Solar powered landscape and security lights

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat users who like to be illuminaries,

It is has been a tough year and free time was extremely hard to come by.  I still haven't managed to replace the transmitter board in my second temperature/humidity station, and I've had the replacement since February!  However, there one matter I simply couldn't ignore: the wildfire risk in California and the associated electricity shutoffs by utilities.  We are under a lot of pressure to be able to evacuate quickly should a bad fire strike our area and this could happen at night when our power is out.  That risk started me thinking about solar powered lighting.  We had invested in solar landscape lighting over 25 years ago.  Those lights were worn out, so I replaced them with these lights from Costco.



These are the same lights that Steve bought and used to illuminate his camp site at Hocking Hills State Park, in Ohio:

https://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=2484.msg32028#msg32028

While Steve concluded they were too bright for a camp site, around the house they provide mostly illumination for finding your way.  Here is a photo taken at dusk of the same area to show the effect:



At the moment Costco no longer sells these lights.  It is typical of this fickle segment of the market.

Landscape lights are helpful, but the don't illuminate an area.  Back in June, there was a sale on these solar powered security lights during Amazon's Prime day:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SCJ877F/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_WSGXRD7PWN5ZNAWSSWT0

Of course they are no longer available at the moment, but this appears to be typical of these small shadowy companies importing limited product runs from China, and depending on their success, producing other items.  Here is a photo of the first light I installed:



These were sold in pairs and I liked them so much I bought a second batch.  I ended up with two covering roughly the same area in the southern side of the house.  One was for area where I run our portable generator and the second illuminated the deck above.  Here is a photo of these two lights taken from the lower level:



I can illustrate my enthusiasm with this following photo.  The most practical place to run our portable generator on the concrete pathway next to the central air conditioner evaporator.  Our power has been cut off as late a November, meaning the generator might be needed early in the morning and long after sunset.  I had hoped these solar lights would make running the generator easier.  However, I never expected an illumination like this:



You can tell from the background that this photo was taken at dusk and the landscape light to the right provides some comparison of the illumination, but as you can see the ground is very well illuminated.  We never had the need this year, but I would expect I could have operated the generator without needing a flashlight to view the controls.  Better still, these lights are controlled by a motion sensor.  That means they are only on when you need them.  As a result, they work with exactly the same intensity just before dawn as they do just after sunset when fully charged.

I put one of these lights to illuminate the front door.  I placed the final light on a 2"x2" over a parking area where we would likely have to load the car before evacuating.  Here is a photo of the setup:



Here is what this light does at dusk:



Instead of fumbling with flashlights, we should be able to load the car and depart with enough light to see what we are doing.

Having successfully provided an illuminated path to evacuation, I turned my attention to getting the cars out.  Our garage gets very little sunshine, so a light with a built-in solar panel wouldn't work very well.  Fortunately, manufacturers have come up with a solution.  Here is the model I picked from our garage from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083JGZQRT/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_HJE1H73JV2TXZ5S1M78A

What do you know - I bought it in October but it too is no longer available!  However, as you can see if you check the Amazon sales page, there is a cornucopia of similar models that Amazon will gladly direct you toward.  I did try to check reviews when possible, but I'm afraid there is no escaping the "hit or miss" nature of these products.

The advantage of this sort of setup is that the solar panel is separate from the light.  I installed the panel on the south side of the house:



The solar panel is on the right of the deck railing while the Davis weather instruments are on the left.  The light module of this model is relatively simple with all LED panels fixed.  Here is a photo of the unit installed:



Here is my best photo to attempt to capture the illumination of this system:



Cameras aren't well suited to capture illumination at night, but you can clearly see the bucket illuminated on the right of the photo.  That shows that the entire area in front of the garage door is reasonably well illuminated.  This will be a great help in getting a car out of the garage during an electricity shutoff.

