How to Choose Outdoor Solar Lights
When choosing outdoor solar lights, it is all about application, application, application. This is the biggest consideration when deciding on a particular light. Let’s consider what goes into a solar light.
First, you have a photovoltaic cell that captures the light. The bigger the cell, the more light it can capture and convert to energy. Size is not everything though. The biggest factor when dealing with solar cells is the efficiency. That is where the biggest advancements in technology are happening.
Next, you need something that stores the energy. Most solar lights use nickel cadmium batteries for energy storage. Next you have the light itself. This is where LED technology comes into play. LED’s are a “cool” light. That means that they can convert the energy that is given to them into almost pure light, rather than the combination of heat and light that older filaments produce. This makes the LED’s much more efficient. They also have a much longer life than older light types.
Keeping all this in mind, you really need to make sure that the solar yard lights you are buying are going to suit your application. Let’s assume that we are not going to go with yesterday’s technology, and we are going to make sure that the lights have high quality photovoltaic cells and LED’s. Let’s look at the three basic types of outdoor solar lights, and how application needs to dictate the lights type.
First is solar accent lights. As the name implies, this type of solar light is meant to add accents to your home landscaping. Since accent lights are fairly dim compared to other types of solar lights, they have a much longer run time. It is not uncommon to get a couple of nights worth of light out of a single day’s charge. Look for accent lights that have multi-crystalline solar cells. They can collect energy even on overcast days. I should also note that the amber LED’s seem to have a longer run time than white. There are also many styles of accent lights that can compliment the surrounding scenery. They also work great as solar patio lights.
Next are solar path lights. These solar lights are brighter than accent lights. They are meant for lighting pathways, driveways, walkways, etc. Solar path lights come in a variety of options for mounting in a way that will work for your project. Just keep in mind that they are really meant to focus the light downward, toward the ground. As they run brighter than accent lights, you can expect shorter run times.
The brightest of the outdoor solar lights are spotlights. Solar spotlights are used to cast a beam of light toward a particular feature of your home’s landscaping or architecture. As the light is projected away from the fixture toward another object, most people prefer to have them hidden out of sight. This can make them difficult to energize, as “hidden” and “in direct sunlight” is usually a contradiction in terms. For this reason, many solar spot lights have a separate “solar panel” that connects to the light with a wire that can be mounted in an area that gets more light. This allows you a great deal of versatility in locating your spotlights in just the perfect spot for the greatest effect.
Hopefully this will help you to buy the right outdoor solar lights for the right application without some of the costly mistakes that often come about in “do-it-yourself” type projects. And don’t forget to read our article Solar Lights Reviews. Did you know that there is such a thing as indoor solar lighting? Learn more about these, as well as about solar skylights in our indoor solar lights post.
Categories: Lights shopping Tags: accent lights, application, choosing outdoor solar lights, landscaping, outdoor solar lights, path lights, photovoltaic cell, solar accent lights, solar lights, solar path lights, solar spotlights
Outdoor Solar Lights
Out of all the different kinds of solar lighting that you can install around your home, outdoor solar lights are by far the easiest and safest to install. That makes it an ideal first project for the do-it-yourself solar lights enthusiast.
The good thing about outdoor solar lights is that (in most cases) there is no wiring involved at all. With low voltage outdoor lighting wiring is needed to run from the lights to an external power source in order to function,even though the voltage level is very low and relatively safe. But solar lighting is powered entirely by sunlight. That means no wires! With outdoor solar lights, each light contains a specifically designed solar collection panel that gathers energy during the day, stores it up in rechargeable batteries, and then uses that energy to power the lights at night. This means they are perfect for solar security lights or just any other application that you can think of.
Some of the places that you can install outdoor solar lights are darkened areas of your walkway or steps (it’s nice to see where you’re walking at night), the entrance to your driveway, as decoration for your wood deck or landscaping, and perhaps to bring attention to a particularly appealing architectural feature of your home. You can install solar shed lights to extend the use of any outbuildings you may have. You can even light up your backyard BBQ area with solar patio lights. Whichever purpose you choose, one of the big advantages to using solar outdoor lighting is that you don’t have to worry about running cables or wiring of any kind. You simply install the light itself by pushing it into the ground in the location you desire and let the sun do the rest! You just need to make sure that each light will be in a location where it will get an adequate amount of sunlight each day in order to properly charge the batteries. Most solar lights are able to last up to 15 hours on a fully charged set of batteries.
One thing you should know before you choose outdoor solar lights is that the light that is emitted is not as bright as other forms of outdoor landscape lighting. Whether or not you consider this a disadvantage will probably depend on your individual taste. Many prefer the soft, more subtle light that these fixtures put out and feel it actually helps set the mood better than incandescent lighting. There are a lot more choices in color tones as well as many of them LED technology that can create almost any tone or color. With these choices comes the freedom to explore more and more front and backyard landscape ideas.
Another benefit worth mentioning is that solar lights require almost no maintenance. If a light fails, you simply replace the batteries. If it still doesn’t work, in most cases, you just replace it. Individual lights are becoming less and less expensive, and can be found at most home improvement stores.
So is you can see, a solar outdoor lighting system is quick and easy to install, adds mood and character to your home at night, is easy to maintain, inexpensive to buy, and cost virtually nothing to run. Like all things solar, solar lights are also good for our environment.
Categories: Uses and Benefits Tags: landscaping, no maintenance, outdoor solar lights, solar lighting, solar lights, solar outdoor lighting system
