solar/battery pir triggered light

andrew expressed precisely :

Impossible to tell due to the none existent data on its wattage output. Saying it illuminates up to 16' doesn't help, you need to know what level of illumination it proves.

Judging by the tiny size of the solar cell, I would hazard a guess at maybe a couple of watts or so - much less than your reversing lights.

Spec says, rather vaugely that it has "3 double sized super efficient LED's" but no details of wattage. Not sure what "double sized super efficient" actually means.

If its intended it will be used like a "flare path" to guide you where you need to be I'd say it might well be ok.

The solar energy it has stored won't be enough to illuminate a whole area. But as a pinpoint beacon to drive towards it should be OK.

I have one of those solar "house number illuminators". even facing North so it don't get much sun, it's readable from the road.

Derek

I doubt you'll be able tell they are on over the amount of light from your reversing lights, unless you actually look directly at it and they are out of the direct beam of the reversing lights.

These days high effcency LEDs are pretty damn bright on less than

What is the actual problem apart from only 6" each side, keeping corret alignment as you do a straight reverse into the gap or getting alignment in the first place? Markers at various points that you align with bits of the car or rotate around can be far easier to use rather than actually watching the obstruction and trying to avoid it. I take it you are already practised in using door/wing/interior mirrors for reversing rather than turning in your seat to look backwards.

Personaly i'd fit either a work lamp the the back of the van, or a brighter reversing lamp bulb.

you can get 50 watt halogen reversing lamp bulbs, unfortunately they are part of a reversing beeper, and that you don't want when coming home at night... not to mention technicaly illegal on a vehicle under 3.5 tons.

some of em can be silenced by engauging reverse twice in quick sucsession, but if you are handy with a soldering iron, it'd take a few minutes to make up a 50 watt halogen reversing bulb using the origional tugsten bulbs base.

yes it's a lot more power than origionaly intended, but for the time the reversing lamps are on, your unlikely to do any dammage, just dont drive to work in reverse or expect a melted lens, and possibaly wiring, but of the hundereds i see fitted to motorhomes, who spend about 5 mins max in reverse, they do no harm.

Derek Geldard explained :

If a 'flare path' might be enough, then a pair of those much cheaper solar powered garden lights, if strategically placed, might be all that is needed.

We have one too and it is rather good. Stays lit even in winter through to the early hours.

Harry Bloomfield submitted this idea :

Another suggestion which I use and might also work for you...

Our drive is very dark if the PIR lights fail, so I installed reflectors at strategic points in the drive. My reversing lights pick these out easily.

It's the streetlamp 6m inn front and 3m to the side of the gate which makes the hedge which surrounds the gate quite bright and the hole which I have to reverse into is heavily shaded by the hedge, which I don't wish to lower. So I just need to create a pool of light in front of the garage door, in front of which I park my wife's car.

AJH

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

Tsch, it's got Nutri-Ceramide R in it, innit?