Let There Be Light

We had been thinking about adding additional lighting to the garden recently - it can feel quite spooky almost after dark. So it was rather fortunate to receive an email from Philips asking us to try out part of their new solar range.

Philips have been investing heavily into solar power research and have street lights run from solar panels. Much of that technology and knowledge has found its way into these smaller scale lights.

Philips myGarden Solar Wall Light

They sent us 4 solar garden lamps, 3 of which had a separate solar panel - allowing this to be placed for maximum exposure to daylight, and with a 7.5m cable to connect to the lamp itself.  I found these very easy to install as it was simply a case of using 2 fixing screws for each item, and then connecting the cable. If anything there was too much cable as I didn't need to fix the panel too far from the lamps themselves. However these could be very useful if you were illuminating a passageway or somewhere else that gets little light during the day.

The other light was a more traditional solar "spike" type light, but again with a much brighter light level.

I had always tended to avoid solar lights in the garden as the ones I had seen always seemed to be quite ineffective other than for providing a guide as to the edge of a pathway rather then illuminating the way. However the new generation of solar lights - complete with a separate solar panel provide a much brighter experience, these seem to be similar to an old style 60w bulb.

The panels charge up built in batteries that Philips claim can provide up to 6 hours of lighting - there is space to fit a second battery pack as an extra to double this. I haven't been able to test quite how long they light for as I haven't been up 6 hours after dark. I did however note that after a very dull day the lights had gone out within 3 hours. The major test for us will be to see how well they do in winter, with the sun lower in the sky. 

We positioned two near to the jungle hut, one on a ground spike, with the solar panel on the nearby shed roof, and the other by the smaller koi pond to illuminate the patio at night. They give off enough light to happily wander down the garden, and perhaps enjoy a warm summers evening - should we get any!

Twinkles seems to approve

Of course the big advantage to solar is not needing to run power cables to different parts of the garden and for us its nice to walk down the garden without it feeling spooky!

Gaz