Solar Lantern String Lights with Warm White LEDs and Fabric Lanterns

A string of round fabric lanterns, each with a warm white LED inside, run by a small solar panel on a stake. Hang it along a pergola beam, a fence or a balcony rail, and when the light goes in the evening the lanterns come on by themselves and glow softly over wherever you are sitting.

No extension cord. No outdoor outlet. No switch to remember at dusk.

A lit patio without running a cord to it

The places you want a little light in the evening are rarely anywhere near an outlet. The table at the end of the garden, the rail of the balcony, the pergola over the bench: getting power to any of them means a cord across the grass or out through a window, and that cord usually ends up coiled in the garage while the patio stays dark.

Solar takes the cord out of the picture. Push the stake into a bed or the lawn where it catches the sun, run the two-meter lead across to where the lanterns start, and the string is charged and waiting when you step outside after dinner.

Fabric lanterns soften what a bare bulb throws at you

A plain fairy light is a bright point you end up looking straight into. Here each LED sits inside a globe of waterproof fabric, ribbed with fine rings like a paper lantern, so the light spreads across the whole surface and reaches you as a warm, even glow. Hung over a table, it lights the plates and the faces around them without glare.

Each lantern is about the size of a tennis ball, which keeps the string in proportion on a balcony or a small pergola. They hang straight down from black sockets on a thin black wire, evenly spaced, so a run reads as a neat line of light rather than a tangle.

The sun charges it, and dusk switches it on

Through the day the panel charges a built-in rechargeable battery, and six to eight hours of direct sun fills it. As the light fades, the string comes on by itself. Set the switch on the panel to on before the first evening, and after that there is nothing left to do.

The panel needs to see the sun to work well, so give it an open spot rather than the shade under the pergola, which is exactly what the long lead is for. The string is rated IP65, so rain and splashes are part of its ordinary life outdoors.

White or Multicolor, in three lengths

White lanterns suit dinner outside or a quiet corner of the garden, and they still look tidy in daylight. Multicolor mixes red, yellow, green, blue and purple fabric along the string, with the exact mix varying from set to set, and it brings a party, a birthday or the holidays to life. Both give the same warm white light; only the fabric changes.

The 10-light string fits a balcony rail or a small tree, the 20 runs the length of a pergola beam, and the 30 will cross a patio or follow a fence. Whichever you choose, the garden is lit every evening and nothing needs plugging in.

Specifications

Type: Solar string lights with fabric lanterns

Lantern colors: White, or Multicolor (mixed colors, including blue, yellow, green, red and purple)

Lantern material: Waterproof fabric

Lantern diameter: 2.8 in (7 cm)

Lantern spacing: 5.9 in (15 cm)

Light source: LED, one in each lantern

Light color: Warm white, on both lantern colors

Dimmable: No

Power: Solar panel on a ground stake

Battery: Built-in 600 mAh Ni-MH, rechargeable

Charging: 6 to 8 hours of direct sun

Operation: Comes on automatically at dusk; set the panel switch to on before first use

Weather rating: IP65, dust-tight and protected against low-pressure water jets

Solar unit material: ABS

Lead wire: 6.6 ft (2 m), from the panel to the first lantern

10 Lights length: 11.5 ft (3.5 m) in total, 4.9 ft (1.5 m) of it lit

20 Lights length: 16.4 ft (5 m) in total, 9.8 ft (3 m) of it lit

30 Lights length: 21.3 ft (6.5 m) in total, 14.8 ft (4.5 m) of it lit

Ground stake: 4.8 in (12.3 cm)

Ground spike: 4.8 in (12.2 cm)

Assembly: The lanterns fit onto the string by hand, with no tools

Use: Outdoors, on patios, pergolas, balconies, fences, terraces, stairs and garden trees

Package Includes

1x Solar Lantern String Light, in the color and length you choose

1x Solar Panel with Ground Stake

1x Ground Spike