Solar Christmas lights

Are there any good solar Christmas lights? My research is showing these are not truly waterproof, low quality and have a high rate of early death. Also, the specs are too embarrassed to disclose the battery source (I would think you would need at least 8 nimh AA, 16 NiCd or 2x18650), much less the lpw rating of the bulbs and drive level.

I hate plugin Christmas lights, I can't look at them without seeing a copy of the electric bill in my head and thinking of the children on poorer continents with only 1 watt of light each night. But suspect that a good set of solar Holiday lights will run double the cost of what I am seeing, and the positive reviews, are those who just got the lights, or got the 1/3 portion of those lights that aren't shipped defective.

I hate plugin Christmas lights, I can't look at them without seeing a copy of the electric bill in my head and thinking of the children on poorer continents with only 1 watt of light each night

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A string of LED lights is maybe about 3-4 watts. Even with 10 of these, you're looking at $1-2 in electricity per year. This is so insignificant that I can't see why you'd want to deal with an expensive solar-powered set of these. If you're really concerned about this, why not just take the difference in cost and donate to a third world charity? WIth the solar-powered system, it will take you decades to ever make up the cost, assuming that they don't fail at some point.

The solar powered stuff is made more for cases where there is no electrical hookup, or where running a line is prohibitively expensive.

CoveAxe said:

A string of LED lights is maybe about 3-4 watts. Even with 10 of these, you're looking at $1-2 in electricity per year. This is so insignificant that I can't see why you'd want to deal with an expensive solar-powered set of these. If you're really concerned about this, why not just take the difference in cost and donate to a third world charity? WIth the solar-powered system, it will take you decades to ever make up the cost, assuming that they don't fail at some point.

The solar powered stuff is made more for cases where there is no electrical hookup, or where running a line is prohibitively expensive.

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Reading reviews, many people complain they aren't really water proof. Which may or may not be remedied with duct tape. Then, I can only find 2xAA NiCd (800 mah, maybe) divide 800 by 200 lights and get 4 milli-amp hour per led at 2.4 volts, assuming they are hitting the forward voltage.

Yeah, a string would need to be waterproof, short-proof, temperature proof, battery storage swappable, before one could get the feeling that you have made a wise investment. Probably, not going to happen.

Agree, line powered Christmas lights IF LED have very low running costs and unless used in truly improbable numbers wont have much of an affect on the electricity bill.
I use THOUSANDS of LED lights, and the total loading is only about 100 watts. About half of the LED Christmas lights are used instead of other lighting not in addition, so the additional loading is about 50 watts, say 25 watts dusk till dawn and another 25 watts 24/7.

If line power is not readily available then I use lights powered by disposable alkaline cells. I have purchased some surprisingly good LED lights for £3 per set of 50. For long hour use I discard the plastic battery holder for 3 AA cells and use instead 3 D cells. The set of 50 lights only uses about 60ma, so 3 alkaline D cells should give several hundred hours service.

I have only tried one set of solar powered Christmas lights, and am not wasting my money again. I cannot recall the brand. They never actually managed to turn on despite careful placement of the tiny solar panel. I suspect the size of the solar panel may have been part of the problem.

Regarding battery power, my wife had a couple of fake lanterns with LED fake candles operating on 3 AAA batteries. They ran for several hours every night on Eneloops, with one battery change per week, for about a year before they developed issues. I would not have wanted to buy as many alkalines as running them that much would have required, but using Eneloops made it a very negligible cost.