On Thursday, 11 January 2018 19:08:14 UTC, alan_m wrote:
On 11/01/2018 15:53, Martin Brown wrote:


Solar powered lights tend to be useless in midwinter and often kill
their batteries stone dead if you leave them outside in the long dark
nights.

+1
Short daylight hours to recharge and cold weather result in very weak
lighting and short battery life. I had a fairly expensive LED light with
a large solar cell which during the summer months would provide a good
light dusk to dawn but during the winter never more than around 4 hours
at an acceptable brightness. After around a year the light output fell
off considerably as the batteries started to fail, especially in the
cold weather.

I also have a solar charged LED light with a PIR which is still working
after 3 years. However, the PIR timing is only around 30 to 60 seconds,
triggered perhaps a couple of time per night and although fitted
outdoors it is in a sheltered location.

The OP said solar powered ideally, which means mains is available. You could supplement the solar - or replace it if running on PIR only - with a small mains 12-15v PSU sending charge current down a long thin wire.


NT