Outdoor Solar Lights

I constructed the area behind my house, and it is a round, secluded area surrounded by bushes. It is about ten square feet, and at the moment I have four lawn chairs in a circular formation for talking with friends. I also put in some tiki torches and solar powered, color changing LED lights for when it’s darker. I’m sixteen, and plan on having friends back here, both boys and girls. Any suggestions on how I could spice it up and make it more unique?

fire pit

So..
Solar Car A is black, Solar Car B is white.
Because the color black absorbs sunlight, will solar car A’s solar panel capture more solar energy because the solar car’s body attracts more light rays
or does the color not matter?

are we talking about the car?
or the solar panels?
clearly, what color the car, other than the solar panels, is, does not matter.
the color of the solar panels is probably determined by what they are made of.
painting them, thus excluding light, is not likely to improve their performance.

black cars do tend to be hotter.

in warm climates, most people like to turn on the a/c.
that would sop up all the energy created by a solar panel.

look at what solar cars really look like.

http://www.winstonsolar.org/challenge/

there’s only space for 1 small person.
they only run a few hours a day.
they don’t go anywhere in the rain.

the problem that exists is that the amount of solar energy falling on the footprint of a car is really too small to provide the 40-80-160 hp that most folks seem to like.
they’re just not going to be useful in the foreseeable future.

The walkway consists of pavers that look like smaller stones. I have black bricks in between the pavers. Bags of rocks are expensive, so want to get the right color. House is ivory and shutters hunter green.

I just put down the weed cloth….so base is done. I was thinking of black lava type rocks…but solar lights are black…..?

why not paint them using flourescent paint that glows at night– that would be cool !!!

I do not know about solar light but deer in garden….you just go to a beautishop asking for hair clippings….put them aroung your garden….deer will disappear…..

Hi, I just wanted to get a lot of opinions about what kinds of colors would look nice in a frontyard/backyard. I want to get a bunch of solar lights for my aunt (she’s been talking about decorating her yards) , but I wasn’t sure which colors to pick. Which would look nice out of the following : red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, or pink? You can pick more than one color and specify the shade (like for example, hot pink or lavender or turquoise). Thanks.

Well, I would say to do colors that may match flowers like yellow, or hot pink!

I’m trying to find information on this for a science project which I have to finish by April.

I don’t think it will, but test it. What matters is how much heat goes into the food. If the food is the same color as the light, then it will be less efficient, since that color will tend to be reflected instead of absorbed. Perhaps black beans cook faster than red beans. That might be a good experiment. Also brown or wild rice vs. white rice.

I used red, blue and green filters. (and no filter) My results were none was the best, then red, green, blue. Why is that? If you can….(which will be credited) What is the strength of the light determined by?

The energy of the photons (bits of light) is determined by their frequency.

E = hf.

Where E is the energy of the photon, f is its frequency in Hz, and h is Planck’s constant, h = 6.663*10^-34 Js.

The results you get will depend on what you use as your light source, and what kind of filters you use.

The visible light spectrum spectrum runs from approx 450*10^12 Hz (red) through to 750*10^12 Hz (blue). So red photons have the least energy, and blue photons have the most energy. Green is in between the two at about 600*10^12 Hz.

So, when you have no filter, all the photons can hit the solar cell, and you get the best efficiency.

Given that the red filter is giving you the next best results, I’m guessing that you’re using what are called notch-filters. These are filters that only block a particular colour. So when you use the red filter, you’re losing only the low energy red photons, but still keeping the medium energy green, and the high energy blue photons.

When you use the green filter, you’re keeping the low energy red photons, and the high energy blue photons. When you use the blue filter, you’re losing the high energy blue photons.

just wondering

The base, the place where u put ur food or w.e should be black, because it absorbs heat the best.

The reflection parts of it should be either white, or shiny silver, like tin foil, because they absorb the least heat, and reflect the most