Nothing is better is to use rechargeable battery and solar, to give free energy from sun to run light at night time. On my first project I created two house numbers that can be viewed in two ways. One is driving view, and other is from street view. Unfortunealy, I did not document for this instructables, however I made the second one for a friend of mine, and this is the same conecpt and it only one way view, and it is under an porch, so I did not add the roof to this instructables.

I used to deliever pizza, and it is diffcult at night trying to locate the house, not all house have their porch light on, it may have security light turned on, and that only if we walk in person to turn the light. Security light is way most people save electricity . In rural area gps were off the map. I have use gps that pointed to rows of mailbox, not the house itself. People appreciate seeing the house number at night, knowing where they are. With the solar rope kit it have flash option, so it double as emergency light, and in situation it will be quickly recognized.

Step 1: Supplies and Tools

supplies

- basswood or birch plywood, just enough to cover the back and the frame of your project

- square wood dowel or thicker same type of wood for the frame, just enough for your project. You can choose thick frames, or thin ones depend in your preference.

-(optional) more wood for side and roof. I use the roof for those open and expose to weather, and without if it it is under porch and not too exposed to outdoor elements.

- plexiglass, two pieces, enough to create the backlight panel, and the number of your house. I use 8x10" and had it cut horizontally to two pieces of 4"x10" for this project.

- screw, sticky back magnetic sheet for metal siding, or glue to hold your project to the wall. (Screw need an larger frame), screwdriver if you plan to use screws.

- solar rope light

- acrylic paint or stain glass paint (either brush or spray type paint) of your choice for the numbers

- exterior paint of your choice for the frame (either brush or spray type paint)

- backlight panel paint preferably very light color or (optional) glow-in-the-dark paint for bad days when there are not enough sunlight to recharge the battery to last the whole night. (Again, either brush or spray type of paint)

- wood glue

- hot glue stick and gun

- newspaper for easy clean up with paint

Tools

- x-acto knife

- pen

- ruler

- calculator

- anything that will make marking hole, i.e. Nail or mini phillips screwdriver

- hammer

- piece of paper, enough to cover one of the plexiglass panel

- any type of saw for cutting wood and other type for plexiglass

- (optional) drill bit and drill to make pilot hole for the screws

- any type of sanding material to sand the wood

- paint brush if you plan to use paint brush type of paint

- stencils or print your favorite font that is big enough for the number for your project

- binder clips to hold down the wood while glue is drying.

Step 2: Plexiglass and Paint

plexiglass and paint will be the first step due to drying time for the paint. I have two piece of plexiglass which is cut from one sheet. The first piece, after peeling off the protective plastic barrier. i paint the entire back of plexiglass with (optional) glow-in-the-dark paint or very light color paint for backlight panel.

The second piece, leaving one side of the protective plastic barrier, using that side to trace the number using stencil and pen, for your printed one, just trace the outside edge of your number and trace deep enough to make an impression, or you could cut out the number of your printed one and use it just like stencil. I would recommend you use stock paper to retain shape while tracing the number.

Now using x-acto knife trace around the number edge, and then peel off the only the trace part of the number, so that the protective plastic barrier will act as barrier for overrun paint.

Paint the number section with your choice of paint, and when done, peel off the rest of protective plastic barrier, and set it aside for it to dry.

Step 3: Wood Frame and Paint

As you measure your plexiglass panel and determined the frame thickness and what type if backing (screw, magnetic, or glue) and the backboard for your project. I would start with the frame using wood glue and binder clips to hold down for the glue to dry. Notice on the second picture i left an small hole, and i use that hole to thread in my rope light which will be next step. When glue is dry, sand it to give it a smooth look, and paint the frame of your choice of color.

Step 4: Lights

The first picture is to show how it works, the solar feeds the battery inside the solar unit, and with it electronic "eye" that tells from dark and light, and will determine if it needs to turn on the light or to recharge the battery. If your solar unit doesn't recharge at later time, like any rechargeable battery it needs to be replaced. Any rechargeable battery matching the size of your battery, usually an double "AA" battery would do. An name brand rechargeable battery will work too.

The solar rope light, most of the time comes charged. Notice the heading part of the solar rope doesn't have any light, that is normal, it doesn't have any light bulb on the first 8 feet of the rope. When hot gluing the rope it takes a lot of space, i find it easier to cut off carefully the plastic rope off the part nearly the beginning string of light. So this way the plastic rope part will protect from element while the string of light are safety tucked inside the frame. When finish heading the string into the hole, i secure it with hot stick glue.

The solar rope light comes with 50 LEDs, and you can use them all, or cut off at some point, it will still work if you accidentally cut the rope, only those still attached to the unit will work. If you want to make two sides one as pictured in the beginging. I split the lights in 2 groups, so 25 on one side and 25 on the other side. With the corner piece i made an notch so that the string of light will continue to one side to another side.

You can freestyle hot gluing the string of light, or have it organized in rows and column. With rows and column needs an bit of math. I use my calculator to find the measurement for rows and column. For rows i would divide by measurement of the height (for example mine is four inches) divided by 6 leaving five rows at nearly 3/4 inches apart and for column i divided my width by 11, leaving 10. 5 time 10 equals 50, and that will all for 50 LED bulbs.

I use piece of paper to make an graph, and as an guide to where to place the LED bulb, using ruler and pen. Next i slide in the paper in the frame, and use my hammer and marking dimpling hole tool, and punch in where the lines intersects.

Now without the paper, i can see the small dimples, and i use that as an guide to where to hot stick glue and placing my LEDS. I hot stick glue each individual LEDS according to marked hole.

Step 5: Assembly

now i hot stick glued my backlight plexiglass panel, and then the number panels in place. Then hang the frame where it can be visible to the street, and enough rope light to reach upper part of the house section to retain where the sunshine will feed the battery by day, i find it best to have it faced south, so it benefit year around catching much as east to west sunshine.