PowerBee Saturn Solar Powered Lights

Since obtaining PowerBee Saturn Solar Lights and putting them on the fence back in August 2016 I have reported each year on how they have performed. Three and a half years later they are still shining brightly at 6.00 am during the Winter months.

I have to admit I think they are worth the couple of quid extra than buying something of a lesser quality, in fact there are Solar lights all around the garden and only the PowerBee lights are the only ones still working. 

These are the hanging Solar lights that I bought from B&M and put up 2017 and they are no longer working at all and have not survived the riggers of time 

Basically they turned out to be ornate looking crap.

What I would have liked, but at the time PowerBee didn't have any in stock was the PowerBee Saturn Wall Light

I see that they are once again in stock and now the existing B&M wall lights are not functioning I think I will be investing in the PowerBee wall lights to match the ones on the fence this year. 

The old security light on my front porch gave out during the summer of 2017 and I replaced it with a PowerBee Solar Security Product  

Despite only getting minimal sunlight because of the orientation of the front elevation, the light has worked well during the Winter and it is extremely bright.

Two years later and its still working as good as they day it was installed. 

I can understand why their web sites states "Some of our first customers have Outdoor Security Lights still going strong, We have a very large loyal customer base, who once buy from us, tell us they will never buy solar from anyone else again!"

PowerBee Saturn Solar Powered Lights

Well back in August I did say that I would let you know how the PowerBee Saturn Solar Lights got on over the Winter. Well they keep alight long into the morning in fact this morning I was up at 5:45 am and the ones that are out in the open and on the fence posts were still shining brightly.

I have to admit I think they are worth the couple of quid extra than buying something of a lesser quality, in fact there are Solar lights all around the garden and only the PowerBee lights are the only ones still working at this time of day, well it's still very dark so night.

These are the hanging Solar lights that I put up last year and in the winter the lights are out by 9 - 10pm. So I had to by the brackets and the lights for seven of these to go around the patio and a further four to go up the path. I also bought a couple of spares as I was unlikely to ever find them again as the came from a B&M Store 

What I would have liked, but at the time PowerBee didn't have any in stock was the PowerBee Saturn Wall Light

I see that they are once again in stock. Once the existing wall lights start not to function I will be investing in the PowerBee wall lights to match the ones on the fence, in many respects I wish I had waited after seeing how well they have worked over Winter

The old security light on my front porch gave out during the summer and I replaced it with a PowerBee Solar Security Product

Despite only getting minimal sunlight because  of the orientation of the front elevation, the light has worked well during the Winter and it is extremely bright.

The motion sensor was extremely easy to adjust and the length of illumination is adjustable.

I can understand why their web sites states "Some of our first customers have Outdoor Security Lights still going strong, We have a very large loyal customer base, who once buy from us, tell us they will never buy solar from anyone else again!"

In December 2018 these lights are still working strong and are still alight in the morning when I get up at 6:00 

A company called SEOSMART kept spamming this page to try and get business, thus comments have been turned off as they are a bunch or arse holes who can not be contacted and if they had sent me something to test and it was any good then I would have posted about there product and not PowerBEE

Beetroots Onions and Saturn Solar Powered Lights

Emma decided that she didn't want her old shoe rack so I have repurposed it and it's now an onion drying rack which fits just nicely in the outside store overnight and when it's raining. The ample onions were donated to me by Joe one of my plot neighbours at Spencer Road when he found out I had a bit of an onion disaster growing from seed this year.

We finally got around to pickling the beetroot and this year we tried the microwave. It's not much faster but it's cheaper and less stream producing

Get one Pyrex dish with a lid
Prick the Beetroot so they don't explode!
Add 13mm or 1/2" of water and place the beets in the dish, put lid on.
Microwave on FULL power for 3 minutes
Rest for 10 minutes
Turn beets over 180 degrees, put lid on
Microwave on FULL power for 3 minutes
Rest for 10 minutes
Turn beets over 180 degrees, put lid on
Microwave on FULL power for 3 minutes
Rest for 20 minutes
Test to see how easy the skins come off and if necessary Turn beets over 180 degrees
Microwave on FULL power for 3 minutes, put lid on 
Rest for 10 minutes

The solar lights on the fence with the adjustable solar panel tops came from PowerBee and is called the Saturn and I have been most impressed with them, in fact I think they run rings around the cheap £1 shop ones I have bought in the past, OK OK I couldn't resist 

One was sent to me by PowerBee as a thank you for adding a link to their web site on the left panel of the blog.

As you can see they are much larger than the cheap £1 shop lights that have only lasted two years and were in need of replacement.

You can angle the solar panel on the top so that it picks up maximum power from the sun. They are particularly bright and last all night only going off when the sun returns in the morning.

The original one sent to me for review was placed in a flower pot that is fixed to a wall and I was so impressed at how long and how bright it was that I contacted PowerBee to see how much it would be to purchase another three to replace the four on the fence.

There are holes in the base plate that allowed me to screw them to the timber capping plated of the fence posts.

They are sold in even numbers and there is a discount structure based on quantity. See Here for more details.

Having had them in use for some time, I would highly recommend them. It will be interesting to see how they cope with reduced sunlight over the winter months and how durable they are?

I will try and update you on their performance same time next year.

A Thank You Recieved from PowerBee

Just before Easter Nath from PowerBee telephoned me to see how he could get his company on the panel on the left hand side of my blog. Having done some research he had managed to obtained my mobile number off my company blog/ web site. I was quite surprised when I received his call as I was expecting another Structural Engineering or Party Wall enquiry and not a gardening related call.

I explained to him that the panel on the left are basically my web resource favourites that I put there essentially for my own use, but hopefully any blog visitor/readers would also find them useful. Whilst we chatted he gave me his web site url and I was having a poke around his web site as we talked.

PowerBee sells solar powered and a few non solar powered products, and as it happens I'm a big fan of solar powered products, I already have a security light that comes on that is fixed to the canopy at the front of the house, another at the back door, and the garden is normally full of the things. There are solar lights around the decking, on the tops of the decorative trellis fence that is on top of the short retaining wall, and along the path up to the sheds at the back of the garden. There are many ornaments that have solar lights built into them.

Whilst discussing solar products and gardening / allotments, I told Nath that I bought a solar powered oxygenator that I use on Plot 1A in the comfrey water butt as it stops it from stinking and that eventually I will be buying another for 23B when I set up the butt there. It wasn't a use for an oxygenator that Nath had heard of before, and now thanks to Nath I don't have to buy one for Plot 23B.

The package was well wrapped in bubble wrap which is now being reused in the greenhouse. I notice that the products are all branded PowerBee and are well boxed, protected and look to be of a robust quality not like some of the products that I have historically bought from ebay either from China or from a UK based importer.

Talking to Nath there is no doubt he is passionate about the products he sells and assists in the specification and development of them and he takes into account that the products are going to be used in the UK which the makers of the twin PIR security light I fitted at the front of my property a couple of years ago obviously didn't, as it's really naff during the Winter months when you need it the most, and is only just beginning to function properly again now as we are at last getting some reasonable levels of sunlight. Again when it finally gives up the ghost I now have a replacement if I don't find another location for it in the meantime which is quite possible.

We did try some solar powered fairy lights for Christmas but again they were from China and there was not enough day light during December to make them work. If I ever decide to give Solar fairy or Christmas lights a go again I will certainly look at the PowerBee web site. 

As I get to unpack and play with the products kindly supplied, I will give a review of them on the blog.

Click Here to Visit the PowerBee Website