I wanted to illuminate one more area - the portable carport where my sister's car is kept.   The unit I choose for the carport is this model from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KMM1K8T/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_5CBK9Q6DJZTJX2GD5YN8

At least this model is still in stock - I bought it at the beginning of this month!  Installing this light was more complicated because these lights come with hardware to attach to external walls, not the steel tubing of the carport.  After thinking about it a bit, I decided to create "fake" walls from plywood and secure the plywood with "U" bolts.

Here are the plywood surfaces I would attach the components to:



I varnished them for the simple reason I had a can already open.   

  . . . . And yes, cardboard boxes for 5 liter table wines also make excellent platforms for painting! . . . . . 

Here is the installation bracket for the solar panel installed on the carport:



The light assembly was secured in a similar manner.  Here is the solar panel deployed:



Here is the installed light assembly from the back of the carport:



This model has 3 LED panels that can be pointed in somewhat different directions.  I pointed the two "wing" panels at the back corners of the carport to aide in maneuvering.  This is the light assembly from the front with the motion sensor in the center:



You can adjust the direction and sensitivity of motion sensor to suite your needs.

The proof of the pudding is the illumination, here is the photo to demonstrate:



Once more you need to make sense of the photo.  But you can clearly see the leaves on the concrete, so there is sufficient illumination to move around the carport.

Considering I didn't even know this sort of technology existed until 6 months ago, I'm really pleased with how this overall project turned out.  The solar lighting has turned out to be very useful even in our daily activities.  I thought I would share my experiences as a way to get people's creative juices flowing.  Even if you don't have any of the California-specific problems, there might be a niche where lights like this could be useful.  Alas, I cannot recommend any particular models, and therefore, reliability will always be a concern. Still, we all have to make the best choices we can and I'm pleased with my choices thus far.  Hopefully, my experiences will inspire some more clever and practical solar light installations.

Cheers, Edouard   

[Weatheraardvark]

I understand about those lights.   I have them along the garage side by my daughters home as she often has people walk there when her garage door is locked. I got those from Amazon and when they were not available, I dug on the internet until I found out who stocked them elsewhere.   Around our lawn shed I have them also attached to the sofit and roof , so when the dog is out doing its thing, they trigger on so he can find his way. too often some night creature trips them too.   further I dusk to dawn lights in the driveway so to light up the area so the outdoor security camera gets a clear picture. We had some vandalism years ago and it was suggested by ADT to put in.  We also have cameras and motion detector lights. 

I am of the opinion  that probably the neighborhood kids have left my station alone because of all those lights and wondering perhaps if some evil would happen to them if they bothered stuff.

Amazon has been one focal point of finding out what I need and then just doing in depth internet search for things as well.  At one time I had wanted a solar powered IP camera but gave that idea up .

Anyway, you have done a lot there. I hope the fires are not severe again, they happen but still they don't need to happen.   be safe.  Oh my security cameras connect into a dvr and that I tap on the internet via ethernet connection to the router.  I do wish they were positionable remotely. but in the next life

[Steve]

Deb has 50+ of those lights now. Instructions are to not leave them out in freezing weather, so she brought most of them in today. We had our first measurable snow last evening (only about 1/4", but the first that didn't melt on contact.)

The back yard is looking pretty dark on the security cameras tonight.

[xairbusdriver]

Just a few days ago I watched a YT vid about a solar powered, wireless camera setup that I first thought might useful for us weather fanatics. Alas, the video is uploaded to the products servers, although you can view them whenever you want. ~$50 per camera (remote Tilt/Zoom/Rotate, 1080p) plus $10/month per camera "cloud" storage. Obviously the subscription 'hook' is a cheap camera.

Hopefully, this kind of kit might eventually be available for local storage!

[Blicj11]

I bought those portable lights from Costco that Steve has, but because our summer is so short here, and we average 200+ inches of snowfall per year, I have to pull them up and store them for most of the year. They haven't really worked out for us. Too many trees results in the solar panel not being in the sun long enough during the day to power the light through the night. So I have one of the grandkids stand out by the driveway all night with an LED flashlight.