# Are There Any GOOD Solar Lawn Lights? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669 "2006-05-13T20:00:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/1 "2006-05-13T20:00:59Z")
I ask because mine are barely functioning-they give a pretty weak glow. I guess I’d like to see if anyone has found ones that last a reasonable time, and give usefull illumination. Anybody have a good expereince with these? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/2 "2006-05-13T23:00:43Z")
If you were planning to debate whether we should permit lawn lights, I could see this placement, but since it looks like a poll and a solicitation of advice, I’m going to nudge it over to **IMHO**. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/3 "2006-05-14T00:10:42Z")
The only one I ever saw was a soalr motion detector light. The panel is seperate from the light, so you can place it in beter sun during the day. They are about as bright as emergency power failure lights you see in businesses. For the typical lawn lights, the panel is just too small to collect much energy. Also I think they used to make florsent solar lights, which should be more efficent then LED’s which are by far the most common. ---
**Author:** ![raindog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/4 "2006-05-14T02:32:13Z")
I don’t know. But you might consider using low voltage—they’re easy to install and at low voltages you only need to bury the cable 6 inches deep. And, theres machines that will trench for you without using a shovel and tearing up the lawn. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/5 "2006-05-14T22:01:18Z")
If the older style of light didn’t use LED’s then newer ones that do would be much more efficient. Efficiency can translate into increased brightness or the duration of the light. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/6 "2006-05-14T23:05:30Z")
They all suck. The trick is to buy ENOUGH of them. 🙂 I have about 15 of them on my front porch area. It looks quite nice out there between dusk and 1am. After that most die pretty quickly. I found [a set at target](http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=sc_pgc_r_3_0_13820251/601-7228556-5319300?%5Fencoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B0009K8F2Q) which seem to be the best of all the others. The target ones that get sun all day will last almost until morning. They are fairly bright as well. Not bright enough to read by, but bright enough to not trip on something. Some of the others I have let out more light after I modified them slightly. I pulled out the reflector/lens thingy and cut off some of the black housing. This leaves mostly the clear plastic shell, the LED and the solar collector. Much better. ---
**Author:** ![Iris\_Rings](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d78d45/32.png) [@Iris\_Rings](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iris_Rings)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/7 "2006-05-14T23:43:56Z")
I bought some Malibu solars last August that said New and Brighter all over the package. But there was zero data about how bright, lumens or watts or anything. And they were worthless to me. An alternate path to the common dumpster. It looked like you had lights on the path, but you could not see the cobles in the cobblestones, so people still go gingerly down that way like walking on eggs. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/8 "2006-05-15T01:06:58Z")
> [@](#): > > If the older style of light didn’t use LED’s then newer ones that do would be much more efficient. Efficiency can translate into increased brightness or the duration of the light. Florsent is more efficent then LED’s giving more visable light per power input. LED’s are cheap - that’s why they are used ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/9 "2006-05-15T01:23:40Z")
It seems like my info on flouresent vs LED’s is now outdated: > [@](#): > > The industry has set a target for white LEDs to reach 150 lumens per watt (lm/W) by the year 2012. The new SPE LEDs, under certain operating conditions, are able to achieve more than 80 lm/W, compared to today’s typical compact fluorescent lamp at 60 lm/W and a typical incandescent lamp at 14 lm/W. [http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/resources/news/pressReleases/spemethod.asp](http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/resources/news/pressReleases/spemethod.asp) Which was abut a year ago, so these new more efficient LED’s should be getting into solar lights by now. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/10 "2006-05-15T01:53:24Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > It seems like my info on flouresent vs LED’s is now outdated: > > [Breakthrough Technology Accelerates Solid-State Lighting | Press Release](http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/resources/news/pressReleases/spemethod.asp) > > Which was abut a year ago, so these new more efficient LED’s should be getting into solar lights by now. Thanks for the update. I made an assumption that LED’s were more efficient because they are coming out with indoor bulbs made of LED’S. Didn’t realize they were so close to flourescent wattage. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-solar-lawn-lights/356669/11 "2006-05-15T17:45:13Z")
It depends on what you need. If you’d like for you and your neighbors to see who is sneaking up in the dead of night, most of them are useless. They illuminate the visitor’s feet. If you want your visitor to see where the sidewalk winds, then those dimmer-than-Christmas-tree-bulb lights would be okay.