Most solar wall lights look like solar wall lights — a grey plastic slab with a panel bolted on top. This one looks like a coach lantern: a glazed box with a warm filament bulb inside and a pitched roof over it. The roof happens to be the solar panel and the sensor sits under the eave of it, so the whole thing reads as a light fitting rather than a gadget stuck to your wall.

Why It Stands Out

• It looks like a real fitting — glazed panes, a visible filament-style bulb and a pitched top. The solar panel is the roof, which is why you do not notice it.
• Warm filament glow, not blue-white glare — the difference between a front door that looks welcoming and one that looks like a loading dock.
• Three modes — dark until someone arrives, a low glow that jumps bright on movement, or simply on from dusk with no sensor at all.
• That third mode matters — most solar sensor lights only do motion. This one can just be a porch light when you want one.
• No wiring and no electrician — two screws and two plugs. A mains coach light on the same wall means an electrician and a cable chased through brick.
• IP65 in ABS — it lives outside through the year.
• Black or white, and small enough to use in pairs either side of a door.

Where to Put It

• Either side of the front door — the job it does best, and the reason to buy this one over a plain flood. A matched pair looks deliberate.
• By the back door and the laundry door — the doors you come through with your hands full.
• Along the verandah — spaced between the posts, on the constant mode, so the whole run glows.
• On the garage or carport wall — enough to find the keyhole without floodlighting the street.
• Down the side path and at the gate — on motion mode, so it only wakes up when someone is there.
• On fence posts around the alfresco — warm light at head height for people sitting outside.
• At the top of the driveway — marking the turn in without a trench for cable.

How It Works

1. The pitched roof is the solar panel, charging through the day — six to twelve hours depending on the sun.
2. A light sensor knows when it is dark and arms the mode you have selected.
3. The infrared sensor reads 120° out to about 3 to 5 metres.
4. The filament-style LED lights the glazed box, throwing warm light down the wall and out across the doorway.

How to Fit It

1. Check the roof of it will see the sun — this is the one that catches people out. Directly under a deep eave or a verandah roof, it never charges. Out on the open wall beside the door, it does.
2. Mount it at about 1.8 to 2 m — head height or just above. That is where a coach light belongs and where the sensor reads people best.
3. Drill, plug and screw — two of each, supplied.
4. Press the button to step through the modes and settle on one before you climb down.
5. Give it a full day of sun before you decide anything about it.
Tip: if you are fitting a pair either side of a door, put one on motion and one on the constant low mode. You get a soft permanent glow across the entry and a bright lift the moment someone walks up, which neither mode does on its own.

NB: the bulb is an LED filament, not tungsten, whatever it gets called — it looks like a filament bulb and uses a fraction of the power. Runtime is quoted at up to ten hours, and that is the low constant mode; run it bright on every trigger all evening and you will get less. It is also a welcome light, not a security floodlight — it lights a doorway and a couple of metres of path, not the whole yard, and it has no camera, alarm or app.

Care and Maintenance

• Wipe the roof every few weeks — it is the panel, and dust on it costs you runtime directly.
• Clear cobwebs off the sensor lens, which is the usual cause of a light triggering at nothing all night.
• Clean the panes when they film up, or the warm glow goes muddy.
• Check the screws once a year, especially on a timber wall that moves.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1, 2 or 4 × Solar wall lanterns, depending on the pack you select
• Mounting screws and wall plugs for each

Before you order: the roof of it has to see the sun, so it cannot go deep under an eave, and it is a warm welcome light rather than a security floodlight.