Non wired 'in brick' lights?

ChilliBob

Our new place is rather dark at night, something we're not too used to having lived on main roads before. A result when sleeping, less so when driving home at night!

There are a pair of 'in brick' lights either side of the driveway sbout 2 foot off the ground, each 'letterbox' sized if that makes sense.

Sadly, neither work, both are wired in, however, the previous owner had an electrician check and he could get them to work, so, they reasoned there is a disconnect in the cable somewhere. Bummer!

We don't, right now, want to get someone in to wire up new ones and stuff, so I'm just wondering what options we have? We'd want Dawn till dusk sensors, or something on a timer, but it'll have to be battery powered I'm guessing.

Would anthing on a battery last that long if it was on for say 12hrs a day (as things would be now!), these are screwed in things too.

I'll take a picture tomorrow when it's daylight, but ideas most welcome! 

Apodemus

I solved the need to have a little light at the back door by putting up a (very cheap) string of (mains powered) Christmas lights just to cover the darkest part of the year - they are still there and working  five years later despite having been switched on virtually the whole time since!  We've now done the same at the front, but using a mains timer.  Despite the very low power, a little light goes a long way to lighting the driveway and even the road outside.

We also put a cheap string of lights powered by AA batteries on our wood store last Christmas and there is still a faint glow from them a year on, despite not changing the batteries!  These were the type where the LED light is just a slightly wider bit of wire on the string and they clearly use very little power. So perhaps the simplest solution is a set of battery lights and using rechargeable AA batteries.

However, in your situation, I would get on to Amazon and order a 12v string of lights (10m should do it), a 10W solar panel and a 12/24V charge controller.  Then source an old car battery - if you don't already have one, most garages would happily let you have one for free (the bigger the battery, the better).  It's very simple to rig the whole thing up and even at this time of year, you should be able to get enough solar power to run a light string all night.   I have this sort of system set up to run a pond pump, connected to an 80 Amp hour battery.  Even here in the far north of the country and with a poorly located solar panel, the battery is continuing to charge through the winter.  A 10m string of 12V lights will probably be about 1 Amp, so a fully charged 80 AH battery would last you a week even without any solar input.
  
EDIT:  Oh, and the solar charge controller also acts as the day/night sensor - you set it to come come on for a set number of hours after the solar array stops providing charge. 

ChilliBob

Sorry for the tardy response, here's a, picture 


Whilst an interesting idea with the car battery there's no way it would fly with my wife, and probably the neighbours would raise eyebrows lol.

I guess the wires must be deep in the bricks then along the drive somewhere, probably on the sides where there's pebbles. 

I know it's not exactly lights but I wonder if really bright reflectors would at least be something useful! 

knightstyle

Get your own electrician to come and check. Probably a loose connection somewhere or the lights have failed.

ChilliBob

knightstyle said:

Get your own electrician to come and check. Probably a loose connection somewhere or the lights have failed.

Yeah, I probably will at some point as there are a couple of other things inside which need sorting, however, I'm fairly confident in this bloke as he was in the trade and by the sounds of it had decent people who'd try to sort it and not leave him high and dry. Of course, I could be being too positive!

Christmas lights outside at least buy us some time lol, on a kazza timer! 

Phantom151

Do you have a multimeter? Might be worth a quick check to see if the power is getting to the lights before paying for an electrician. Even a pen tester type thing would do. The lights themselves may have failed.

ChilliBob

Phantom151 said:

Do you have a multimeter? Might be worth a quick check to see if the power is getting to the lights before paying for an electrician. Even a pen tester type thing would do. The lights themselves may have failed.

My Dad has one, just two prongs and some dials type thing right! I've seen him use it to prove a battery is dead, but not use it on something mains. I'd better do some thorough research before using it! 

Eldi_Dos

As a temporary measure until you can get electrics sorted some glow in the dark plastic sheeting cut to size and placed inside glass might help. Would not provide much illumination but give indication of where pillars are if you are out in the dark.

Phantom151

ChilliBob said:

Phantom151 said:

Do you have a multimeter? Might be worth a quick check to see if the power is getting to the lights before paying for an electrician. Even a pen tester type thing would do. The lights themselves may have failed.

My Dad has one, just two prongs and some dials type thing right! I've seen him use it to prove a battery is dead, but not use it on something mains. I'd better do some thorough research before using it! 

That's the one. Maybe he would help?

ChilliBob

Eldi_Dos said:

As a temporary measure until you can get electrics sorted some glow in the dark plastic sheeting cut to size and placed inside glass might help. Would not provide much illumination but give indication of where pillars are if you are out in the dark.

Yeah, I, think that's where I am at the moment, and reflectors too. 

ChilliBob

Phantom151 said:

ChilliBob said:

Phantom151 said:

Do you have a multimeter? Might be worth a quick check to see if the power is getting to the lights before paying for an electrician. Even a pen tester type thing would do. The lights themselves may have failed.

My Dad has one, just two prongs and some dials type thing right! I've seen him use it to prove a battery is dead, but not use it on something mains. I'd better do some thorough research before using it! 

That's the one. Maybe he would help?

Yep, I'm sure if I said what I wanted to use it for he'd insist lol!