Hi All,
My brother wants some lights to go atop some small pillars in his garden.
He?d like LED solar powered.
Can anyone recommend any that will work for a few hours operation having charged under our winter skies? Or is it a non starter?
Cheers
Chris
I've only seen them work in summer ...
Basically a none starter for solar powered anything in winter.
Depending on why he wants garden lighting the optimum solution may well be a PIR activated LED lamp along these lines. I have one at my back door so you can see the bell push and keyhole in mid winter. It lasts a couple of years on one set of 3xC batteries with typical use profile.
my sister had some Solar powered lamps that stuck in the ground to mark out a path
they were flipping useless
technology may have improved in 15 years.
Hmm, if it works at all the crap batteries seem to get worse in the cold.
Brian
I found something that suited my needs at B&Q. It's on a column (so may not suit you), has a motion sensor, is solar power, switches on for about 30 seconds when it's motion triggered (suits my needs, and saves the solar power). It got poor online reviews, but for £22 what do you expect. I've only had it a couple of months, so it's not had to work hard in the dark days of winter.
Blooma Kiana Brushed Silver effect Solar-powered LED Outdoor Post light
Typical cheap garden lamps, use lithium iron phosphate cells. Apparently all Lithium types, they don't charge well below 0C. Some schemes, condition the Lithium batteries before applying a charging current. I've seen a couple garden lamps (out of a bunch my various neighbors have), that actually manage to light at night on winter days.
The best material to work with in that regard, is lead acid. At least it still accepts a charge in winter. The temperature ranges are listed here.
You can have any amount of power you want - it just takes more and more square meters of solar panels to collect that power on dim days.
Paul
Most battery chemistry doesn't enjoy being too cold but the main problem is that at our latitude the sun doesn't get much above the horizon and when it does the maximum altitude it ever reaches in midwinter is about
13 degrees. Couple that with thick grey clouds and fog and you destroy the batteries by a combination of over discharge and leaving them flat.Previous models have used NiCad and NiMH they also fail in winter. There basically isn't strong enough sun or enough hours of daylight in the UK.
The are professionally designed please go around the dangerous bend signs with radar activated sensors on some of the road where I live. They work perfectly inn mid summer and for an hour or so after sunset in mid-winter but they are always stone dead on any frosty winters morning.
I am told they destroy a set of SLA lead acid batteries every winter.
There's one I know of that has a little wind turbine on the top too. Rumour has it it cost 30k...
I think I prefer the solution used by a farmer near here. After two people took out his 'phone service over a couple of months - broke the pole off - there's now a super-sized bale at the bottom of it.
The impact has to be softer.
Andy
The LEDS may have become more efficient and now light up for a hour more in the summer but with a small panel and small battery they don't stand much of a chance in winter. Often these are pound shop items but sold at much higher prices by other retailers.
At one time the battery in these useless solar lamps was AA size but now if you take them apart you will often find a "half length AA" size battery.
The only solar powered light I've have that has lasted for 5+ years, and still works, is one I purchased from Lidl/Aldi for around £30. This has a solar panel of 20cm x 15cm but only comes on for 30 seconds at a time when triggered by a PIR detector. It is a massive waterproof beast and well constructed unlike some smaller solar that I've consigned to landfill within a short period after the ingress of water.
Around my way the solar powered flashing amber school signs stop working during the cold months.
Blooma seems to be the badge name B&Q use for the stuff they buy in. I've purchased some outside solar lights with this badge name in the past and the failure mechanism has been water ingress to the bottom of the solar panel. Blooma products are probably the same as LAP products from Screwfix where the general consensus seems to be avoid any of the LED lights with that brand.
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