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LED solar hanging planter basket for the garden.

This Solar Light May Have Turned Me into a Green Thumb

June 10, 2015June 11, 2015 Renee Carlson Leave a comment

With the bounty of Spring upon us and Summer right around the corner, I decided to shine some light on a product that I’ve been itching to unbox: A hanging garden basket with ultra bright solar LEDs.

Just one problem…

I’m not much of a green thumb (truth be told, I’ve been known to kill a cactus) so I was a bit hesitant to – literally – put a spotlight on my inability to keep anything green alive.

What it Is

A solar-powered LED light is suspended above a hanging garden basket.
Kit includes a solar panel, a coconut husk-lined basket, bracket and chains.
Automatic dusk-to-dawn solar light illuminates your plant.
Provides about 12 hours of warm white light when fully charged.
Currently priced at $49.00 (Note: The light is also available for purchase without the basket)

Where to Hang It

One of the features of solar lights is that they need to be positioned, well, in the sun. But the blazing hot Southern summers (and this non green-thumbed gal) can spell tragedy for plants. I’m much more likely to keep a shade loving plant alive. Thankfully, the remote solar panel can be installed up to 8 feet away from the planter which means I can hang my flowers in a shady area while positioning the panel in the sun for optimal charging.

Tips for Installing the Light

When you’re searching for the right place, make sure you have a nice sunny spot available within 8 feet of the basket to install the solar panel. For bright light throughout the evening, the panel should be exposed to direct sunlight for several hours a day. (more…)

Weekend Warrior Recessed Lighting Project, Part Two

Weekend Warrior Series: LED Retrofit Lighting, Part Two

May 28, 2015June 24, 2015 Chris Johnson 4 Comments

During the course of May, our team celebrated National Home Remodeling month by doing some simple lighting projects around the house and sharing them with our readers. We called it our “Weekend Warrior” series because all of the projects can be completed in a weekend (or less!).

Weekend Warrior Retrofit LED Lighting Project

Project Two – The 1-Hour Project

In my last post I shared how we installed recessed lighting in our bonus room. Once I installed the LED retrofits there, I was hooked on the quality and energy-efficiency of the lighting. I decided to change out our seven 75-watt PAR30 halogen recessed lights in our kitchen with seven LED retrofit modules. The 7 halogen recessed lights used 525 total watts of electricity. By switching to LED retrofit modules I would reduce that wattage use to 87.5 watts! HUGE energy savings! In addition to the LED retrofit modules, I also changed out my dimmer switch to a Lutron Maestro C-L dimmer.

This was one project I was able to very easily do myself. In fact, I finished this one in less than an hour. (more…)

Using a reading light in a kid's book nook

Weekend Warrior Series: A Kid’s Cozy Book Nook

May 21, 2015May 21, 2015 Renee Carlson Leave a comment

This is the latest project in the Weekend Warrior blog post series, part of our quest to bring our customers unique products and offer creative ideas for DIY lighting projects around the house.

How to create a kid's cozy book nook with reading light

For my Weekend Warrior project, I took a boring, ho-hum playroom corner and created a cozy and private reading area for my 9-year-old son, Max.

Here’s the deal:

I think every kid needs a place to call his own. A place to curl up and read an adventure novel on a rainy day, or just a place to escape pesky brothers. A book nook.

After lots of intense discussion, Max and I decided that his book nook needed a few crucial ingredients to make it the coolest-place-ever:

A small, cozy area with a comfy place to sit
Tons of interesting books with lots of super-hero action
A plug-in nearby for charging his Kindle
A reading light so he can read under his many future sheet-forts
Some pictures or posters to hang on the wall

Now:

We’ve already got most of the necessary ingredients for the perfect reading nook: a bookshelf full of interesting books, a cozy corner in the sitting area off of his bedroom, and an overstuffed bean bag. All we lacked was a reading light and some wall art.

A Cozy Corner, Before the Book Nook — Corners and closets are prime real estate for a cozy book nook.

How I chose the best reading light for our nook:

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Weekend Warrior | Pantry Lighting Project

Weekend Warrior: Installing a Battery Operated LED Pantry Light

May 14, 2015June 9, 2015 Renee Carlson 3 Comments

When Pegasus Lighting’s President Chris Johnson heard that his neighbor Greg had installed such a unique solution to his dark pantry problem, he knew it was perfect for our Weekend Warrior blog post series. The Weekend Warrior series is part of our quest to bring our customers unique products and offer creative ideas for DIY lighting projects around the house.

Weekend Warrior blog series | Pantry LIghting

Written by guest blogger Greg Prospero

For years my family has struggled to deal with an unlit kitchen pantry. It was dark and deep leaving its contents shrouded in spooky mystery. You might reach in for a box of Oreo cookies and come out with a bag of dried organic snap peas. To avoid these frustrating mix-ups we resorted to using our iPhone flashlights or a small battery powered LED puck light – neither of which delivered satisfactory illumination of the pantry contents.

This DIY will explain how you can bathe your entire pantry in bright and uniform LED light whenever you open the door. The build is simple and low cost. There are only a few parts and the lighting is powered by 8 AA batteries that should power your lights for more than 15 hours.

Weekend Warrior Pantry lighting project | Before and After (more…)

Three Reasons to Love Waterproof Tape Lights

3 Reasons to Love Waterproof Tape Lights

April 9, 2015April 8, 2015 Renee Carlson Leave a comment

Typically electricity and water don’t play well together, but modern technology has given birth to lights that can not only get wet, but be fully submerged underwater.

Color-changing capability, energy efficiency and custom lighting effects ramp up the cool-factor even more. There’s no end to their creative applications, but I’ve found that some people are prime candidates for these innovative lights.

RGB Invisiled Color Changing Tape Lights — Innovative outdoor LED tape lights like the InvisiLED can be fully submerged in water up to 5 feet deep and offer customizable color effects with a compatible controller.

This is really important! Note that there can be vast distinctions between the different lights that are labeled “wet location lights.” A light fixture that can withstand rain may not be able to withstand full immersion. It all comes down to a vitally important specification called an Ingress Protection Rating (or IP Code). For the purposes of today’s post, we’ll be talking about lights that are IP-68 rated. (Read more about that here.)

3 reasons to love waterproof LED color-changing tape lights…

1. You are a Moonlight Dipper

Mediterranean style swimming pool with purple LED lights — via Houzz

Late night swims after a hot summer day are incredibly relaxing. Late night swims with underwater color-changing LED tape lights? Magical. Installed in a pool or spa, the color and sequencing of the lights are fully customizable with an external remote. You may choose to dim them for a romantic evening plunge, or crank up the colors and speed for a midnight cannonball contest. (more…)

Product Spotlight: Solar LED White Washed Metal Lantern

March 17, 2015March 23, 2015 Renee Carlson 1 Comment

Solar LED white washed metal lantern product spotlight This year Pegasus Lighting added several new solar lights to our online store, and there are a handful that I’ve been ogling since the day they took residence on our site. In a strictly professional quest to gain a better understanding of our product offerings (wink, wink) I requested some products for thorough evaluation. The first item to take the spotlight: The Solar LED White Washed Metal Lantern:

Moonrays Solar LED lantern product image — The Moonrays Solar LED White Washed Metal Lantern

The Nitty Gritty:

The light is a little over 12” tall (about the size of a large shoebox) and has a metal white washed finish with opaque plastic lenses.
2 Amber LEDs, powered by a solar panel and 1 AA NiCd rechargeable battery (included) provide 360 degrees of light.
Dusk to Dawn Operation turns the light off automatically when the sun comes up to save battery life.
$19.90 (price as of this blog post)

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