Okay my Husband pulled out my electric ground lights and wants to replace them with Solar. Are there some that give better light than others because I am just not crazy about them. He says they are more cost efficient. Opinions please because we are buying this week for a party.

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No opinions, but I can't wait to hear some responses! I have always wanted to get some lights for the drive and back of house, but have always been afraid of them looking bad/cheap or not working well.

I honestly don't know, but I think the LED ones will be brighter and not have that yellowish glow. I"d love to splurge on some of the nice metal ones...but I'm just too cheap! If anyone wants cheap solar lights, I just got a pack of 8 for under $20 at K-Mart.

We have tons of solar lights......... most are not so bright. We have bought them at lowes and other places.
If brightness is what you want then I would not go with the solar.

Yes they are cost efficiant, but I have them everywhere and I also have electric. I like the electric much better for brightness.

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"Madison AnnMarie " 6/13/2008

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I just did a search on consumer reports for you, but didn't see anything really of value about solar lighting. They do talk alot about 120 volt lighting.

Maybe you can call home depot, or somewhere like that, or even a contractor and ask them their opinion on best/brightest solar lighting.

By the way, if the solar lights use a battery to light, how much and how often do you have to replace the batteries (if at all)?
I wonder if that would actually be more cost efficient in the long run?

I know my neighbor had solar lights outside of his home last year, they are not there now. But I am not sure how good his were. They did not give off much light at all. You could barely see them.

The solar light have rechargeable batteries. I have never bought them. I usually get about 4 summers out of the ones I have. Some of my lights I take in the house for the winter and take the batteries out.

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"Madison AnnMarie " 6/13/2008

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We almost bought solar lights last year for our front walk. We didn't tho cuz of the cost, but we bought the electric ones instead. I love them, and we have them on a timer, so they come on in the morning for about an hour or so and then again at night, for about 2-3 hours. I think the electric ones are much brighter, they even survived the whole winter, and we had them come on and off with the timer even then. (dh wasn't sure if he had to rip up the wire for the winter or not, glad we didn't have to do that)

We do have solar lights that are just above our back steps, they are the LED lights and they do light up the steps, but they are not nearly as bright as the electric ones.

JMO!

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I do the same thing and have one set of solar lights that are on summer #6 and so far so good. They were just the el-cheapo ones from Walmart too.

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Are they the yellowish lightws or white and how is the brightness. They always look dingy to me. I wish my electrics were still in the ground.

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They are the white ones, they don't give off 'alot' of light, I just mainly use them to decorate my flower beds or walkway.

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We have the yellow color solar lights. I think they make the house look nicer than the white/bluish colored ones. Gives off a nice warm glow. During the summer, they give off enough light to light our sidewalks really well. And they'll last about 6-8 hours after sunset. During the winter, they don't last as long at night because, of course, the sun sets earlier. Mine also have the rechargeable batteries in them.

I buy mine at Home Depot. I got a set of 8. I gave my sister the same set for Christmas and she and DH love them. I can see them from my house, so they give off some pretty good light!!

I also saw somewhere (can't remember where) that some people use these solar lights inside the house when the electricity goes off after a storm. Says it's much safer than candles. I think it's a great idea!

Oh, I also have a few of the solar spot lights. I bought them to watch animals in the back yard, but they only *spot* a few feet. So, I put them around our teeny tiny pond/fountain. It's just enough light to shine on the water and flowers (and peeing boy) at night. Very pretty.

pretty dim and they don't light for very long in my expirance

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I wanted the solar lights until my parents got some. They are not bright at all and did not last long. They ended up tossing them. I will hold out for the real thing.

We have some of the yellowish ones, and they're quite pretty, but they don't cast much light. We live in a dark-sky city (no upward-casting street lights, no street lights at all where we are), so they mostly just point out where the driveway is. We do replace batteries reasonably often, and those tend to die sooner if the lights don't get daily sunlight. The tops have also cracked in the sun, after about four years, and some won't light up on some days, depending on sun coverage. We live in AZ, so the sun tends to be pretty strong. I'd like to get some of the kind that use a central solar panel, and run several lights off of it, to avoid the dark spots, preferably metal ones, but I dislike the blue/white ones.

I bought some really nice Bronze and glass ones today at Lowes. They are 100.00 per set but they are glass not plastic and have 2 lights in each and the guy that works there told us he has them leaves them out during the winter with no problem. Wish me luck as I am installing them right now. He also said theay are pretty bright. After 200 dollars I hope I like them.

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lowes do have a q buy anthing and get a 10 of 50 off.i got a 1.00 water and got the q and you can get one every time you buy something.

I had a 10 off 25.00 coupon so not bad

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