Solar garden lights for anchor lights

VicS

VicS

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Solar garden lights for anchor lights ... Lidl

These ones are on special offer at Lidl on 12 April

They say the brightness of the LEDs is 26,000mcd. According to the table in the Colregs Annexe I 8(b) that should give them a visible range of nearly 4 miles !.

UK_70338_02_b.jpg
. http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_30276.htm.

The trouble is the spike will make a big hole in the deck :(
 
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VicS said:
These ones are on special offer at Lidl on 12 April

They say the brightness of the LEDs is 26,000mcd. According to the table in the Colregs Annexe I 8(b) that should give them a visible range of nearly 4 miles !.

UK_70338_02_b.jpg
. http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_30276.htm.

The trouble is the spike will make a big hole in the deck :(
Click to expand...

I used a similar lamp hoisted up the burgee haliard and it worked very well- the main advantage being it came on when it became dark and so did nor waste valuable amps if the vessel was left during daylight. It was certainly bright enough but less so in the early hours as the battery drained.
 
I've arrived in anchorages in the early hours to find boats with that sort of light showing barely a glimmer when a few yards away. As rotrax says, the batteries don't seem to be up to an all night stint.
 
Simondjuk said:
I've arrived in anchorages in the early hours to find boats with that sort of light showing barely a glimmer when a few yards away. As rotrax says, the batteries don't seem to be up to an all night stint.
Click to expand...

They say up to 8 hours so should be OK during the middle part of the summer ... provided its had enough light to fully charge during the day.

I experimented with one (in the garden) a few years ago ... only one LED and it would stay on all night during the middle of the summer but not by the end of the season.
I put a different reflector in it to reflect as much light as possible out horizontally. It seemed pretty bright but no idea what its visible range was.
Winter weather killed it in the end.

The snag I see is that they have to be out all day to be charged ready for use at night. No good arriving in an anchorage in the evening and getting the light out from a locker!

I might get one and just use it while the boat is on its mooring.

I reckon Salty John's automatic light is really the answer,
or one of these http://www.drapertools.com/b2c/b2citmdsp.pgm?pp_skmno=89462&ipadd=
 
To be fair, I do mostly, but by no means exclusively, notice the dim 'uns at the beginning and end of the season. So as you say, probably ok during the shorter nights.

The dim ones seen in the middle of the summer may be slightly aged and past their best. Which I doubt takes long as the batteries are no doubt of the cheaper variety.
 
Solar garden lights

I think the real limitation of these lights is the solar panel. It is just too small to give enough power to make a decent light. The panel charges a 1.2 volt NMh battery typically about 300 mAhr. There is then a cunning switching circuit which produces a higher voltage in spikes to operate the LED which needs more like 3 volts to run. The LED might be rated at26000mcd but I don't believe it would be run at anything like full power.
The amazing thing about these lights is the price (I got some for around 1.3 squid) at one stage.) however of 4, I bought only one continues to run. Corrosion and moisture seem to be the biggest problems. Corroding both the solar panel wires and the LED wires.
So I guess the garden solar light is better than nothing but no where near as good as an LED bulb shining in 4 directions running on 12v ships battery (with a daylight switch) good luck olewill
 
If you do the calculations a minimum of about 8 of the best quality 5mm LEDs running, with regulated circuitry, at peak brightness, are required to meet the visibility requirements. Bebi put 15 LEDs in their owl anchor light and their web site contains details of some calculations.
I come into a lot of anchorages at night and I have never seen a garden solar light that was adequate, most are dangerous.They are not bad when you are trying to find the boat with in the dingy after dinner ashore, which gives people a false sence of their effectiveness. If you don't know there is a boat there and are approching from the ocean side with a background of shore lights the dim gargen lights can be very difficult to see. That is if they are still glowing at 3 oclock in the morning
Use garden lights as a suplliment to a decent anchor light.
 
I use these or similar (good old trago) but purely for cockpit light.
They are really useful when climbing aboard late evening/night after a beer ashore.
I cannot speak for the lidl ones but the trago quality garden lights which I have do indeed
fade off quite considerably by 3ish in the morning in mid summer but non existent late season.
There are special light sensitive led anchor lights available, which, I feel a better choice, though more expensive will be safer when you're in your bunk at night.

When approaching late to an achorage myself, I find the best anchor lights are the bright non mast top type which in my opinion indicates better, where the a anchored boat actually is.

I have a mast top led anchor light at the moment but will invest soon in the portable type light sensitive ones advertised.
Any one had problems or drawbacks with tgem?

Bob
 
VicS

We used a solar light for an anchor light up here in Sweden, and it worked fine and bright. But shorter nights in the summer. And unfortunately too many idiots here don't even bother with an a light!!!! THAT really annoys me...

Now we have a LED light that has a sensor so goes off during the day so no worries about drawing power:)
 
I've had this one mounted for six years now and it works just fine. With 2 LEDs there is adequate intensity until dawn but there is more sun in the Med than the UK.

It has 2 AA-sized batteries and after a few years they needed replacing, which was very easy. One asset is the surrounding lens is internally moulded into tiny diamond-shaped segments that reflect the light and act as some form of amplifying diffuser, somewhat like a Fresnel lens - very effective.

Anchorlight.jpg
 
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Simondjuk said:
I've arrived in anchorages in the early hours to find boats with that sort of light showing barely a glimmer when a few yards away. As rotrax says, the batteries don't seem to be up to an all night stint.
Click to expand...

+1 to that. many people fit them as a "fit and forget" item but the batteries need replacing occasionally and the solar charge panel needs to be kept clean and out of shadows.
 
I think the real danger lies in the fact that a dim light can easily be mistaken for a brighter light further off. I have pretty good eyesight and can easily spot the dark silhouette of a poorly or unlit vessel. The somewhat myopic might not do so, and happily steam toward a dim light to anchor in company. If it's a third of the distance away that it appears to be, things may go bump in the night.

On numerous occasions I've thought I've been dragging or a boat has left and I'm looking across a now empty space at my next nearest neighbour when popping my head up to take a shufti during the night, only to realise as my eyes adjust to the dark that I'm still as close to the boat I'm looking at as I was, and it's simply that their light has dimmed. It's amazing how convincing this trick of the light can be.
 
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Simondjuk said:
I think the real danger lies in the fact that a dim light can easily be mistaken for a brighter light further off. I have pretty good eyesight and can easily spot the dark silhouette of a poorly or unlit vessel. The somewhat myopic might not do so, and happily steam toward a dim light to anchor in company. If it's a third of the distance away that it appears to be, things may go bump in the night.

On numerous occasions I've thought I've been dragging or a boat has left and I'm looking across a now empty space at my next nearest neighbour when popping my head up to take a shufti during the night, only to realise as my eyes adjust to the dark that I'm still as close to the boat I'm looking at as I was, and it's simply that their light has dimmed. It's amazing how convincing this trick of the light can be.
Click to expand...
This is a really good point. It IS true that the brain will come to completely wrong conclusions to deal with changed circumstances - especially in the middle of the night.
I was thinking of solar anchor lights - not now- thank you, Simondjuk!
 
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