Sharing an inexpensive solar lighting option for your yard with these waterproof fence lights and solar fence post lights from Amazon.
Days are getting shorter, nights darker, and evenings spent outside; fewer.
One thing I wanted to tackle before the full onset of Winter was to add a few inexpensive solar lights to my yard for areas that I access fairly often.
I didn’t want to worry about batteries or electrical outlets. I didn’t want any added costs for hydro, or involved installs; simply put – something that would take a few minutes to put up and would run self-sufficiently for the rest of the winter.
I found these little cuties and thought they’d be perfect for lighting around my hot tub:
They were $32 CDN for a four pack, so fairly inexpensive – and more importantly, waterproof (they are going to have to live through a Canadian Winter after all). (US Amazon link $26)
These solar lights are made of plastic, so there’s a chance they will crack if knocked in colder temperatures, but at $8 each it seemed worth a shot.
They come with stickers that you can put on your wall or fence – or hot tub – so that you can very easily and accurately drill the screws in to hang the lights from.
I needed lighting for the steps leading up to the hot tub, so I attached one on either side, low enough that the solar panel can catch rays during the day.
I’m not exaggerating when I say I had four lights installed around the frame of the hot tub within 15 minutes – it was so easy!
They are absolutely perfect for what I was hoping for; bright enough to illuminate where I’m stepping, but not so bright that I’m bothering neighbours.
These inexpensive solar lights have the option of either warm white or a cool white with just the flip of a switch.
The only problem that I foresee happening is if the solar panels get covered with snow and aren’t able to charge during the day. I’m hoping it won’t be an issue since snow rarely accumulates on the hot tub, but it might be an issue if you hang these on your fence and we get a good covering.
The other area where I was looking for some inexpensive solar lighting was my back gate.
The area between my neighbour’s and my house gets pretty dark at night and I thought it would be nice to have a soft glow to just keep the area safe. I know motion lights are popular, but I didn’t want anything to trigger in the middle of the night and shine right into my neighbour’s window, so these fence post solar lights seemed like a good option.
Amazon Canada sells a two-pack for $46, Amazon US sells the same lights for $28 US.
My gate post is a 6×6 and these will fit any posts from 4×4, 5×5, and up to 6×6.
All I had to do was choose the correct base plate (included) to fit my fence post and then attach it with the screws provided.
The solar light just twists and locks into place on top.
The bare wood you see is where I previously had a fence cap that blew off at some point last year. A bit of touch up paint (outdoor stain) and it will look good as new!
I installed the second light – they come in a two pack for $46 CDN – in the back corner of my yard on the privacy screen I built last year.
I was hoping it would highlight the privacy screen and give it a little interest in the evening.
This is a 4×4 post, so you can see that the post light hangs over the edge a bit differently than on the gate post – but it’s still sturdy and not going anywhere. We’ll see if it receives enough sunshine under those pine trees to fully charge.
The solar light on the gate post is perfect. It looks a bit brighter here than it actually is; it casts a glow about 3 feet around it. Bright enough to light the gate and a bit of the walkway, but not so bright as to shine into my next door neighbour’s window.
This is a bit better representation:
As for the privacy fence – it didn’t quite match what I had in my mind’s eye…
I may have to look into uplighting to get the drama I’m looking for? But then solar lights on the ground are just asking to be covered with snow aren’t they?
When the lotto comes in I’ll get proper landscape lighting installed – for now, these inexpensive solar lights are doing the job of making areas of my yard more safe.
All of the inexpensive solar lights (fence/hot tub and post lights) came on around 7pm last night, and all of them were still lit at 6:30 this morning! The packaging indicates 6-8 hours of lighting, so I’m not sure what fluke happened that gave me a longer lighting period, but I’m not complaining.
A simple do it yourself project that took less than an hour for all 6 lights!
Have a great one!
