Solar Area Lighting, any good?

[QRTRHRS]

Been laying up a stone retaining wall the last couple of weeks. I prefer total darkness so I can see the stars but my wife being deaf needs to have a little light. She wants me to put a string of those lights up. I don't know anything about them and the last thing I need is another circuit to wire. Are the solor ones worth anything or just a joke? TIA

 

[EMDDIESEL]

We have solar path lights in our yard. They are fine for walkway lighting, but dont offer much for security or illuminating large areas. They are very dim. Almost like a night light indoors.

 

[dseabaugh]

we work with a lot of landscapers in our area and on a lot of landscaped yards. they all tell me that if they turn on at 9 pm the batteries have run out on them by 11:30. They also say the life is about 2 years and then you have to replace the darn thing. That is why all 94 of them at our place are wired and run off transformers. Have not had to replace any in 4 + years.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Thanks for the replies. I have floods and motion detectors for when I need more light. This subject just came up and I have not looked at any systems at all yet. You know how it goes, just about the time one project nears completion, then something else needs to be added to the honey do list.

 

[Doc Tinker]

I haven't done any of the low voltage lights, but it looks pretty simple to run wires to them. They don't need to be burried, at least not very deep, so it's not like you have to trench the place up to get them in.



Doc

 

[illflem]

I installed some low voltage ones and wired them to a motion sensor so they only go on when needed. Dug the "ditch" for the wire with a lawn edger set at 2" and just pushed the wire in the slit. Low voltage is much better than solar from what I gathered before installing, cheaper too.

 

[The patriot]

I got the solar ones bacause I'm lazy and dont want to run the wiring.

So far mine have been running up to about 1AM. After that I'm in bed usually.

They dont give off much light, the bulb is a LED.

Eric