Solar Lighting for Narrow Urban Backyards
The narrow urban backyard is a specific beast. I am talking about the 20-foot-wide, 40-foot-deep rectangle flanked by a six-foot…
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Solar Light Cold Weather Performance Test
Solar light marketing photos always show warm summer evenings. Dusk falls gently over a manicured garden, and the path lights…
Solar Address Lights: Illuminated House Numbers Buying Guide
The reason to light your house numbers is not decoration. It is so the ambulance driver, the delivery driver, and…
How to Replace LED Chips in Solar Lights: Soldering Guide
Solar garden lights are cheap enough that most people throw them away when they stop working and buy new ones.…
Solar Light Sensor Troubleshooting: When Lights Stay On or Won’t Activate
Solar lights have one job at night, turn on, and one job during the day, stay off and charge. When…
How to Repair Corroded Solar Light Circuit Boards: Trace Repair
Solar lights die for a lot of reasons. Dead batteries get blamed first. Water intrusion gets blamed second. But there…
How to Resurface Cloudy Solar Panels: Polishing and Coating
You cleaned your solar lights. You wiped the panels with a damp cloth, maybe used some soapy water, and they…
Solar Lighting for Zen and Japanese Gardens
A Japanese garden is a composed landscape, built around principles of asymmetry, restraint, and the suggestion of nature rather than…
Solar Lighting Layering: Combining Task, Accent, and Ambient Zones
Most yards have one kind of solar light. Usually it is a row of path lights, or a single flood…
How to Replace a Failed Photocell Sensor in Solar Lights
A solar light that stays on during the day or refuses to turn on at night usually has a failed…
Winter Garden Planning: What to Grow and When
Most gardeners think of winter as the off-season, the time when the garden is put to bed and the seed…
How to Fix Solar Light Internal Wiring: Broken and Corroded Connections
The wires inside a solar light are tiny. We are talking 26 to 30 AWG, thinner than a human hair…
How to Upgrade NiMH Solar Lights to LiFePO4: Conversion Guide
Most solar garden lights run on NiMH batteries. A single AA NiMH cell provides 1.2 volts, which is enough to…
How to Repair Solar Light Housing Cracks: Epoxy and Plastic Welding
A cracked solar light housing looks like a death sentence for the light. Once the plastic shell splits, water gets…
How to Recycle and Dispose of Solar Light Batteries: State-by-State Guide
When your solar light batteries finally die, and they all do eventually, you are left with a handful of spent…
