Have you ever wondered about the benefits of solar lighting for your home?
If so, then you should know that by investing in inexpensive methods of solar power, you will be able to:
- Decrease your carbon footprint
- Decrease your power bill through solar energy
- Light up your yard for less money
- Provide indoor lighting with low power requirements
- Decrease your need for fossil fuel sources
And so much more!
Though there are many different ways for you to take advantage of solar power, you can use our simple guide to mason jar solar lights for your home or business.
By creating these simple do-it-yourself mason jar crafts, you will easily reap the benefits of solar power today.
1. Gather Your Supplies
The first step in creating mason jar solar lights is to gather all your supplies beforehand.
For this guide, you will need:
- A solar light
- A mason jar with a lid
- Sticky foam tape
- 16 gauge baling wire
It should be noted here that these mason jar lights will not be as bright as solar path lights, in case you wanted to put them outside. However, don't fear.
If you use multiples of solar lights, they will be able to provide a warm ambient glow where you need it. When gathering supplies, consider where you will want to place your project as well.
Whether you want to place them along paths in your yards or string them over dining tables for a warm touch at special events, these mason jar lights will certainly be a hit.
Once you have your supplies on hand, you will be ready to tackle step 2 next.
2. Remove the Stake Piece of the Light
Once you have gathered your supplies, you need to get to work on fixing the solar light for your jar.
If your solar lights have a stake attached, then remove the stake piece so you only have a top solar panel piece left.
When doing this, however, make sure you keep the plastic casing around the light to help brighten your overall lamp. Then you can remove the stake part of the light, which should just slide right off.
3. Slide the Solar Light into the Lid
The next step in creating mason jar solar lights is to attach the solar light inside the mason jar. To accomplish this, first remove the lid from your jar. Remember to remove the flat piece of the lid, but leave the ring behind.
Next, you should wrap foam tape around your solar light and slide it through the ring in the jar. It should slide through with just a bit of snugness to keep the light in place.
The foam tape also ensures that the solar light doesn't fall down into the jar, so make sure you don't skip this important task.
Lastly, make sure the top of the light is even against the ring, so nothing is sticking up at the top of the lid. There should be a flat, even surface left on the lid for you to work with.
4. Screw the Lid onto the Jar
The next step is to make sure you thoroughly screw the lid onto the jar. Make sure that it is tight, so nothing can leak down onto the lightbulb or inside the mason jar itself.
After this, your solar light is ready to start charging. However, if you want to be able to hang your new light, then make sure you continue on to the next step below.
5. Attach Handle to Jar
To ensure that your mason jar solar lights can be hung, then you will need to attach a handle to the jar.
For this, cut a piece of your wire at about 12 inches. Wrap the wire around the lip of the mason jar and loop it together, but make sure it's a little loose.
Cut another piece of the wire at 14 inches, and loop the ends around the first wire that is already around the jar.
Once both wires are attached (in the formation of a handle) you can go back and tighten the loops on the first ring of wire around the jar. This is to ensure that it doesn't slip off whenever you try to hang your new solar light.
6. Hang Jar in Appropriate Area
Once you've finished creating your mason jar solar lights, you need to charge them up.
Solar lights work via the photovoltaic effect. The solar cell attached to each light converts sunlight into a direct electrical current. This battery charges throughout the day as sunlight continues to be converted into electricity.
Once the sun falls, the solar cell will stop converting. This process will repeat on a daily cycle, as long as you need.
However, do consider where you live and what the climate is like when thinking about solar energy. Summer is the best season for charging, but always make sure there are no trees or bushes that could affect the charging.
Most solar lights require at least 6 hours of full sun to light up brightly at night, so you need to place them in an area of your home that will receive the sunshine for half of the day.
As long as they get recharged every day, you will always have light when it gets dark out each day.
Looking to Create Mason Jar Solar Lights?
If you are interested in creating mason jar solar lights for your home, then check out 12Vmonster lighting today.
With 12Vmonster, you will find a wide variety of low voltage products offered at a value-packed pricing. In fact, we are the major one stop shopping retailer and wholesaler of low voltage/line voltage lighting products and accessories.
Our vision is to engage and help customers worldwide, focusing on cost reduction and carbon reduction. By doing so, we are helping consumers use less energy and emit less heat, helping our planet and environment.
We also stock a wide variety of hard-to-find voltage household light bulbs and accessories. No matter what your next DIY project is, we've got you covered.