I stopped at Tractor Supply earlier today to pick up an extension cord, and I noticed they had these lights for $3.99/each:
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/westinghouse-demi-canterbury-solar-light-black
The thing that caught my eye was that they were rated at 4 lumens, which is about twice what the ones I'd been looking at at Ace hardware were rated. I picked up three of them because my stone steps outside are downright dangerous at night during a new moon.
If I know I'm going to be back after dark or if I'm expecting guests, I just leave the porch light on. But sometimes I wind up getting home later than I'd planned, or sometimes guests stop by unexpectedly; and up here, when it gets dark, it gets DARK. So I wanted a little bit of lighting for the front steps, at least, so no one falls and breaks their neck. When I saw these, I figured, hey, at $3.99/each, I'll take a chance.
I must say, I'm very impressed -- especially considering the lights had only a few hours to charge. Here's a picture of one of the lights, with no other lighting, and taken without a tripod (because I was too lazy to get it out of the car):
The lighting is sufficient to safely light the steps, but I'm going to pick up two or three more lights tomorrow to fill in the areas shadowed by the shape of the stairway. I actually should have bought more while I was there today, but I never expected that the lights would work this well.
The other nice thing is that because there's no wiring, I can just pull the lights up and jury-rig PVC extensions onto them in the winter. The pole is just a hollow piece of plastic with a pointy insert on one end, so I can just replace it with a piece of PVC cut at an angle on the bottom (to make it pointy) and raise the lights over the snow level in the winter, if I like.
It's not often that I'm pleasantly surprised by a product any more, especially one this inexpensive.
-Rich
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/westinghouse-demi-canterbury-solar-light-black
The thing that caught my eye was that they were rated at 4 lumens, which is about twice what the ones I'd been looking at at Ace hardware were rated. I picked up three of them because my stone steps outside are downright dangerous at night during a new moon.
If I know I'm going to be back after dark or if I'm expecting guests, I just leave the porch light on. But sometimes I wind up getting home later than I'd planned, or sometimes guests stop by unexpectedly; and up here, when it gets dark, it gets DARK. So I wanted a little bit of lighting for the front steps, at least, so no one falls and breaks their neck. When I saw these, I figured, hey, at $3.99/each, I'll take a chance.
I must say, I'm very impressed -- especially considering the lights had only a few hours to charge. Here's a picture of one of the lights, with no other lighting, and taken without a tripod (because I was too lazy to get it out of the car):
The lighting is sufficient to safely light the steps, but I'm going to pick up two or three more lights tomorrow to fill in the areas shadowed by the shape of the stairway. I actually should have bought more while I was there today, but I never expected that the lights would work this well.
The other nice thing is that because there's no wiring, I can just pull the lights up and jury-rig PVC extensions onto them in the winter. The pole is just a hollow piece of plastic with a pointy insert on one end, so I can just replace it with a piece of PVC cut at an angle on the bottom (to make it pointy) and raise the lights over the snow level in the winter, if I like.
It's not often that I'm pleasantly surprised by a product any more, especially one this inexpensive.
-Rich
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