Garden LED lighting?

Hi All,

The other day I finally decided to take care of my backyard lighting. Being a LED flashlight fan obviously 1st thing i thoght was to get some nice LED lights to illuminate my yard @ night. Except I couldn't find practically anything on the web. May be you guys know more /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Any hints, links, experience, better ideas?

Can't think of anything specific just now, but there's a thread in the Spotlight/Lantern/HID section regarding a small lantern with a stake for putting it in the ground made by Energizer. Might be worth a look. This is the thread in question.

For ILLUMINATION of an entire yard, LEDs are probally not the way to go.
For ACCENT lighting, solar powered LED arrangements are available at most home and garden stores. If you have a decorative pond or something, there are floating solar LED units available.

Actually I mean accent lighting, thanks Stainless /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I recently expressed my opinion of solar garden lighting in a thread in General Light Discussion: Solar LED lawn lights.

Uhmm, now it's too many of them. I've searched on ebay for "solar powered light" came up with a bunch.
Prices varry from 72 per light (Brinkman) to 6 lights for 24$.
Anybody can share his experience or recommend something?
I live in nor CA, so I shouldn't have big troubles with runtimes.

Thanks, I saw your post after I submitted mine /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

ZVI:
I have 2 "cheap" solar powered lights. I consider them both very good for what I paid for them. I would suggest that you browse your local home Depo, Franks, or Wal-Mart, and just see what they have to offer. My experience, is that the plastic housings are less prone to getting dented than the metal ones. Take your time, and shop for them as you would a flashlight. Open the boxes, read the instructions, see if it has one led or two, amber or white, replaceable batteries, whatever. Buy one or two and just stick thm out in the yard! If you like the results, get more - if not, then you've only blown five or ten dollars.
Be advised, that they are generally not real bright - so if you have a lot of light pollution in your backyard, then they may not please you. If it is "reasonably" dark, then you may be pleasantly suprised.

I've had a NiCd powered, solar charged, amber LED light for more than a year now. You can find them at K-Mart for around $6. It makes a nice little night light, but like Stainless says it's not very bright. I actually have it stuck in a candle holder and charge it on a window sill when it dims.

Geoff

So, if you want 'nice' stuff, check out Holly Solar

They make solar powered stuff for parks.....

Doug Owen

a temporary unit is the LedLenser V24 ... 4 LED (white, blue or green) on 4xAA with an acrylic stick on one end and a stick to put in in the soil on the other end.



bernhard

can u take a photo of it disassembled


_ these look wicked _

[ QUOTE ]
Zvi said:

I live in nor CA, so I shouldn't have big troubles with runtimes.

[/ QUOTE ]

I live in central CA (near SF) and thought run time would not be a problem...

You tend to stick these around bushes, walls and walkways. I seldom get enough
direct light for all 12 of mine to shine for more than an hour at night. Some run for 8 or 9 hours, some for 30 minutes.

The short runtime units are shaded at some point during the day.

Daniel

For what it's worth, I tried some solar systems with the LED lights I designed and found the solar program to be expensive and a PITA. If a grid is available, I think it makes more sense to have the system run directly off the grid with a battery back up (charged from the grid) if so desired. Solar will work, no doubt about it, but it is considerably more expensive in initial costs than going with a 110 charger off a grid. At current energy costs, it will take a good number of years to pay for a good solar-electric system, IMHO.