Give Solar Outdoor Lighting a Try

If you are in the market for walkway, deck or patio lights and haven’t considered solar options, you really should take a look at the available fixtures that are powered by the sun.

About ten years ago the home I owned at the time had a covered patio that we used a lot. The only problem was entering the patio from the side yard after dark. There was one step that was very hard to see at night and my family members often stumbled when trying to find the step. I was shopping one day and found a set of solar lights and decided to try them around the step. I put one on each side of the step and when the sun went down the light provided was less than spectacular. The fixtures didn’t exactly illuminate the step but, they did provide a glow that allowed us to see where the step was and eliminated the stumbling while trying to find the step. Even though the lights served the purpose, we were not impressed and I avoided solar lighting for years.

A couple of years ago we installed a fish pond and wanted an inexpensive way to illuminate it at night. While looking at lighting options, we saw solar powered patio lights in a store display that seemed to provide a good bit of light. We decided to try some solar spotlights and this time we were quite impressed. This fixture actually lights up the fish pond at night.

Part of the difference in today’s solar fixtures and those offered a few years ago are the LED bulbs used. These provide a lot of light and the fixture we chose has three LED bulbs. Another factor is the advances in solar lighting technology. There have been improvements in both the solar collection cells and in the way the energy is stored.

While solar may not be the perfect choice for every outdoor lighting application, it certainly will work in many areas. Before you spend the money to have electricity run to power lights for your outdoor areas, check to see if a solar fixture will work instead.

Click here to cancel reply.

Aug201018

mr. pink

0