or that turns on when it detects motion. One problem is that, that side of the house doesn't get much direct sunlight. It gets maybe 2 to 4 hours of direct sunlight. The rest of the day it gets reflected sunlight bounced between two houses.

Thank you

 

[mindless1]

There's the thing, you can have inexpensive or bright or long lasting.

Long term you're probably better off getting the traditional garden lights powered from AC-DC adapter. To reduce power consumption you can get one with a switching PSU (rather than old school 12VAC linear transformer based) but they tend not to last as long if it gets very hot in summer.

Whether they start as LED or not, get some LED bulbs for them.

 

[ParatoOptimal]

The problem is I don't have any power source there.

 

[mindless1]

How far to the nearest power source? Low voltage outdoor lighting doesn't "usually" have any electrical code issues (once it becomes low voltage, after the power supply), so you could string some fairly inexpensive cable considering how low current LEDs can be, and bury it an inch deep next to the foundation if you don't want it visible.

Then again that does add to the cost. 50' of 14/2 landscape wire is about $25. I mean 50' in addition to whatever length comes with a kit. 14/2 would be good for around 6 amps, with some loss at that distance but still around 60W worth of LED light might even be too much.

Wait. Did you mean you don't have any outdoor outlets there? What about indoor? Simply drill a hole through the wall to string the 12V cable out. Keeping a switching power supply indoors will help it last longer too.

As far as solar options, most with significant brightness is going to have a separate solar panel, rather than a little 4 cubic inch panel on each light (which wouldn't work well anyway if the area only gets 2-4 hours of direct sun), so you could mount that solar panel wherever it gets good light and then graft in an extension cable to that.

You didn't mention the budget or # of lights or a target lumen value per light. There are far too many variables to know what your needs are.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Well, the solar powered pathway lights I tried were not very bright and did not last through the night.

On the other hand, I have been very pleased with the solar powered motion sensing "security lights" that I mounted on the side yard fence (many options available on Amazon for $5-$10 each). Very bright and always turn on when I walk out there at night. My daughter has been living in a forest cabin where hers get very little direct sunlight and they still work great for her.

 

[highland145]

I have been very pleased with the solar powered motion sensing "security lights" that I mounted on the side yard fence

Brand?

 

[PowerEngineer]

Brand?

Luposwiten. But I am thinking that other brands are probably just as good.

Hmmm... It looks like Amazon has a $15 coupon on the 28 LED 4-pack (that I bought) that brings the price down to just $15. I am tempted to pick up some more.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've seen some that are half decent. You could in theory mod them if you really wanted to by adding more LED strings. I would also increase the battery pack to compensate. A lot of them use standard ni-mh AA batteries which is nice.

Though another option might be Christmas lights or other 120v lights if you don't mind something that is a string of lights vs individual lights. Could get a small solar panel, charge controller, inverter and lead acid battery and put it in a weather tight box tucked away to power it all.

In the end the individual solar lights, even modding them, is probably cheaper though.

 

[NutBucket]

Too many variables. In general hard wired low voltage is best. I'd just spend the time and install those.

 

[BoomerD]

With no sunlight, solar lights aren't going to work very well. Better to use the low voltage lighting and just run longer wires. (with the appropriate increase in wire gauge to accommodate the increased run length.)

 

[Scarpozzi]

I bought a bunch of these from Home Depot about 5 years ago. Many died within the first year. They have cheap 1.5 volt AA batteries in them.... Technically, they only have to provide light usually for the first few hours of the evening to be effective and LED technology about promises that. The problem though....plastics are cheap and the sun will make them deteriorate pretty fast. I just wish I had installed fewer lights because they're not very functional. When it comes to replacements and maintenance....less is more here.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You would think they would use UV resistive plastics for this sort of thing.

I want to use Christmas lights for general lighting in my back yard but on the lights it even says for seasonal use only, and I bet that's because they used crappy plastics. Hate how everything is made so cheap now. I would not actually mind paying more if it means the product lasts.