This isn't working for me after full day sun. What am I doing wrong? I live in CA where we have sun even in shady areas! I wanted to use this as my light for my balcony. We get good amount of sun on my balcony but there is little to no light after...
1296508
It sounds like your light may be broken. My lantern charges after being in the sun during the day, and at night illuminates without fail.
548451
It may be that I just do not get enough sun in my yard which has a lot of tree cover but mine are not very bright at all. My rose bush attracks June Bugs quite well!
1882770
Not sure. If my panel gets sun all day in the summer, I've still seen the light on at 4:30 in the morning. It varies from day to day, depending on the time of year and clouds, etc. My panel isn't doing as well in the winter. The girls are in the dark by 2 AM.
1141609
You need several hours of sunlight, probably a continuous cycle of sunlight during several days. It will burn weakly but goes out after a few hours if the sun has not recharged them totally. Other than that I like the lights, the light produced when fully charged and being able to place where I want light.
1260876
I have these lights and I have them on my back porch which faces west. There are lots of trees and obstructed sun. My lights seem to work into the wee hours of the morning. My suggestion is to place the solar panel in a southerly direction to maximize its ability to collect light.
745318
I've had the same issue. I think it may be the result of the pod receiving too much light. Try putting it in a slightly darker area. Or if it's in a room that is always partially lit (like my office at work, for instance) try covering it up at night so it isn't getting light 24/7. Remember that it only needs 8 hours of indirect sunlight/fluorescent lighting per day.
902172
It just needs light. Not necessarily bright light either. I have several solar calculators that a several years old. Still work, no problem!
1882772
I would imagine you will hit the limitations of the battery no matter how much sun it received the day before. I remember seeing my light work as late as 4 AM. You may need to go with a wired solution for anything better.
1962594
I have a Happy Light and a full spectrum floor lamp. I turn the floor lamp on every day over my houseplants to give them light as the days are so dark, but I don't use the Happy Light for that. I also would suggest going to the website for Verilux and asking them. I can't tell whether or not my plants are flourishing but they are still alive at this point and look as good as they did in the fall when I brought them in, so you might give it a try.
449704
I assume you have the switch on and have allowed the unit to sit in full sunlight for 2 days but I had the same problem with two that I bought. I contacted the company that markets them and they were very helpful and replaced the defective units real fast. These have been working for over a year and are great accent lighting!!
1865542
I was making an outdoor backdrop. When it was early morning and in the shade with no back lighting it worked fine. But assoon as the sun would hit something bright in the background or the sun came out and hit the back it showed real bad. I did not test to see how it work if the sun was hitting the front.
520872
The low winter sun seems to be shortening the daily light life span. I hope it will return to normal after the winter. I have about 6 mos. on it thus far and until now was satisfied with the light's performance.
1815708
I had the same experience. It operated great for a couple of weeks. Then one day I noticed it was on in total day light. It eventually went out and operated fine that night. A couple of days later it just stopped operating completely. I just returned it for a refund. It's a great light, just what I wanted, and worked fine then just quit. Go figure????
748961
I found that our solar receptor had been turned away from the sun at one point. You should check to make sure that yours is still facing in the direction where it can collect the sun.
837939
It looks the same during the day no matter what you do unfortunately, the seller emailed me about my complaint and actually told me to take the picture OFF of the wall and take it outside to absorb full on light. Lets be honest, why would you need to do that every time? It's simply ridiculous! My house has so much natural lighting I never need to use lights except for night time. Nothing worked.
565983
It sounds like yours is defective if it's not from being in direct sun. Contact Amazon "Help" and they will take care of the problem.
2140946
It probably is not enough light. Light levels drop off dramatically as you move away from the bulb so the bulbs have to be right above the plants and very close to them. The fixture is only about 1 foot wide so the plants on the sides would get very little light.