The front of our house is really dark at the minute so I need to sort some kind of lighting by the front door.
Has anyone tried any of these Solar paneled options? There is no power currently so it seems like a cheaper way to go.
Amazon have quite a few but they all seem to get very mixed reviews.
Anyone have one?
Cheers.
I have a couple of little ones round the side of our house to light up the side gate / light up the rabbit hutch.
I find them really good - bright enough for me to see my way and the PIRs work well.
These are working quite well for me - on an east-facing wall but seem to get enough sunlight to work OK.
Had these since November. Worked pretty well even on the shortest day. The odd really gloomy day didn't seem to charge fully - east facing wall with some shade to South. PIR activating at around 10M. Would buy again
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B079NP9N67?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title
I've got this one in the conservatory, which is east facing I think so only gets the morning/early afternoon sun. The light is also filtered by the thin glass of the conservatory roof.
It seems to work OK - I've had to take the batteries out to charge them once and it's low on juice at the moment and has cut out a couple of times. When you do recharge the batterries you have to then shine a torch back on the panels in order to get the light working again.
Not a solid piece of engineering, but sufficient and lets the cats see what they are doing when they climb into the litter trays (or rather me when cleaning them out late at night/feeding them).
This one seemed to have more solar panels than the others, and it is quite bright.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075K4TP2N/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There were a couple of decent threads on the subject last week I think - same recommendations by the look of it.
What about battery powered PIRs? MrBeams ones are really bright, and mine have lasted a year on one set of Duracells (D cells, so big ones, but still impressive).
My experience of solar powered ones is a bit mixed,and they deteriorate quite quickly
I’ve got a couple of these, and the performance is pretty varied depending on whether they are in direct sunlight for most of the day or not.
Frostfire 16 Bright LED Wireless Solar Powered Motion Sensor Light (Weatherproof, no batteries required) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0074KDGL4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_nd4GCbQ0GEAYM
The ones that get more direct sunlight will stay on for most of the evening, going fully bright for plenty of time. The others in more shady spots barely light up more than once on the winter nights.
I've got these from 7 Day Shop
One developed a fault and was returned without issue, but the remaining one works well and is nice and bright. Needs to be in a fairly sunny spot to get a decent charge though.
We've just bought some battery powered PIR spot lights - bright enough (put one by the front door as it's dark and we have a step that's hard to see). Similar to the Mr Beams ones, but bought via my SIL's business. The batteries last well as we have one at the mother in law's to light up the front door.
Not as bright as mains LED security lights, but perfectly adequate for lighting dark areas.
I've had mixed results with solar lights - usually they aren't well made.