Garden solar lights

Do solar powered lights work with no solar energy?

lol.  

JamieWednesday posted:

Just a quick request.

Has anyone come across any pillar/post type, solar powered lamps that actually work in British weather? I.E. with no sunshine.

Thank you.

I once had some that had integral rechargeable batteries. The sunlight would top them up. Maybe worth a look for something similar. Trouble was they weren't very bright (LED type). Maybe things have improved.

Our neighbours have a selection of solar lights, they seem to work all year, not sat up all night to see how long the winter charge is, they are alight when I go to bed. As mentioned above I haven't seen any that actually throw a huge amount of light about.

Obviously they have some form of battery in them, not a  lot of point only having them on only when it's light. 

We have some kodiak lights from solarcentre. They are working happily currently from dusk until about midnight, longer during summer.

I haven't seen so far ones who last longer. They tend to break easily. If you want to have reliable light stay on normal electricity ones.

JamieWednesday posted:

Just a quick request.

Has anyone come across any pillar/post type, solar powered lamps that actually work in British weather? I.E. with no sunshine.

Thank you.

Theoretically yes, but with the actual solar technology you have to use a battery and a quite large collection surface. In lamps, even led, this surface becomes too large from practical and aesthetically point of view, additionally the solar caption surface is static (not follows the best position withn the maximum exposition during seasons and daylight). Producer need so to made a trade-off between cost and a compact design that results in non optimal performance.

In my garden I so opted for wired led waterproof illuminations. 

Even if here in Italy we have a different (someone would consider better) weather!

Regards. Maurizio 

If you want them to make the garden look 'pretty' at night,  OK  but the problem is they're not very bright & for illuminating a path or steps (& thats what I was trying to do)  you need a number of them.  Battery light time is OK - mine lasted long enough for an evening in the garden & went past midnight.  Talking to others, the general feeling is they are not robust & do have a limited life,  it seems the common fault is PV panel reliability, battery life gets shorter over time & eventually for whatever reason they conk out.     When mine expired I didn't bother to replace them (we survived the last 3 years without them).    I'm having some serious groundwork done this year & will install 12vDC power to some more robust wall & post fitted lights.