Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Reading by sunlight, at night
My sister Rebekah just sent me a link to this excellent idea from the Frugal for Life blog.
It’s so simple. I never knew about solar lights before, but it seems they sit in your lawn charging throughout the day, and then automatically turn on at night (or they’re always on as long as they have enough charge?). So why not use them inside the home too?
Get a few from the hardware/garden store and rig them up to hang in any window that gets sunlight in the evening. Then, come nightfall, they’re providing you with plenty of free light to last as long as you need. Apparently, however, there’s no way to turn them off, but who cares, because the electricity is free and clean and you can put them in another room or drape a piece of fabric over them when you’re ready to go to bed. It sounds like they’re pretty affordable too.
Get the whole lowdown here, at Dawn’s Frugal for Life blog.
We’re going out to live something of an indoor/outdoor existence at my girlfriend’s father’s house for the next couple months. It’s a small house, so we’re probably going to set up a big tent in the yard to sleep in and spend a lot of our awake time on the porch or elsewhere on the property. I’m going to get me a few of these lights on the way out there and try them out. Why ever pay for lighting again?
on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 7:20 pm:
Good practice for when you camp or the like, that way you know how much light you will need.
on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 11:01 am:
My understanding of these lights is that they actually give off very little light. My parents have them “lighting” a pathway, and we had them in our yard years ago and they just give off enough to see the walkway, etc.
Now, there might be others that are brighter - I am very curious to hear more about this@
on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 1:38 pm:
I agree — in the months since I posted this I very excitedly bough a few lights to use inside/outside the tent I was living in for the summer, and while they were nice to light my way to the tent at night, they did not cut the mustard for reading once inside.
I wondering too if there are other, more effective lights that I don’t know about.
on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 9:24 am:
Great find at The Christmas Tree shop - 3 pack solar pathway lights with on/off switches for $9.99 (for the 3 pack). I haven’t tried reading by them, but will try tonight.
Most of the inexpensive solar pathway lights have a single led which doesn’t produce much light, particularly when spread out with the diffusers. The more expensive ones from like Home Depot have more LEDs and might be more useful for reading.
Another solution along these lines is to get a solar charger for rechargeable AA/AAA batteries and use an led flashlight or headlamp. Just remember that rechargeable batteries loose a little bit of their charge even when unused each day so storing rechargeable batteries in a flashlight for occasional use may leave in the dark.
on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 2:13 pm:
The lights I got are barely passable as a reading light out of the box, but with a little alumnium foil to direct the light, I think I can make it useful.
on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 10:41 pm:
I’ve continued modifying my cheap lights from the Christmas Tree shop. I bought a white LED from Radio Shack (cost more than the original light) soldered it in one of the 2 (of 3) LED slots on the circuit board and it worked better. Not quite as bright as twice the original, but a noticeable improvement.
I also moved the switch to be outside the plastic shield so I don’t have to remove it to turn the light on or off. And I redid the aluminum foil reflector.
I think it would be better to buy a small LED reading light, some rechargeable batteries and a solar charger would produce a much better result and at $5 a pop for white LEDs from Radio Shack, might even be around hte same price.