Does anyone know if solar garden lights are available somewhere around Udon Thani? Although I paid many visits lately to Home Market, Home Pro and Tools Pro, I have not been looking for such items.

I happen to be in ColdWetLand and saw a promotion for stone imitation solar garden lights (15 euro for 3) and some other solar garden lights.

Now these would be cumbersome to carry in my luggage on the way back it would be easier to buy them in Bangkok or Udon.

Thanks

Have a check through these posts,maybe something of interest in there..

http://www.udonmap.com/udonthaniforum/v ... ght=#13616

Robinsons department store - Udon !

There is a company called Thai German Solar located between Udon Thani & Kon Kaen which manufactures solar garden lights as well as a host of other solar products. The products are mainly designed for export but I would drop the owner an email to see if he would be willing to sell you some of his wares.

His name is Franz Roecker froecker@tgs.co.th

Franz is a really great guy who I'm sure will assist you as best he can.

I am a lighting desgn engineer in the uk and will be in udon for 6 months as from saturday.

My question is.

Why on earth would you want solar powered external lighting.

The out put is very very poor, they are not at all asthetically pleasing, they can not be effectivley used to feature light anything.

In the industry they are a joke. I suggest you have a rethink, i'll give you a few ideas if you want when i get there.

Kev

i think you are right kevh regarding the industry having a joke about them, every time i see them in the supermarket at ฃ19.99 for 25 of them i too have a chuckle.

yes they are a waste of time, they give out a very poor light, and in thailands blaring sunshine the plastic casings probably would go brittle and won't last long.
Much better to have decent low voltage made for the purpose Outdoor/garden lighting i brought some excellent outdoor spot lights in Udon that take a par38 (not low voltage)bulb,plenty of light and hard wearing and not a lot of baht either,just get a decent sparky to wire them in and you are away.
I would put my money towards low voltage halogen if available .

The idea was to avoid the hassle to wire the garden and to place the lights where ever I would find fit.

Found somesolar lights on Lotus website http://www.tescolotus.net/tab/productscate.asp
seems they provide 3 or 4w, not much indeed, but at cost of 169b each....

ok, i'll wait until house finished, and tell the electricity man I need a switch to turn on/off garden lights.

It's the electricity that worries me most in the house. I bought a distribution box with an RCBO and insisted on grounding, ordered a separate circuit with ground wire for kitchen, computer etc. Curious how they will handle this

The solar lights are good for marking out a path or driveways, they don't give out much light but at least you can see where you're walking.

Thomas Resort has some nice solar mulitcoloured glass ball lights; they look great in his garden.

If you want your gargen to look good at night then you should bite the bullet and have a wired external lighting installation.

I'll check the RCBO installation if you want when i get there. ( for free )

the important thing is that the RCBO is protecting only the lighting circuit for outside.

Then it wont take out anything else in the house and cause inconveniance of other itens in the same circuit tripping.

Kev

also to look for in buying any light, flashlight included, is the bulb. before you buy the light, make sure they stock a replacement bulb, as i have seen very few specialty bulbs, just your standard light bulb. thru out a flashlight, decent one, and refuse to buy anymore. home pro, i noticed does carry a few specialty bulbs, and i think the one i needed for the flashlight, bummer.

another warning is the chargeable back up lights in case of power loss. have yet to find batteries here that come even close to western versions, even made be name brand company. seems they send all the defects here. as returning a product seems to be taboo. one portable/rechargeable light was nice, for a while. now the battery last all of 2 minutes if that if powers goes out. almost enough time to find candles.

ahh, candles, what the hell, might as well pour a baileys and moon gaze. love them blackouts.

I tried solar lights along my driveway and on a paver patio, and I've never been happy with them -- just too dim. I'm going to have to replace them with external wired lights. Wouldn't recommend the solar to anyone.

Take it from a lighting pro they are really crap

lee wrote:The solar lights are good for marking out a path or driveways, they don't give out much light but at least you can see where you're walking.

Thomas Resort has some nice solar mulitcoloured glass ball lights; they look great in his garden.

I would agree with lee, we have stainless steel solar lights along the driveway and around the paths and on top of the pillars either side of the gates. Agreed they don't light the place up at night but they look OK marking out the route in and out of our grounds.

We have no streetlighting near the house out here amongst the rice fields

stainless steel is a good improvement on the cheap plastic style for looks.

I use the el cheapo AUD 4.00 lights in OZ purely to light up a path across my back yard. They give about 12 months service and throw enough light to attract the bugs and cane toads and allow my neighbour to traverse my yard in safety. I also had a few on my yacht, (when I was a yacht owner) and they were good at night when moored off an island in the Whitsundays. Not used to replace anchor light but purely soft deck lights.

John