Solar Garden Lights Lighting

Solar Garden Lights Lighting

Oliver Parsons, Strategic Projects EditorOliver is a gardener and magazine journalist of 20 years’ experience. He trained as a professional horticulturalist at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Chelmsford and has also worked for Gardening Which? He is now Strategic Projects Editor at BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and GardenersWorld.com, heading up our reviews desk, Apple News output and weekly newsletter.

Light walls and fences

• Dimming, glowing, and twinkling light modes create ambience and enhance social areas of the garden, but they’ll also extend your lights’ lifetime and how long they’ll light up on a given night.
• Compact, self-contained and looking less like a security light than others on test, this powerful 1000 lumen light nonetheless detects motion at some 10m distance and is capable of triggering up to 500 times per night for 15 seconds at a time.
• There’s also a generous three-metre lead of cable between the panel and the first light, so there’s a lot of slack to play with when you’re setting these up.
• This lets you charge the light from a USB plug, which takes just a few hours, and is a useful option if you can’t wait for it to be charged by sunlight or want to give it a boost if it’s overcast or wintery.

This BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy solar spotlight is remarkably good value. The brightest on test at a whopping 250 lumens, we like the adjustable bulb and solar panel angles, as well as the effective stake for positioning it at the base of trees. You can also take the stake out and screw the light to fence posts or walls if needed. We found that it gave dramatic lighting to trees and shrubs and would make a great light for a shed or alleyway.

Firefly garden solar lights

"We had a new fence built and wanted some lovely lights to finish it off and found exactly what I wanted at my favourite company. Really pleased with them. Great quality as always. Very reliable and on from dusk to dawn. Just love them." "Excellent solar lights, garden now looks like the illuminations at Blackpool." She looks after an ornamental, fruit and veg garden at home and regularly undertakes trips to see plants growing in their natural habitats. Harry Duncton, Freelance Powered Tools TesterHarry has a wealth of experience, from being a language teacher to a tree surgeon, and has built this into a career writing about all things DIY and gardening.

After this, turn it on, and when the light levels drop, it will flick on and provide up to six hours of bright light. Compact, functional, and easy to set up with clear instructions, this is a sturdy, yet affordable, solar-powered security light. With three adjustable lights, a central light that can pivot 90° up and down, plus two side lights that can adjust 360° up and down between the two, and a further 120° side to side, the unit is capable of covering a 180° field. The two PIR sensors can detect movement at 8m away, illuminating a wide range of situations, such as a front door, a side path or a driveway with 800 lumens of light. They cast warm but bright light with a gorgeous dappled effect thanks to the Moroccan-inspired pattern. We like the long stake, which allows them good clearance amongst most plants in a flowerbed, and they’re compact, so they don’t take up too much room.

A passionate believer in self-reliance, his aim is to inspire others to give it a go themselves and not worry about making a few mistakes along the way. A regular contributor to popular DIY blogs and a recent addition to the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine team, he loves tracking down the best new tools and writing about them. "I love these light, bought 2 pairs which light up the patio area beautifully. A bit pricey but well worth it." Sue Fisher, Freelance Garden WriterSue’s extensive horticultural career spans over 40 years, starting with a decade in the garden centre and nursery industry before developing into an accomplished gardening writer, designer and speaker.

Winner of a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy for best stake lights, these lights are ideal for guiding the way or dotting through beds in the garden. The stylish design has a brushed steel finish, and the fluted plastic gives off a lovely star-shaped glow around each light. Assembly is easy, and each light just needs charging for 48 hours in a sunny spot before use.

Easy to set up, you simply need to attach the crook to the pole, but it does take three days to initially charge if it’s outside. This lets you charge the light from a USB plug, which takes just a few hours, and is a useful option if you can’t wait for it to be charged by sunlight or want to give it a boost if it’s overcast or wintery. After that, simply press the on/off switch on the base of the lantern for three seconds, and you’re ready to go. "Writing this after night 1, having woke up at 3am and come down stairs, these lights are still on and super bright, and that’s after only getting a half day of sun. Some of the best solar lights I’ve ever bought. Well done solar centre, amazing product."

Our best value solar light set

Light is produced by one or more LEDs; at dusk, they turn on automatically, turning off when the sun comes up. Solar energy can be used in the garden to power simple mechanisms like the water pumps in solar water features or – in this case – light bulbs, to make solar lights. A BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy for the best solar lights for parties, we were immediately impressed by the quality of these large, vintage-style string lights. With 10 glass bulbs strung along a thick UK weatherproof cable and a generous 3W solar panel, they’re good-looking and easy to use. The lights come carefully packaged in cardboard and take around ten minutes to put together.

The solar panel is a good size, although not as large as the Madison solar drop lights, and with a clear on/ off button, charging indicator and mode adjustor, with eight different lighting modes to choose from. There’s a reasonable 1.5 cable length from the solar panel to the first light. Solar lights are powered by internal rechargeable batteries, charged through the day by a solar panel. The brighter the day, the more power is stored by the battery, and the longer the light will shine.

All that’s needed is slotting the stake together and into the solar panel and screwing in the bulbs – just take care to screw the bulbs in well, or they will come loose and turn off in windy weather. With a 12-month warranty and easy-to-follow instructions, this is a simple and functional solar security light useful for many locations. The solar panel is large and is adjustable in three up-and-down positions to gain maximum sunlight for charging, while the two lamps can be swivelled into the ideal position.

At least a metre of this lead-in is useful, as it means you have more flexibility when placing your solar panel. With enough cable, you can still put your panel in a sunny spot and trail your lights up a trellis a few metres away, even if it’s in the shade. While it appears to be made from metal, it’s actually plastic, which means it won’t rust and is light enough to hang in trees and shrubs with thinner branches. Winner of a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy for best solar lantern, this steel globe lantern has an antique bronze finish and an intricate Moroccan-style pattern that SRL solar panels creates a beautiful display as the light shines through it. The bulb and batteries sit under the solar panel at the top of the globe, and this simple unit is easily lifted out to turn the light on and off. It doesn’t need any assembly, though you’ll need to charge it in a sunny spot in the off position for 48 hours.

This string of solar fairy lights has 100 white LEDs along 10m of wire, which means they’re ideal for running along fences or using to decorate eating areas. There’s also two metres of cable between the solar panel and the first LED bulb, so check this provides enough distance if you need to position the panel in the sun and string the lights up in a shady spot. We like that it comes with a stake as well as a wall mount, which gives plenty of flexibility when it comes to setting up your solar panel. If you have a north-facing garden and charging outdoors is an issue, there’s also a USB cable, which provides enough power for 12 consecutive nights on a single indoor charge. While they turn on and off automatically, you can also do this manually by using the on/off switch. These string lights are good quality and, although the bulbs look like glass, they’re made of tough plastic and more than capable of holding up to accidental knocks.

The solar panel is discrete, and they’re easy to control through an on/off switch and eight lighting modes. There’s also a generous three-metre lead of cable between the panel and the first light, so there’s a lot of slack to play with when you’re setting these up. These string lights have 10 plastic warm white bulbs spread along the cable every 50cm, and each has a hook on the top for easy hanging.