Archive for March, 2010

Solar Deck Lights

Solar deck lights come in a variety of different styles, sometimes making buying a little overwhelming. There are directional lights, light strings, as well as solar lights that provide mood and ambiance to your deck or patio setting. There are some tips and information that will make your buying easier. You need to first decide what kind of lighting you need, whether it is to illuminate some steps, or a certain area of the deck or even to set a romantic mood. Read more…

Outdoor Solar Lights – How Outdoor Solar Lighting Improves Your View

Outdoor solar lights are a versatile way to illuminate just about any outdoor setting, from providing light in a dark shed, lighting a pathway, or for being able to enjoy your deck or patio at night. There are actually many different uses, as well as styles and varieties of outdoor solar lighting. There are the stake lights for lighting up walkways, as well as old fashioned or modern solar lamp post lights. There are string lights for hanging above your deck, mood lights for decks that resemble candles, complete with changing colors or flickering effects. There are an abundance of different solar shed lighting systems, with separate solar panels, directional lights, or even fluorescent area lights. Read more…

Solar Landscape Lights

Fast becoming an extremely popular and sought-after item in the home improvement market, solar landscape lights are also a very desirable addition to your home’s outdoor spaces.  With the current explosion in the green products industry, the time is right to consider solar lighting for your landscaping projects.

Lighting is an important part of any landscape project and adds to the beauty and security of your yard after dark, so it is a no-brainer that you would be well served by adding it into your plans.  If you have taken any time to research at all, then you may already be aware of the various types of low voltage systems that are available.  In the past outdoor solar lighting had developed a lackluster reputation for actually doing what it was made to do: lighting up an area.  But, now with newer LED bulbs and high efficiency battery technology along with better solar cells, the types of solar landscape lights available to the average homeowner or landscape designer are as good as the low voltage systems that have been getting all the attention.

Another advantage that the outdoor solar lights have over the LVLs is there is no need to have a transformer and buried wire to the extent that is required in a LVL installation.  You also don’t have to plug in, which has always been a problem if there wasn’t an easily accessible outlet.  Those types of jobs required an electrician to come out and handle adding an outlet which, of course, is an added expense.  This can all be avoided with a solar-powered outdoor lighting system.

It goes without saying that since the energy comes from the sun, it doesn’t cost anything.  Many of you may be under the incorrect impression that if there is a shady spot where you want the lights that they cannot be used in that place.  New designs incorporate a separate solar panel to get around this problem so that you can install solar landscape lighting practically anywhere as long as you have a sunny spot where the collector panel can be placed.  This resembles the LVL systems in the versatility of it and it completely negates the argument about shade being a problem or totally limiting factor.

Finally, since the solar landscape lighting market has matured manufacturers have developed an extremely wide range of styles and applications.  No longer are we limited to puny solar-powered path lights that are too dim and spotlights which don’t last through the darkness.  Now there are solar landscape lights made for paths, decks, lamp posts, and many other applications.  There are even solar lights that look like rocks in the landscape with a collector panel on top and a spotlight that can be aimed at whatever you would like to accent in your landscape after dark.  A wide range of finishes also make it possible to incorporate them into any design whether it be a modern look of stainless steel or traditional wrought-iron or bronze as well as bright copper.

Solar landscape lights will continue to become more and more popular as an increasing number of homeowners and designers learn how they can use them without any compromise.  Isn’t it about time you looked at solar lighting for your landscape?