Solar Garden Wall Lights

These Solar Garden Wall Lights are my first serious foray into garden lighting.  After a bit of a false start with the solar units, I eventually found one that was of the quality I was looking for.

You can see in the comparison image that the one on the right is typical of the sort of thing you’ll get in a solar garden light from a garden centre.  They’re usually very, very cheaply made with a single LED underneath.

The ones I’m using have a MUCH bigger solar panel, better batteries and an array of LEDs inside a diffuser to give much more light.

These still aren’t super bright.  They’re not like the halogen security lights that will light up a football pitch like it’s daylight.  These are still functional, but also attractive to look at.  They’ll illuminate your way without burning holes in your retinas!

I’ve had 3 of these working at home now for a few weeks.

This is my honest appraisal of how they work.  There seem to be 2 main scenarios if you assume you’re starting from a fully discharged state:

Scenario 1:

They fully charge during the day.  You switch them on using the remote before dusk.  They switch on at dusk and off at dawn, then fully charge again during the day.  You never have to interact with them.

Scenario 2:

They partially charge during the day.  You switch them on using the remote before dusk.  They switch on at dusk but they’re fully discharged at some point in the night so they power down completely.  The following day, they’ll charge again but you have to switch them on with the remote before dusk.

Of course, you could let them charge on solar and just use the remote to switch them on and off as you want.  Or you could just charge them using the USB-C cable.

But they are quite clever.  I went through a few ideas before I hit on this one.  The light consists of 4 parts:

• A small plate that you screw to a wall or fence post – the width of the plate is specifically designed to fit on a standard 100mm wide fence post
• The mount.  This is a circular body that slides onto the plate you just screwed to the wall.  It’s sturdy but it can be removed easily if required
• The LED unit.  This has the solar panel on top and the actual light source underneath.  It sits in the top of the mount.  No screws required so it can also be removed easily
• The diffuser.  This is an interchangeable “shell” that slots in from the bottom.

Why would you want to be able to remove the LED unit?  Because, honestly, the sun is a bit rubbish in the UK.  There’s no denying it.  So, as well as charging when the sun decides to make an appearance, this light can also be charged using a USB cable.

And why is the diffuser removable?  2 reasons.  It makes it much easier to clean, for one.  But, secondly, I’m going to be releasing other versions.  The one here is the first.  A lovely one for the summer, a William Morris inspired bee.  But in a matter of seconds, it could be swapped with a spooky one for halloween or a snowman for Christmas.

• So far we have a light that’s very easy to install.  It even comes with a little template to make getting the holes in the right place really easy.
• It charges using the solar panel, or USB-C
• It comes on when it gets dark and goes off when it gets light
• But it also has a remote control to turn it on and off if you prefer
• The theme can be changed depending on whatever it is you want