Smart solar garden lighting solutions

When you are starting to decorate your garden, you need to decide on lighting at first. The smartest idea is to use solar garden lights - the fixtures that are powered by solar energy. This type of lighting has a lot of advantages. Solar lights can be easily installed all over your garden, and you won't have to worry about electric cables that will spoil the view and, of course, give an electric shock to children or pets.

Still, solar lights have not only pros but cons. The most significant drawback is that these lighting fixtures usually have quite small area of solar cells and comparatively small battery capacity. Before now, most of solar fixtures could only emit a weak pale light, also they weren't sufficiently reliable. But now everything has changed because the traditional incandescent lamps made way for super-bright LEDs. LED means Light-Emitting Diodes, and this technology allows to create light without wasting energy for producing the unwanted heat like the conventional filament bulbs do. In this way, LED lights are much brighter than normal bulbs and moreover consume less electric power. As a result, we can now get a reliable and lasting lamp that will work for many years without replacing.

 

Until recently, solar garden lights were seasonal items, working only on spring and summer. Well, now there are more great news for solar lighting fans. We are talking about some latest achievements in solar lighting technology, such as the improvement of photovoltaic cells which have become much more effective now, raising the efficiency of batteries which now can be charged quicker and store more power, the enhanced circuitry and some more. Renewed solar lights can work all year long, they will illuminate your garden even in short and cloudy winter days with just a little change in performance.

Let's take a look at the main types of solar garden lights:

Task lights and spotlights

These are the brightest and the most expensive solar lighting products. They are usually used to highlight the most important places outdoors, such as plants, statues or house entrance. It is usually possible to separate the solar panel and the light itself, so you will be able to install the photovoltaic cell where it will receive more sunlight, and the light where it is needed.

Path lights

These items are, sure thing, used for lighting private roads, pathways and a small territory around your house and in your garden. You will usually need to install a lot of such lights to light up your way on stairs or on a dark path. Typically these lights are made to concentrate the light downward. Solar path lights are generally an affordable solution, they are also cheap to use but produce not so much light as spotlights.

Accent lights

This type of lighting is an easy way to add a charming glow to your garden. They are created for marking a place and not to highlight objects or walkways, so their level of illumination is comparatively low. They work much longer than other types of solar garden lights because of this low light output. Actually, a quality accent solar light can work during a lot of nights on a single day's charge.

Solar lights with LEDs have also little-known advantages . Some of them make these lights particularly fitting for an outdoor use. For example, when it gets colder, LEDs produce brighter light because of its solid state design.

Remember to place solar panel or the whole lighting fixture (in case if it has an integral panel) in a place where sunbeams will easily reach it. Also it is preferred to direct your solar panel to the south, so it will definitely receive the maximum sunlight.






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