Has anyone actually used a solar light post long term? I guess it makes some more sense than burying conduit and running circuitry, but lack of longevity and replacement parts scare me. I'd buy a $300 "The solar cell lasts three years but here's the replacement part number for $45" but that doesn't seem to be a thing.
Thoughts?
My son has one of those at the end of his driveway, came with the house he bought 5 years ago. Works fine despite all the oak trees around.
YMMV.
Does the solar panel die or is it that the battery it charges that dies and needs to be replaced ?
I have a few versions of solar lights around. They all don't work as well in the winter (when you really need them the most). The cheaper ones seem to need the batteries replaced / charged up more than you would think.
The one that seem to bounce back the easiest is the one with the very large rechargeable battery in it.
My general suggestion would be to make sure the battery is replaceable, it's likely you will eventually need to.
Can't speak fully to longevity, but these at least lasted through an Iowa winter at my wife's clinic.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083K7YZ5H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Sometimes they wouldn't last through a long winter's night after a short, cloudy winter day.
tuna55 said:Has anyone actually used a solar light post long term? I guess it makes some more sense than burying conduit and running circuitry, but lack of longevity and replacement parts scare me. I'd buy a $300 "The solar cell lasts three years but here's the replacement part number for $45" but that doesn't seem to be a thing.
Thoughts?
They're likely fine, but there's some upgrades you can do if you're handy with electronics.
All solar panels- assuming they are properly cleaned- don't die and produce power until about the ~20 year mark, at which point they should be replaced because of microscratches in the panel sapping rays AND because the newer generation of panels have overtaken it in power. Keeping them working at their peak only requires a light rinse with solutions similar to eyeglass wash and a microfiber towel. If they die, it's likely because they weren't sealed well and water made them short.
There are several battery types you can use if you really wanna dip into it, but for these you're likely either working with Nickel Metal Hydrides or Lithium Iron Phosphates. Some use standard Lithium-ions, but they rarely last more than a year and a half (500 cycles) because of both cold weather intolerance and because they always charge to full 4.2v which hampers total battery lifespan. If you have the choice, I find NiMH to be the best route here; they take low temps really well and thanks to LEDs you don't need super high voltages and amps anyway, and they are easily salvaged from old tool packs or other things like that if the battery happens to die. For all of these, the battery is typically held in with springs.
Internally, they are very simple and NiMH powered ones might not have any circutry. I have a few basic ones in taken-apart states lying around if you want to see their internals, but if it broke anyone with basic electronics knowledge could fix it no problem.
Eh screw it, here's some pics.
This is in general what is inside these lights. Solar panels are 2-wire affairs, there's a small controller board with clear "B+ / B-" contacts for battery and solar, and wires out to your light. Most chips on it likely won't be identifiable thanks to how lots of these Chinese "Companies" work (most really are just one company but with numerous shell names for appearances) so hacking these isn't very possible. Most solar cells are held in with gobs of hot glue, and as long as the voltages are the same a broken panel could easily be replaced for a new one.
I have maybe ~5-7 solar lights like these picked up from Retail Rebel in varying states of repair bought on the $0.50 cent days. Many are the same, but with different control boards and labels. The lithium-ion cells inside are extremely poor quality, most only averaging ~800mAh; it's honestly kind of shocking how bad they are when NiMH start at ~1600mAh and are far cheaper.
Thanks!
How would future swapping of those batteries work with the charging requirements of different battery chemistries?
is there an easy way to buy one of these "broken " lights and use the solar panel on the dashboard to keep the battery up on a car that is not used much ?
VW had some years ago that were to use the 12v accessory socket and sit on the dash ,
they were used in the storage lots at the harbor.
do all the solar panels put out the same voltage ?
In reply to tuna55 :
Entirely relies on voltage into the cell and how it's management system functions.
Most crappy lithium chargers go to 4.2 volts- 100% capacity- and that's it, with a difference of +/- 5% which adds up over a 500 cycle lifespan of discharge/recharge cycles. Assuming that I can keep the voltage into the cell from the panel low enough with a resistor (NiMH are 1.4v natively... so 3 of them in series would be 4.2v) I theoretically could just smash the cells in as-is and it'll work for some time, but NiMH cells need what's called the "Delta V" to correctly bring them to proper peak which something that I know little about.
