What could be better than to illuminate the garden space with lights powered by a natural source like sunlight? That’s exactly what solar lighting for home garden does. When you talk about solar powered garden lights you have several options available
- Solar spot lights
- Ground stake solar lighting
- Hanging solar lights
- Solar deck and step lights
- Solar landscape accent lighting
- Floating solar lights
Most of these lights are made out of copper metal fixtures or stainless steel body. Landscape solar lights have a tall structure allowing them to be staked into the garden soil.
Installing solar powered outdoor lighting
Here are some tips for where to install led solar garden lights to get the best benefit out of them
1. Ground stake solar lights – These lights are designed to line up the pathway or to be installed around the patio. You can place them at each corner of the patio so you can have an outdoor dinner without the need of floodlights. There are no hassles of wires involved so you can change their location according to your whims and fancies.
2. Hanging solar lights – They look quite beautiful and traditional especially when hung near the gate or door entrance. These lights have a pole and hanger structure and are usually very artistic (as shown in the top image).
3. Solar deck and step lights – These lights are getting extremely popular especially for the purpose of lining the outdoor stairs. They have a flat structure and can be placed quite inconspicuously to give glowing points around the yard.
4. Solar spot lights – If you want to highlight any particular feature of your garden then these are the solar garder lights to go for. These spot lights generate a slightly narrow beam of white light set to focus in a particular direction. You can get designs where the outer cover looks like a rock.
5. Floating solar lights – If you have a garden pond then you should definitely go for a few floating lights. Glowing white lights floating in the pond look really aesthetic. There are designs available in the shape of a lily or a turtle.
6. Solar landscape accent lighting – These lights are especially designed to accent the pathway or the driveway. They are made out of premium components to give a graceful look.
Most of these lights are also available in multi-color leds allowing for changing color solar garden lights, these are a favorite with kids.
Why use solar lights in the garden?
The most important reason to use solar powered garden lights is that they are wireless and can be placed at any location with convenience. You can feel proud of the fact that you are using a natural energy source in a space replete with nature.
Rechargeable batteries on these lights usually last for a couple of years after which they can be recycled. Led white lights may not be very bright, in fact in most cases the lights are a bit on the dimmer side compared to electric lights, but they add a soft glow to the spot and they last long.
Solar lights can be installed in ponds, not other lights will allow you this feature. In fact these lights are very safe around the garden, with all the water and dirt around you don’t want to be seeding wires around your yard.
A few drawbacks of garden solar landscape lights
Let’s face it, if there are pros there are bound to be some cons. The one’s that afflict our solar powered outdoor lighting are as below
- The led solar garden lights have a dull glow and are not even close to being as bright as some of the yellow incandescent lights.
- The rechargeable batteries die off in a couple of years and need to be replaced
- If you have a lot of shade during the day time or if there are cloudy conditions, you can forget about the led lights working for long at night. Solar lights need plenty of sun to charge.
Of course if brightness is the only criteria you are looking for then stay away from these lights. There are some high power solar flood lights available but they are a touch too expensive.
So weigh the pros and cons of this solution and go ahead with your landscape lighting. Solar lighting for home gardens is bound to develop and better products will soon be hitting the markets. Better brightness and battery life will be features inculcated in the new models to come.
