Solar Garden Lights In Landscape Lighting

Solar garden lights are a great way of being more environmentally friendly, but before you start buying them it's a good idea to consider a few important points first. The benefits to using solar powered garden lights are pretty obvious but you also need to think about the drawbacks, as well as plan where you want to use them, what purpose you want them to serve, their quality, and cost.

Benefits

• The first benefit to using solar garden lights is that there is no energy cost because they use solar power to charge the batteries during the day and run off the batteries at night.

• The second benefit is that since they don't require electricity there is no wiring needed. This makes them easy to install anywhere you want light, and easy to move if you want to move things around later.

Drawbacks

• Solar garden lights can be a little more expensive to buy than their electric counterpart, especially the higher quality lights.

• Main complaints are that they don't shine as bright or last as long as electric lights.

• The battery doesn't charge on cloudy days and they can't be used in shady areas.

Different Ways To Use Solar Garden Lights In Landscape Lighting

• Solar accent lights - Used mainly for accenting garden features with a softer glow such as special plants, fountains, or along building foundations.

• Solar garden path lights - They shine brighter than accent lights and does as the name suggests...lights paths and sidewalks. There are many different styles to choose from...stake-style or hook-style are most common, but there are also some that can be built into the path itself in brick, wood or stone design.

• Solar lamp posts - These stand taller and are great for lining a driveway or lighting a walkway. Classic Victorian lamp posts create an old-fashioned romantic atmosphere, but there are many designs to choose from to accent your home perfectly.

• Solar floating pond lights - Show off your water feature at night by creating a beautiful glow in your pond or pool.

• Solar shed lights & solar umbrellas - Solar shed lights are easy to install and provide convenient lighting in storage sheds, car ports, boat docks and more. Solar umbrellas are perfect if you enjoy sitting outside in the cooler night time hours on warm summer days, and are great for both back yard entertaining and bistros.

• Solar garden decorations & solar string lights - Garden stakes and solar fountains, solar statues, solar wind chimes, and solar tree decorations come in every shape and size. Solar string lights can be used for Christmas or used all year round to light up your home and garden.

Location

Solar garden lights require 8-16 hours of full sun to completely charge the batteries for best performance. Unless you plan to move the lights into a location with sun every day or come up with a creative way to recharge the batteries you need to install the solar garden lights in a sunny area.

Quality vs. Cost

There are different quality solar garden lights on the market, the better the quality the higher the cost. Be aware that better quality lights will shine brighter and last longer than the less-expensive lights. If you are buying solar garden lights that you want to last a while you will be happier with the results if you buy a quality product.

These are just a few basic things to think about when buying solar garden lights. Other things to consider are what materials the panel-housing and solar panel cover is made from and why it's important, waterproofing, batteries, and more.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com