Garden solar lights – enough to read by…

We are having a new patio put down which butts up against a free standing wall,also a smallish shed at the bottom of the garden. We want a couple of lights, preferably on the wall which allow us to read, see stuff after dark. Also light in the shed. Our garden gets a lot of sun.

Is there a solar solution that can provide this?  I’m not talking those cheapo solar fairy light type thing but a more permanent weather sealed affair. I’ve done a quick google but its just a ton of cheap chinese rubbish with fake photos of obviously mains driven lights as the wattage given by the tiny solar panels couldn’t possible provide such power.

Anyone done it? Happy to be fairly hands on as I like messing around with this type of stuff

I’d be looking at some sort of battery (an old car battery would do it), a fixed solar panel in a decent spot, a charge controller to get the battery charged from the solar and some 12V LED lights.

I have a friend who works in this arena.  Let me ask and get back to you.

@cougar thanks, that would be great.

His reply:

Quick answer: it depends.

Longer answer, if you want decent quality light it’ll be mains driven. You can do that with solar and battery but it’ll be expensive. If you don’t want cheap Chinese you’ll need at least one panel with a battery of some kind and an inverter. That’s going to be 3 figures minimum.

(… if I were you, I’d either go Kindle and a head torch, or run a mains cable from the house whilst I had the patio in bits.)

I’ve gotta say, I disagree with your mate, there’s no need for an invertor/240v.

Decent 12V LED lights are really good, they’re what’s used in caravans etc. We have 12v LED strips in our van and  they’re really bright, and they’re now 14 years old. Modern ones will be even betterer

He’s just called me, apologies if some of this is lost in translation.

TL;DR – it’s complicated.  He’d need to know exactly what you have in mind, eg are you looking for a decorative ‘secret garden’ affair (my words) or simply a floodlight to light up the yard?  A “small” roof-mount solar panel is about 4 foot by 5.  GU10 lamps have different power requirements than strip lights than floodlights than… etc.  A big battery is pushing “you might as well do the entire house” territory.

It’s nice to see that the new forum has a random text formatting generator

I’ve gotta say, I disagree with your mate, there’s no need for an invertor/240v.

Honestly, my gut reaction was the same, I thought that some form of low voltage installation would be the answer. But this isn’t my wheelhouse so I can only defer to others and pass on the info.

A “small” roof-mount solar panel is about 4 foot by 5.  GU10 lamps have different power requirements than strip lights than floodlights than… etc.  A big battery is pushing “you might as well do the entire house” territory.

I’m basing this on campervanectrics, but we have a 150W folding panel that’s about 4ft*3ft unfolded. That, when placed in a sunny spot, keeps the leisure battery sufficiently topped up to run a fridge, lighting, radio and phone charging.

So, something similar (panel, controller, battery) would easily be enough to run an LED strip/panel in the shed and a couple of LED spots/floods in the garden. Each of those bits is about (very roughly) £100 though, so you’d be looking at about £500 all in I guess  by the time you’d also bought the wiring, some sort of fusebox, lamps/strip etc.

If solar is not going to be good enough then why not keep it simple with USB powered lights and a power bank that you take back in to the house occasionally to charge up? Could have a waterproof box to keep it and the USB connection in.

I’m basing this on campervanectrics, but we have a 150W folding panel that’s about 4ft*3ft unfolded. That, when placed in a sunny spot, keeps the leisure battery sufficiently topped up to run a fridge, lighting, radio and phone charging.

Oooh, interesting, Dad’s got a spare panel and I could do with some lighting in the shed. Might be looking into this in more detail…

I think I’ll go mains for the reading/outdoor ambiance lights on the wall. As Cougar said, the patio is up and the builder can easily run a bit of conduit so an electrician can chuck up some 240v lights. My experience of USB charging stuff is it will break and I just want something that works. I’m not really into a complicated battrey/inverter set up unless as posted by the guy in the industry its for the whole house and thats obviously a different ball game in price.

However for the shed, I think I’ll tinker with a roofmounted panel, 12v battery and LED set up – I reckon that will be pretty easy to get sorted without the need for an inverter.

However for the shed, I think I’ll tinker with a roofmounted panel, 12v battery and LED set up – I reckon that will be pretty easy to get sorted without the need for an inverter.

It’s really not tricky. And, not knowing the layout of the garden, but if you can run a cable from the shed where the battery will be to where you want the reading lights to be easily enough, the additional palaver/cost of those will be trivial.

Thirty seconds Googling found this

10w 12v LED Flood Light

Bit left field, Ring flood pro is a very bright light, with the bonus of having a camera installed….. if you are running a mains cable might be worth taking a look –

You can read or work on your bike with one of these hanging up

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-rechargeable-led-work-light-1000lm/613kf

What IHN found. I have those 12V floodlights in my shed, adjacent greenhouse, and one outside the shed. Old 12v car battery, 20W solar panel and small charge controller. Works very well. There is also 12V water pump to water the greenhouse from a butt. You might need a bigger solar panel if you want a lot of light or hours every evening.

If you’re going mains then I can recommend these, wall and soil spike mountings included https://www.screwfix.com/p/decca-outdoor-led-spike-light-kit-black-6w-280lm-10-pack/1979x

They’re 12V LED, so run off a driver, but I don’t know if you can rig something off a battery/solar panel

The only drawback that I can see is that the LEDs can’t be replaced, but they’re advertised at 20,000 hours life…