What we do is use an inexpensive inverter (12V DC -> 110VAC) and a small lead acid battery & regular LED Christmas lights. The power draw is less than 1/2 amp at 12V, so even a small lead acid battery will go all night w/ problems. This makes for easy all-night camp lights.

Lot's of links over here:

people.tribe.net/5969572e-...be3d08f572

We do the same as Bart: lead acid battery (RV/Marine Deep Cycle), Inverter and LED Christmas lights. This last year we went 5 days of all night use w/ 50 LED bulbs (two strings of 25) before the battery dropped to 50%.

This is a very simple system that is easy to test at home before going. I know of a number of camps that just use the car batteries of the cars they drove up in. Inverters typically will shut down before draining a battery beyond the ability to start the vehicle. So an inverter, 50 foot extension cord and your LED lights could suit your needs at little cost. You could be up and running with a $40 inverter (250 watts is plenty for LED lighting only).

White solar path lites at around $3 to $4 ea. are a good investment and fully automatic.

If you have time to experiment, you might want to break open the solar lights you have and try 'upgrading' the rechargeable batteries that you find inside. it may be the capacity of the batteries that is limiting the run time (or it could be the output of the solar calls)... just a thought

You might also consider 12V LED lights.

These guys have a couple of colors (white / blue) of string 12V LED lights relatively cheap ($6.56/$7.87)

www.christmasdepot.com/Auto-A...366.htm

The advantage is that you do not waste the power converting from 12CDC to 120VAC and then back again to DC. Most inverters eat up 15-30% of the power just in the inversion process itself and the AC LED strings often are less efficient than the DC versions.

The 12VDC LED strings have a auto cigarette plug that you plug into a 12V to Battery adapter

www.amazon.com/Bell-39011...ref=sr_1_19

You can get multi-output adapters as well.

www.amazon.com/Wagan-EL91.../ref=sr_1_6

If you handy you can get the components on ebay and wire it up yourself but these parts are all pretty cheap.

Good luck,

D

Thanks for all the help.
I think I have come up with a solution. See you all on the Playa.