Does anyone have these in their garden? What do you think of them? How
affective are these for lighting? And what's the life of the
batteries(that is when do they need to be replaced)?

Thanks.

I have about 15, Endura, I believe. I can check. They use yellow tinted
LEDs. Not much light but very pleasant and with a warm glow. You can move
them wherever you want as long as they get enough direct sunlight. They use
AA NiCd batteries that seem to last about a year. I enjoy them very much as
accent lights.

BB wrote in message ...
Does anyone have these in their garden? What do you think of them? How
affective are these for lighting? And what's the life of the
batteries(that is when do they need to be replaced)?

Thanks.

BB wrote:
Does anyone have these in their garden? What do you think of them? How
affective are these for lighting? And what's the life of the
batteries(that is when do they need to be replaced)?

I've had a handful of these in the yard for 2-3 years. These
are the ones that take a single AA-sized NiCd rechargable cell.
They work pretty well in the summer and are rather attractive.

In the winter they don't get enough sunlight to charge, I think,
and the cells are less effective in the cold. But in the summer,
when they were new, they *almost* lasted all night--the last ones
would be winking out about the time I went to get the paper of
a morning.

I haven't replaced the cells at all--I can't recall if it's 2
or 3 years now. The plastic protecting the solar cells also gets
old, dirty, scratched, etc. The lights only stay on a few hours
a night, but they're still pleasant to see. HTH.


_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD kuzen001 at acpub .duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? www.duke.edu/~kuzen001

I was *incredibly* disappointed with the solar "path" lights that I
purchased -- no matter how much sunshine they got, they NEVER put out
enough light to distinguish a "lighted path" from an unlighted path.

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh

"BB" wrote in message ...
Does anyone have these in their garden? What do you think of them? How
affective are these for lighting? And what's the life of the
batteries(that is when do they need to be replaced)?

Thanks.

BB wrote:
Does anyone have these in their garden? What do you think of them? How
affective are these for lighting? And what's the life of the
batteries(that is when do they need to be replaced)?

Unless you have hardscape in the way, I don't see any real advantage to
solar over low voltage lights, especially when you consider the light
output. The low voltage wire is simple to "install" (bury it in mulch) and
I've moved lights around with no problem.

My neighbors have solar, and they're just too dim to be effective for much
of anything.

BB wrote:
Does anyone have these in their garden? What do you think of them? How
affective are these for lighting? And what's the life of the
batteries(that is when do they need to be replaced)?

We put in a few on our entry path a year or so ago and concur with others:
too dim to be much help, but they do make a nice little accent light
marking the edge of the walkway. Of six, one was dead after a few months
(I assume battery, but haven't replaced it). "Plant" them in full sun -
some of ours get part shade and they are always out of juice early. If I
were doing them again, I'd use low voltage.


--
Brent Harsh - KD4PBO
Cary, North Carolina, USA

Thanks to those who replied.

I had used these lights instead of the electric lights because I
considered that the juice to light these are free ;-). But mainly
because to run the wire to the area that needs the lights is on the
other side of the drive way and I would need to pull the wire from under
the driveway!! If there is a simpler way to do that(about 12foot of
driveway) please let me know. I am willing to try that.


BB wrote in message ...
Does anyone have these in their garden? What do you think of them? How
affective are these for lighting? And what's the life of the
batteries(that is when do they need to be replaced)?

Thanks.

... I would need to pull the wire from under the driveway!!
If there is a simpler way to do that (about 12foot of driveway)
please let me know. I am willing to try that.

Without knowing what your house looks like, it is difficult to make specific
suggestions. Here are two ideas for your consideration.

1) Wire a new outlet on the opposite wall of your garage.

2) Plug the transformer into an outlet in the crawl space. The rules and
precautions for running low-voltage wire are less rigorous than for 110
volts. Run the low-voltage wire outdoors through one of the crawl space
vents.


Daniel B. Martin