If you have a garden, patio or deck, you may want to illuminate it at night, even if you don’t use it regularly. Outdoor lighting is desirable for security, safety and aesthetic reasons. Let’s see:

(1) Lights that come on when someone approaches are helpful in deterring the casual thief.
(2) If you need to go out at night, an outside lamp will prevent you slipping or bumping into anything;
(3) Outdoor lamps, cleverly placed, may enhance the beauty of the outdoor parts of your home, making them more inviting to friends and visitors.

Solar lighting is inexpensive, easy to install and versatile. Some of its possibilities are:

Motion sensor lights
They are essential for home safety and security. They are available in the traditional and modern designs you associate with sensor lights. Only now you can get them with a solar-powered option which require no outlet or wiring and so are easy to install and can be located where you want.

Step lights
These are extremely useful for lighhting your way in tricky places away from your patio. They actually illuminate the steps so you can see where you are going. This makes it easier for you and your friends to get around at night and lessens the chance of that occasional fall which can sometimes be so painful.

Post lights and lamps
The traditional post lamp which sits on top of a post. It is now available as a solar light and there are new…solar-powered post lights which also fit on top of the pole to create an upward light… These are very effective in giving a special and unusual effect.

Torches
Especially-shaped solar-powered lights that look like torches (without the flame of course) are also now available in any style you can think of and these are great for producing a special atmosphere effect.

Use your imagination. There are still more solar lights which have been designed specifically for use on decks and patios. It is up to you to create your best design.

I have a childs electric car, for the 4-6 year old. It runs on a 6V 4.5 Ah sealed lead acid battery. This car came from Spain and has only a 220V charging unit that cannot, of course, plug into a standard American outlet. When I got it the battery was at 5.4 V and the motor wouldn’t run. I initially recharged it with my car charger that had a 6 volt setting. I disconnected it at 6.7 V and checked it on the motor and the motor ran fine, though not under the load of a child riding around. I removed it from the motor hookup and after 24 hours the battery dropped to 6.37V this morning and seems to be decreasing slowly (to 6.35 after two more hours).

Since my grandson comes every two weeks and will be using it only for at most 1-2 hours or less.

Instead of looking for any adaptor or adapting an American adaptor to the wiring, I would like to know if I can use a solar charger. It sits on the dashboard of a vehicle and plugs into the cigarette lighter outlet. It puts out 19 V. in full sun and the solar panel part is 3.5×11.5 inches.

The plan is to buy a cigarette lighter outlet, hook it to the wiring of the battery, and use the solar charger between his visits while the car sits in the patio.

1. Do I have to worry about the 19V output of the solar charger?
2. Do I have to worry about harming the battery if I just leave it plugged in during the two week interim (or more) when he is not visiting in order to keep it topped off?
3. Is there anything else I should know about this idea.

Thanks.

The European charger is 230V ~50Hz 18.4W and outputs to 6V 1000mA 6VA
Here is the link to the solar charger:

http://www.4lots.com/browseproducts/Battery-Saver-Plus-1.0-Watt.html

I also found in my computer box two power supplies for stuff long gone: one has an output of 6V 800mA and the other is 6V 200mA. Would either of these work? My question about the solar panel still stands with the new info in the link.

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A patio for 4 hrs.

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