Harry Brown
Is your yard not well-lit yet? Landscape solar lights make it bright and beautiful. Pleasing, low glow outlines your garden paths. Safe passage to your home, pool, and driveway is essential at night. Do solar lights need direct sunlight to charge? Compact, disc panels are intuitive to install. Just find a suitable place to stake them into the ground. The fixtures are to be well-lit during a day. They absorb sun-light, accumulate energy, and release it at night. You would need to select devices that suit your illumination needs. How to make them operate with maximum efficiency? Let me suggest several solutions for you.
How Long Do Solar Lights Last?
You definitely place your landscape solar lights outdoors. Indoors they just would not operate efficiently. These fixtures need sufficient intensity of sunlight to be bright at night. Solar lights are necessary to light up your walkways, porches, and lawns at night. Certainly, they are much smaller than solar street lights. On the other hand, your compact devices are as environment-friendly as large outdoor systems.
Best solar disk lights are:
- waterproof;
- weather-resistant;
- durable;
- wireless;
- compact and decorative.
Best solar driveway lights ensure trip over safety and your property security. They can work all-year-round, requiring minimal maintenance. The panels last for decades. Their lifetime is up to 25-30 years. Elements, debris, or wind don’t damage them. You’ll need to replace the battery in 2-5 years, on average. A long-lasting battery is beneficial. Fully-charged, it lets the lights shine up to 8-10 hours every night.
Can Solar Lights Charge through Windows?
Built-in batteries are dissimilar. Lithium-ion ones are beneficial. They are lightweight, compact, and long-lasting. These storage media have not less than 1,000 recharging cycles. They are energy-dense and heat-resistant. The batteries withstand temperatures up to 100° F.
Do you live in a region with a hot climate? In Texas or Florida, extremely hot days happen in August and July. Will the best solar landscape lights operate when the temperatures exceed 104°? The batteries recharge, losing about 10% of their life. The same happens in winter, at below-freezing temperatures. Battery capacity and energy conversion rate matters.
How Much Direct Sunlight Do Solar Lights Need?
As well as Li-ion batteries, LED bulbs have long lifespans. They last not less than 50,000-100,000 hours. Their efficiency is a different story. 
Do you want your landscape lights to illuminate your garden overnight? It depends on many factors, including:
- your climate;
- season;
- location of every solar light;
- its battery capacity.
How many sunlight hours do you need? Having 4 peak sun hours a day, install solar panels on your roof. They do the job. This trend meets national energy efficiency requirements. These panels generate power in a cost-efficient way. Do solar lights charge in the shade? They do, but their output is very low. The panels generate only about 10-25% of their normal power.
1 peak sun hour refers to the sunlight intensity of 1,000 Watts/sq. m. It happens when the sun is directly overhead. Thus, the number of average peak hours is special in every area and US state. In California, we get on average 5.82 peak sun-hours/ day. The highest value is in Arizona (6.5 hours). New York and Massachusetts get 3.58 and 4 hours of intensive sunlight per day.
What Solar Lights Are Brightest?
Selecting the most efficient among numerous products is not easy. Disc lights look similar. Each of them comes with 8 LEDs. Why don’t manufacturers specify their light output levels? They should be very low. 15-30 lumens are enough. A whole fixture could produce them.
Do you sit on the fence, looking at the similar-looking sets? Consider reliable parameters, such as:
- solar panel and battery capacity;
- IP rating of the solar light;
- Its size and casing materials.
What are the best solar walkway lights? Pay your attention to the panel capacity. These characteristics vary from 100 to 130mAh. Larger capacity means you charge the battery faster. The lights work efficiently even when the weather is not too sunny.
Battery capacity matters. 600mAh is common in the industry. It’s enough to illuminate your garden for a short summer night. High water-resistance rating is beneficial not only in the regions with humid climate. It protects the fixtures from elements. Rigid, stainless steel casings make the lights durable and rust-resistant.
How to Charge Solar Lights Without Sun?
In a sunny location, your solar lights illuminate your garden till the very dawn. People who live in northern areas need powerful solar panels. These devices are sensitive to sun intensity. Do solar lights work under trees? On a rainy day, they might not work at all. In summer, it would result in less bright shine or fewer hours of operation.
Why my solar lights are not working at night? It might happen if the battery is low. To ensure its full charge, install your solar lights:
- along your garden paths;
- near the driveway;
- around your pool or patio area;
- in your lawns or flower beds.
The fixtures are to get direct sunlight. Place them into open spaces, but not too close to the driveway. The solar lights should not obstruct cars or lawn movers to go. Don’t forget to charge the batteries before installation. Put them into a smart charger. It is to look similar to the holder, suiting AAA battery type and 18650 cylindrical form. If the battery is low, place it in bright sunlight or under an incandescent bulb for several hours or days. In some years becomes completely dead, so you’ll need to put it out and replace.
General Recommendations
Why do my solar lights come on during the day? A Photoreceptor or sensor could be dirty. Try to clean the surface with a piece of damp cloth. On a very dull day, the light could turn on, and it would be useful. Have you installed it in a dark corner? It could happen too, running the battery down. So, place your compact and durable fixtures under direct sunlight. They are very sensitive. In a good, sunny area, the lights charge independently, requiring no maintenance. All that you need to do is to enjoy their perfect shine and beauty.
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