cool harbor fright solar light

[Jrmobb]

I hope this isnt a repost but I was at harbor freight this week and found a cool solar shed light setup for $20. It has a small solar panel you can either screw it into the wall or stick it in the dirt. it has a ten foot cord(easily ex-tenable) to the fluorescent light. only a 4 watt but kinda cool how it has a pull string on/off switch. The setup comes with 4 aa 500mah rechargeable batteries but u can easily put in some 1800mah(4 dollars at harbor freight) which i will do. So far it works good!

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95573

[jonas302]

let us know how it works out I was looking at those to  How long does it stay on?

[ZooT]

Big Lots has a similiar kinda' thing but it uses a plastic housing for the inside lighting unit which contains the 3-600mah nicad's a 5 white LED's for $20.

It also has the pull string switch and a little red LED next to the socket for the power cable from the PV panel as a "charging" indicator.

I bought three of them......

[Otto]

Yesterday I purchased from Harbor Freight their motion activated solar powered halogen light.  Unfortunately when I opened the box at home there were no instructions and it was clear that the unit was "used" because it had dirt on it and the screws were rusty. To make matters worse the unit does not work. I will be exchanging it next week.

Happy Easter,

Otto

[Volvo farmer]

We got this same motion activated light a few months ago. It was unopened and has worked great since we bought it. The light is surprisingly bright and is only needed 10o minutes/day here. The thing I really like about it is it uses reasonably proprietary rechargeable AA cells (soldered into a pack) so should be easy to maintain over the years with NiCD or NiMH cells.

[ghurd]

There are a few versions of this type of HF light.

Some do Not come on in the day light.

G-

[Jrmobb]

I had it charging for a day and it was impressively bright. It only lasted like about an hour before i could tell it was starting to dimm. For the price i think its a great deal, once i get some 2000mah battery's, it should last 4 hours or so. Ill be taking it out to our cabin in the desert this weekend, ill give a report on the in the field use.

[CmeBREW]

We have a HF store fairly nearby-- and they have those solar yard lights that you stick into the ground and they light up a walk way- on sale from about $14 down to $6.

I got 5 of them and they are neat.  

Cool thing is, you can also use them for 'solar candles'.  The top part that has the little solar cell, ultra-bright LED, battery, and light sensor, and switch, comes off the post part and you can flip it over and bring them inside the house like a night light.

They are better than candles for sure!  So far, they stay on most of the night as long as the sun was out most of the day to charge them.

When the little battery inside it goes bad or too weak later, I can just solder in a new rechargeable battery.  

[ZooT]

I like "little Solar".....it might be not cost effective compared to "big solar", but sometimes ease of installation and use makes it much more friendly and even a bit of fun, even if it does cost a lot more....

[mixerman]

I seen this in there ad was wondering how well they worked. I got a 15% coupon to use! My guess is that it will stay on as long as its see's motion. Looks like I could just plug it in to a hf controller that has a 6v outlet( for inside use).

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?function=Search

mixerman

[ghurd]

We need the item number.

G-

[mixerman]

#98085, 36 LEDS, I didnt get, Ill use the money towards some more panels.

mixerman