Solar garden lights

Last night we had an unexplained power outage on our street starting at 6:30. Since it gets dark at 8:00, we decided to go to bed early, and just as I was drawing the blinds in the kitchen I noticed the solar lights were coming on out on the deck.
So, I brought in three of them and put them in glass jars as a sort of vase, one for the kitchen, one for the hall just outside the bedroom, and one for the bathroom (no window, so it's pitch dark with no lights on). The newer ones were still going strong in the morning, well after the power came back on. They were almost bright enough to read by!
Maybe this could be a solution for third world countries where the electricity is either sporadic or non-existent. A little modification to the clear plastic surrounding the LED bulb and you could even have a focused task light. In any case, a lot less risky than candles during a power outage. (I don't like open fire of any kind inside a house.)

What a great idea! I never would have thought of that, and just yesterday I replaced the batteries in 5 solar lights.
I will pass this on to my sisters. Power failures are frequent here...

This is a great idea! Perhaps my new apartment can use a couple of these on the balcony...we don't have outages often but this is certainly safer than using candles for more than ambiance.

I have an off grid cabin in the mountains. We gave this a try but the batteries don't last. After constantly having to replace them we just gave up on it. Maybe the problem was that we went cheap but I don't know.