Where can I buy a bright solar latern?

November 30, 2006 6:37 PM

Where can I buy a portable solar light that would be bright enough to light a room for a few hours?

I have a friend in India who can't afford to have power hooked up to his house ($15,000). He would like to buy a solar light that would charge during the day and light their main room at night. All I can seem to find is sidewalk lights that don't provide nearly enough light. Does such a thing exist? Thanks

posted by birchhook to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

The Glowstar might be what you/he are looking for. FYI, I searched google for "solar lantern".
posted by krisjohn at 7:00 PM on November 30, 2006

Don't totally rule out those solar sidewalk lights. Most of them use high output LEDs, which provide more than enough light to get around by. A single one wouldn't be that useful, but several around the perimeter might be ok. Kind of like electric candles. (They also run off of cheap rechargeable AA batteries, which can be found just about anywhere.) Also, they're inexpensive; I've seen them for as little as $5.

I bet they would work as a great to supplement something like krisohn's Glowstar.
posted by quin at 8:54 PM on November 30, 2006

What your friend needs is a trickle charger. Attach it to a car battery, it charges by day. You can run a heck of a light with a car battery all night.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:33 PM on November 30, 2006

I don't know if this would help, but I recently saw an article on making your own "sun jar" - a solar powered light in a jar.
posted by srah at 5:54 AM on December 1, 2006

I'd google for "solar LED security light". These are a package of a solar panel and an LED light and often a motion detector; during the day, the light charges, at night, when motion is detected, the light comes on. Very nearly what you want, and relatively cheap. LOTS of choices available.

For more flexibility, buy an RV solar panel, some deep-cycle marine batteries, and some separate LED lights.

I would *imagine*, possibly wrongly, that this sort of thing already exists in India. I mean, this is a country where 600,000,000 people don't have electricity, yet there is also a substantial high-tech sector. Surely someone has already thought of this in India?
posted by jellicle at 6:21 AM on December 1, 2006

The problem with those sidewalk lights is that the solar panels and batteries are kept small to make a lighter, smaller product. The LEDs are incredibly bright at a very short range, but it takes a lot of them to, say, make enough light to read by, and the batteries to store enough solar energy to run that would be bulky. I have some solar spotlights that have better reflectors than the sidewalk lights, but I put two on the front porch pointed at the door so I could find the lock when I come home after dark, and no more than 5 feet away I really can only just find the lock. The light is also very, very blue and kind of headache-inducing. Also, you'd have to get the panel-mount off and wire them back in from outside.

Certainly, at the price point, your friend could probably find some use for a set or two them, but it would be more "not running into walls" than "enough light to cook by." (My company makes those lights, which is how I've gotten to play around with the various types.)

I think products in the boat/camping/RV supply market would be much more useful for your friend. A reasonably-sized collector and a decent battery array will do him more good for the money.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:08 AM on December 1, 2006

I'd suggest an off-the-shelf lead-acid car battery(s), an off-the-shelf solar-lead-acid charger, a whooping great off-the-shelf solar panel, an off-the-shelf car inverter (converts 12V to mains), then he can use off-the-shelf fluorescent tubes or power-saver bulbs, and then he can light the place as if it had mains.
posted by -harlequin- at 8:30 AM on December 1, 2006