Yesterday I wrote about non-energy conservation related tasks we did to prepare our home for the winter, including placing the stakes in the garden to hold our solar powered outdoor Christmas lights.
Last year, the artice we wrote about the new solar outdoor lights we used outside our home received a lot of comments, both good and bad, about others’ experiences with the same product. In fact, I had installed a pair of the clear mini-lights outdoor sets on the handrail of our backyard deck.
After about a month or two (I forget exactly), one of the strings of lights stopped working.
However, I left both sets on throughout the winter, spring, summer and into this fall. Why, especially if one set stopped working? Well, I have to confess that my wife’s husband can, on occasion, be a bit lazy. Yes, I said ‘on occassion’. 
It has now been just about a full year since I installed the pair of outdoor Noma Christmas lights powered each by a very small solar panel. Last week it was dusk when I went out on the deck to start the barbecue and what did I see to my amazement? Well, both sets of lights were on.
Yes, both sets.
This was really, well, wacky.
I didn’t do anything to the set which was not on for the past 10 months or so.
Now, my 8 year old digital camera does not take the greatest pictures at dusk or at night. However, above is a picture of the set of solar charged Christmas lights which all of a sudden started to work last week after 10 months of, well, not.
Here is another picture showing the majority of the clear bulbs on both sets:
So, as far as my unscientific lay-person’s test of this product, one set has worked continuously for a year now through all 4 seasons and one set took 10 months off but started on its own to work again.
Was this a one night wonder? Nope. As I write this article I look outside onto the same deck and, yep, both strings of solar powered outdoor Christmas lights are working.
And, of course, both are working at no operating cost to me.
emember, these are powered by their own small solar panel so there is no consumption of electricity from my local electric utility company. Yippee!
9 responses so far ↓
1 Mark // Nov 23, 2009 at 3:56 am
Looks like a good setup - I might give it a go - thanks for your insights.
Cheers
2 John Lunt // Nov 26, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Last year was my first using solar powered Christmas lights as well. I’ve turned them on now for the second season. Still going strong. Actually I have some more to add. For me they are the perfect solution. I want to decorate a fence down the drive near the road, but there is no electric service there. So solar powered leds are the perfect solution.
Great article by the way
3 Belcat // Dec 3, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Solar powered patio lights make sense - tons of sunlight in the summer.
Solar powered Christmas lights sound like an odd mix, because there is very little usable sunlight in December. The average is 1 hour / day, but that doesn’t speak of the real problem: 4 days straight of dark clouds where solar panels gather virtually no energy at all. Are those lights really working that well? Do they go on every night?
Please be honest, no point in getting people excited only to have them put down when they buy it and try it.
4 Dan // Dec 3, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Hi Belcat,
Take a look at the article referenced in the above from last year. Their performance is inconsistent in the winter.
For me, on cloudy days I still get the light for several hours on the above solar light string ever day as well as on the ’snowflake’ solar Christmas lights but not on all of the solar Christmas lights I obtained last year.
Using solar panel technology for lighting is very different than solar panels for electricity…at least what I have seen in my non-profesisonal experience.
I hope that helps,
Dan
5 Karen // Dec 7, 2009 at 3:52 am
Hi
Glad to hear your lights are working, because 1 out of the 4 sets I bought are not and I cannot even find batteries to replace and try that. Any ideas where I may find some
Karen
6 Karen // Dec 7, 2009 at 4:02 am
I meant to say ONLY 1 of the 4 sets are working. Not impressed
Karen
7 Dan // Dec 7, 2009 at 11:31 am
Update: 2 days after I published this article the light string on the left stopped working again just as mysteriously as they had restarted.
Ain’t techology a wonderful thing.
Karen,
Regarding your batteries, I would suggest you return to the store from where you purchased the lights or contact the light manufacturer directly regarding replacement batteries.
Dan
8 sara // Dec 8, 2009 at 1:35 am
I have a set of solar powered snowflakes for christmas, they are very beautiful but are the crappiest most unreliable lights i have ever bought, they were definetly not worth the money.
9 William // Dec 14, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Good luck finding TRILEAF Distributions in Toronto. As for a Lithium Ion 3.2 v battery, no chargers easily found. I would not suggest anyone these again. I am very disappointed. Please also note they say 5yr on the package, but mysteriously have an insert inside showing 1yr….and again absolutely no contact information. Good idea, poor implementation. They should have upped the voltage to 4.2 and could have used three double A batteries. Then you could at least recondition the lithium ion inside if it is too overcast.
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