Solar flood light for low light

[LibrarIan]

We want to mount a motion sensing solar powered flood light above our garage. The only issue is that the whole front of our house doesn't get much direct sunlight because of the direction it faces and due to some trees on the property.

Does anyone have experience with solar powered flood lights in low light areas? If so, what specific type do you have? If it comes down to us needing to wire one in, it's not the end of the world, but we want to try solar if it's viable.

[lthenderson]

I've had a variety of solar lights over the years and they are disposable items. The solar cells are low grade compared to the panels that power entire houses and wear out quickly. Generally I feel if I can get three or four years out of a solar light before replacing it, I'm doing good. For something like that, especially if it requires a ladder and mounting to the exterior of my house in a waterproof way, I would just want to do it once and never again. I would hardwire it.

[Roots&Wings]

That's been my experience too, solar lights don't work well (or at all) in low light. Unsure if you need an extra floodlight or already have garage lights, I recently learned about motion sensor light bulbs and dawn to dusk bulbs, and got these for the garage and outside lights.

[WSUCoug1994]

I would agree that I am lucky to get 12 months out of any solar powered light.  We faced a similar problem needing flood lights around our garage.  Where we live there is literally no ambient light and just navigating around the house when coming home a night proved to be challenging and unsafe.  Because our garage is finished (drywall/texture/painted) we didn't want to tear it apart so we went with battery powered flood lights from Arlo.

https://smile.amazon.com/Arlo-Lights-Wireless-Resistant-Multi-colored/dp/B07BZMZMRL/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=arlo+flood&qid=1591293142&s=hi&sr=1-3

We chose them because we already had the arlo camera system and they are directly connected (if a camera senses motion it turns on all of the flood lights), they are easily managed/controlled from an app, they can be set to a schedule and because they are wireless we could put them exactly where we wanted them (we have installed three in total).  They really added to the security landscape of our house by giving us motion sensing in areas of the house where we didn't have them before. 

Two downsides: they are expensive and they require recharging.  I know there are cheaper options but we wanted it to be integrated with our security cameras.  We have to recharge them about every three months - really depends on when you have them active from a motion sensing standpoint and how long you have the light stay on after they detect motion.  These are impressive and very high quality.  I do believe you get what you pay for with these lights and we are very happy with the life of a charge as well as the amount of light they produce.

[tryingtosave]

I have this one from Costco and it's been working great for the past few years. Granted I only expect it to last a few years as others have said. The solar panel comes with a 15ft cable and you can buy extensions to place it where you get more sun if that helps?

https://www.costco.com/sunforce-solar-motion-security-light.product.100475926.html

Another option is the Ring spotlight camera which I have as well. This one you can put 2 batteries inside so you can always charge one at home while the camera/spotlight is using the other battery.

https://shop.ring.com/collections/security-cams/products/spotlight-cam-battery?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=901315626&utm_term=ring%20spotlight%20cam&utm_content=47793366674&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiYL3BRDVARIsAF9E4GcCt9RDsxGOCnTFbFjQZY8mSeeMi3kmeD6HdHiDzFOXZoLD5pBADM8aAip5EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&?cb=