Solar lights in Seattle (Bellevue, Issaquah: house, buy, best)

[bluefeather1978]

I am planning to revamp the outdoor lighting in our Issaquah home and would love of know any experiences with solar lighting efficiency in the winter months. Is the ambient sunlight enough for adequate charging and lighting through the night ? any brands/ models I should particularly look for ?

I am looking for fairly high lumen lighting along the driveway.

[mkarch]

Why solar? Wired systems are more reliable and flexible. Solar adds a bunch of panels and batteries that introduce unnecessary complexity and potential waste at a higher cost. Where is the benefit?

[Hemlock140]

Those $4 solar pathway lights do well this time of year, and are still lit in the morning. When the cloud and rain come (today) they tend to get enough charge to last only 11pm-midnight, with the tiny solar collectors. I have a string of solar leds around an arbor with a panel that's about 6"x12" that will last until about 5am even in the rain. Look for the biggest panel you can find or go low voltage electric.

[BellevueNative]

Originally Posted by mkarch

Why solar? Wired systems are more reliable and flexible. Solar adds a bunch of panels and batteries that introduce unnecessary complexity and potential waste at a higher cost. Where is the benefit?

I think OP is talking about the little solar landscape lights you can buy in sets at places like Costco.

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by BellevueNative

I think OP is talking about the little solar landscape lights you can buy in sets at places like Costco.

That's what I figured. These seem to work fine for a year or two then end up in a landfill, so I'd consider them one of the least green options available. On most systems you can't easily replace the solar cells or battery, so they're not the best long term solution. Putting in a wired (either house current or low voltage) setup is more work, but they perform better and can actually be maintained. Some of the solar systems you can't even replace the bulbs. If they're LED's that shouldn't be an issue in theory, but if a bulb goes you toss the entire fixture.

We have a wired system of path lights each with 6 watt LEDs. The fixtures themselves are probably 40 years old. If I add more I'll probably go with low voltage LEDs.

[RVD90277]

these don't work very well in my experience.

they charge during the day and will show some light for around 1-3 hours after it gets dark and that's it. they never last through the night for me.

[peequi]

If you are referring to the ones that have their own tiny panel, not worth it. It is too grey here in Seattle. Perhaps they work better in other parts of the country, but not here.