My Solar Christmas Light Decorations
Solar Christmas lights have several advantages over more traditional incandescent holiday lights. For several years I have wanted to decorate my fence down near the main road. Unfortunately, the closest available electric outlet is nearly 150 yards away. It was out of the question to string extension chords from the house down the hill to the fence.
I first heard about solar powered Christmas lights last year. They were the perfect solution to my problem. However, they were difficult to find. I ended up trying several retailers like Target and Wal-Mart with no luck. I finally found one Home Depot that had three sets. I grabbed them and also purchased a set of solar spotlights.
I strung the lights along with garland along the fence, and put a wreath on the fence post which I illuminated with the solar powered spotlights. While I was limited because of the limited number of sets available, I was pleased with the results.
I didn’t know that they were readily available online and come in varieties of types and shapes. There is a lot more information on solar Christmas lights available here.
Solar powered lights unfortunately cannot be connected into one string. So I strung one set, then set the solar panel for the next set starting where the first ended. Then I set the final one.
We had a number of cloudy days and I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough sunlight to charge the batteries. Even in cloudy conditions, the lights ran several hours.
So one of the big advantages of solar Christmas lights is that you can use them anywhere that you have decent exposure to the sun.