Thankfully, NiMH don't explode- they'll get hot when they fail and that's always a hazard, but they don't go small-bomb tier that a lithium cell will. But swapping these should never happen, because while you might get the voltages correct both lithiums and Nickel-cells have their own special charge procedures. Thankfully, it seems like the ardino community has public circuts and methods for Delta cycles and lithium chargers are well-documented.
californiamilleghia said:is there an easy way to buy one of these "broken " lights and use the solar panel on the dashboard to keep the battery up on a car that is not used much ?
VW had some years ago that were to use the 12v accessory socket and sit on the dash ,
they were used in the storage lots at the harbor.
do all the solar panels put out the same voltage ?
Not all panels produce the same voltage; cell type and size comes into play, and many simply won't work below a bottom point. I think the biggest panel i've found is a 9V nominal that cuts off at 5V, but that's because there's a process where the PV panel can actually work in reverse if it doesn't keep juice flowing right (since all PV panels are basically special LEDs and electricity at it's core works like water pressure).
But could you daisy-chain them into a battery tender? Hell yea! You'd probably want some protective circuits to keep it doing anything to the battery in long-term, but 3 of those panels I showed above at ~4 volts each would charge a car battery after being put into series. With hundreds of amps in a lead-acids and one of these panels maybe producing 200mAh of juice, you'd be pretty safe.
I have some of the ones that mount on top of a 6x6 post. They worked great
...for about a week. 
I bought the Home Depot version and it has worked flawlessly so far, staying bright until the morning. 
I saw the canoe (maybe?) earlier, but I guessed that an update would be useful anyway. A year and change later and everything still works nicely.
How do canoes go find stuff that I can't????
A year and change later and everything still works nicely.
In my opinion, the low cost of such a lamp allows you to change it as a consumable and not waste time on repairs!
tuna55 said:I saw the canoe (maybe?) earlier, but I guessed that an update would be useful anyway. A year and change later and everything still works nicely.
More canoes, but three and change years later, it still works great!
Not a canoe, but a zombie resurrection!
So, my wife has tasked me with getting a solar front pole light. She wants one with multiple lights on the top.. They do make a bunch of them, but they all come with their own pole. What's throwing me off is how to mount them where I need it to be. Many of them look like this with this style pole:
As far as I can tell, these poles either stake into the ground or are secured with masonry bits on concrete. This would be going in my front yard, on the lawn, on top of dirt. I don't think staking it into the dirt is going to keep it secure enough; we get some pretty strong winds up here and we've had other cheaper light poles snap in the wind, so I would think that this would rip right out of the ground if I stake it.
At my parents' house, they have a conventional light pole that is cemented into the ground. I actually replaced that pole a couple years ago for them; it wasn't too hard to do. But those literally cement into the ground and get buried. You really can't do that with these. Nor, can I find a multiple solar light that fits on a conventional cement-in light pole.
So my question is, how does one mount one of these things securely? Do I need to pour a pad and then screw it into that?
Mine was bolted to cement that I poured. Super easy to do, and the collar thing at the bottom covers the bolts.
And it still works great
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Rather than pouring a pad I would assume you dig a cylindrical hole, pour the concrete into that, then bolt the light to it. As Tuna says, if you make it narrow enough you would be able to cover the bolts and concrete with the collar at the bottom. Alternatively if you don't mind visible concrete and want to have something hard to string trim against you could use a sonotube / round concrete form and have the concrete stick a few inches up out of the ground.
Interesting, so I was sort of on the right track with the "drill it to a concrete footing" thing. That's something I can probably do, provided I can make the thing level. The yard is sort of on a slope, so if I use one of those cardboard tube forms, I can probably make it happen. I do have a hammer drill and probably have some masonry bits kicking around, so I think I can make this happen.
Bought a pack of them at Ollie's(good stuff cheap!) about 6 years ago. The batteries crapped out after a year or 2 but they were cheap to replace, a nicad AA size with 2 per lite. They stay lit in the winter for about 4 hours, which is enough for me.
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