It would seem that solar Christmas lights would be one way to enjoy the benefits of solar energy and solar powered lighting during the year, if only for the winter holiday season. Unfortunately, after having tried a variety of solar Christmas lights last year and the year before, our conclusion is that they generally do not offer the bright light that is expected for exterior holiday decorating, with the exception of the lights that were away from the house. Holiday exterior lighting is expected to be clear and bright against the dark of a winter night. Generally speaking, our first few selections were disappointing. We must state that the newer lights did offer a better brightness and less bluing than those we had purchased in the past.
The strands of solar powered Christmas lights were more expensive than the traditional strings of exterior lights. Prices range from $15.00 for a 4′ to 8′ string of lights up to $89.00. Of course, we did find our best prices for the better quality lighting online rather than at the local discount stores. Whether the price was $15.00 or $89.00, there was little difference in the brightness, if any at all. In fact, the solar Christmas lights gave off a rather eery bluish light rather than the bright white that was expected. Of course, this year we have discovered that there are special strands that do include colored lights which seems to dissipate some of the eeriness. However, those colored lights did not appear as bright as we had hoped.
Solar Christmas Lights
Additionally, as the days are shorter during December producing less hours of sunlight, there was a disappointment in the length of time the lights would stay lit before beginning to dim even more. In all fairness, depending on the weather conditions, such as cloudy overcast days, the time span of light produced could have shortened. On most nights by 10:00 p.m. the decorations lit by the solar powered stings of light resembled something more worthy of Halloween than Christmas.
There are a variety of upgraded solar Christmas lights available for this upcoming season. However, in most areas of solar lighting we have seen little major improvement in the solar collector cells that must be placed in direct sunlight during the daytime hours. Unlike many of the upgraded yard lamps available today, no solar Christmas lights have been found so far this year that have upgraded the battery to enable better, longer or brighter lighting.
While the solar Christmas lights were as easy to hang as the standard electric lights, it must be noted that the solar panel (the PV cell) must be placed in the direct sunlight for as many hours as possible during the daylight hours. Depending on where you hang the lights, the north side of the house or the south side, the lights may or may not perform as well as the ones we tested. The lights we tested were facing south gathering as much sunlight as was available.
Solar Christmas Lights for Shrubs
If there was a bright spot in decorating with solar Christmas lights, it was using them on shrubs that are away from the house. The advantages were that there were no extension cords to deal with and the lights were easy to place. This is a definite plus especially if your home does not have outdoor electrical plugs or your decorations extend well beyond the reach of an exterior use extension cord.
Our favorite use of solar lights as Christmas decorations came in the form of a reindeer placement in the yard. Most of us have seen these reindeer grazing in our yards during the holiday season, or at least in a friend or neighbor’s yard. When placed away from the house with no other lighting to interfere, the grazing deer decorated with solar lights made up our favorite use for solar Christmas lights. Again, there was no need for the extension cords and in a rather isolated area with no other lights for background or to diminish the power of the solar lights, the reindeer stood out as our favorite “green” decoration.
Solar Christmas Lights for Reindeer
Solar Christmas lights seem to be as much a disappointing attempt at going green as an attempt to sell new strands of lights each year. However, with proper care all the solar Christmas lights tried last Christmas claimed to have a life expectancy of five years. The advertisements claimed that electric exterior holiday lights usually performed no more than two years. Again, we beg to differ. Many well cared for electric lights have a much longer life.
While our purpose is to promote solar energy and solar lighting where beneficial, solar Christmas lights for exterior decorating have been a major disappointment due to high prices and low quality of lighting. However, it must be said that we have noticed a marked improvement of these lights over the past few years and hope the development will continue not only for the holidays but for all exterior lighting uses. With the experimentation that is continuing with LED lighting we expect better results in the future.
Our best recommendation would be to use the traditional electric Christmas lights next to the house and in areas where there will be other back lighting. Our best use of the solar lights was in areas that were at least twenty feet or more away from the house and not affected by backlighting.
