LED wreath incorporates daylight harvesting
Today’s blog post is about how to make a solar-powered Christmas wreath from common household items you have lying around. If you happen to have a store-bought Christmas ornament wreath and a solar-powered string of LEDs lying around, that is.
I am not particularly crafty, but I am quite fond of sparkling lights, and I had a string of 50 solar-powered LED lights that I bought about 4 years ago for $15 at Target – I see them online now for $17. They’ve had a rough life outside. They did a good job of lighting up a tree-trunk at the edge of the driveway for a couple of years until they had an unfortunate encounter with a weedwhacker. I eventually re-secured the wires back onto the little solar panel (one of those cheap, relatively inefficient amorphous silicon ones, not the crystalline PV panels) but they were never really… happy after the weedwhacker incident.
I bought a wreath of ornaments this year because I got tired of buying an evergreen wreath every year and then throwing it out come January 1 and while evergreens smell great, I don’t get to enjoy them on the outside of the front door. The wreath is already pretty gaudy, but I was channeling Bette Midler who whispered that LEDs, like diamonds, go with everything. Stringing an extension cord to the door, on the other hand, would look quite tacky, so the wreath needed a self-powered string of lights – which, as mentioned, I just happened to have.
So I took the wreath, which you see here laid out on the floor along with a pair of wire cutters…
…which I used to cut the florists wire needed to anchor the lights to the wreath. That got old real quick but then I noticed I could easily poke each LED between the ornaments and it would stay, jammed in its place. No need to wire them after all. 50 LEDs sounds like a lot when you’re reading the box, but they just barely filled up the wreath – I wouldn’t have wanted any fewer.
You can see the solar panel hanging in the middle of the wreath. The main function of the solar circuitry is not to power the lights, but to turn them on and off automatically because there’s no way I’d remember to turn this on and off each day and save the battery. The solar panel is getting older and less efficient, but it does manage to charge its 1.2V NiMH battery by a bit during the day. I figure I can swap out the (rechargeable) battery when it gets too far down. So far, so good.
By the way, if you are into geeky Christmas stuff like this and you live in the Bay area, consider attending the December 14 Fission Chips party at Sino restaurant bar on Santana Row in San Jose (it’s free!). Fission Chips is a monthly offline meet-up for engineers and tech professionals to explore new opportunities in the tech space, where you can interact in an informal setting, with some drinks, snacks, and speakers. This month features a geeky ornament competition. Click here for more details and to RSVP.
WA5ZNU commented:
I designed an all-LED wreath out of 101 LEDs a couple of years ago. Google for "101 LED Wreath"
Wizzard commented:
Nice idea though I’m not sure I believe you got enough sun in that covered doorway to power it very long. It wouldn’t take much to extend the wires through the door hinge, around and up above the bush on the left. You could mount and face it where the sun will be visible the longest.
Nice job of extending the life of both items!
G. Azzalin commented:
Good Idea. No batteries, no problems with bad contacts btween batteries and its suport. I liked it.
westhighlander commented:
LED's powered by a couple of AA cells are far cheaper (about $5 at a local drugstore) -- the most green you can be is to hang onto your hard earned greenbacks
Andy T commented:
With the serious problems the bat populations are having, I was happy to see "my" bats return this year.
You messed up Margery - daylight harvesting was the wrong energy source to work in harmony with your wreath....bat guano would have been independent of sunshine and most appropriate (and fresh) at night, a perpetual motion machine of sorts...bugs attracted to your lights, bats pooping on your wreath. You'd save money on artificial snow for it as well...
Margery Conner commented:
Sun lover: I bought it at a local nursery several years ago. It's terra cotta. There is a slight gap at the edges where it hangs against the stucco wall and bats are quite fond of squeezing inside - it's become a bat house. Which is all well and good and I love bug-eating bats, but they also leave bat poop on the front mat. I'm no feng shui expert, but I'm pretty sure that Martha Stewart would not approve of that decorating touch. At present it's bat-free.
Andy T commented:
You can get suns, garden gnomes, gargoyles, etc here www.designtoscano.com Their catalog is excellent "reading room" material.
Sun lover commented:
I may try but wondered where you got the sun over the door? I'm looking for one but I'm in the North East...is it terra cotta or metal?
ralph commented:
Good idea.
Andy T commented:
LOL @ "daylight harvesting"
The Solyndra fiasco has caused us to shun association with the term "solar powered" now?
FWIW, Margery, you didn't finish - Martha would have also hotglued some Holidays-colored fusilli to the wreath.
William Ketel commented:
Here in Michigan this time of year there is only enough sun to charge the battery for an hours glimmer at best. And the intense cold seems to reduce the capacity as well. But there is no overheating problem.
AZdave commented:
To bad My front door is on the north side in permanent shade. Like the concept.
Jen commented:
I have a solar panel from a landscape light that got run over by a car. Any instructions for using it to make my own solar-powered light string?
GK - 99% commented:
Very nice, but Martha Stewart made a wreath out of everyday things you find in a jail cell.
Deo Shenai commented:
Awesome! Looks cool. Thanks.
Kevin commented:
Wonderful bit of repurposing/upcycling your LED string for a really nice result. Great work!
Jeff in Texas commented:
We really need to have things like the Fission Chips party here in the DFW area. Oh yes, the Christmas lights are nice too.
Scott Lee commented:
Good idea. Will try this. Like your entryway too!
