Solar powered lights

[nutwood]

Has anyone used Solarmate solar powered lights in their stables?
I am consdering buying these for two stables in a building where is difficult to get mains electricity connected.

I am looking at the Solarmate II or Solarmate III versions, but need to make sure that the light is good enough to muck out and deal with lively yearlings!

 

[alsxx]

I've not used a solar system, but I do have the same bulbs that are used in those systems running off a 12v leisure battery, and they are fab, perfectly bright enough.

I would be wary though of running them off of solar energy over winter, I looked into getting a solar panel to trickle feed my battery (so not using a charger on the batt every so often) and by the looks of it I didn't think it would provide enough energy to run the lights for even an hour every night in the winter.

 

[FrodoBeutlin]

We have solar-powered lights and electric fence at home (stables too far away from house for mains) and both are fab, especially the solar-powered battery for the fence. Even in winter, but we did switch it off at night (horses were only out during the day)

 

[Spottyappy]

I have solarmate Professional. To be honest, I am a little disappointed with them, esp as they cost about £100 each. They are fine this time of the year as we have about 9 hours of daylight to charge them with, but end of nov through to end Jan,they are pretty useless.Especially if you have a dull overcast day where the solar rays can;t get through to power them. they last on average about 30 mins twice a day when they do get charged up properly,but I have also some cheap £15 lights borugh at a local DIY place, and they are as good as the solarmate for mucking out with.Hope this helps.