Solar Power Garden Lights

What could be better than illuminating your garden every night, and it not costing you a penny in electricity? You can do exactly this by using solar power garden lights. These are easy to install, as they are self-contained and don’t require any lengthy wiring. You can get many forms of lighting to make your garden special, creating ambience and adding a glow to your flowerbeds.

There are many forms of solar lighting available for your garden. Some of them are familiar, and some you may not have seen before. They all work by charging up a battery during the day, and discharging at night – some use photoelectric cells, and just turn on at dusk, others have proximity sensors to turn on when someone approaches. These are usually the lights with higher outputs, such as security floodlights, which would deplete the batteries too quickly if they were on continuously at night. Solar powered lights (or their solar array, if separate) have to be exposed to good daylight for best performance, but they do charge up to a usable extent in general light, and don’t always need direct sunlight.

The most common sort of light, in general use, is the ubiquitous so-called mushroom light, a low-level light used for pathways, and commonly seen in the wired form. The solar version is much easier to install, and looks very similar to the other version, with some solar cells in the top which is part of the design on either type. There are variations on this theme, sometimes called solar stake lights, and a similar product has a lantern hanging at a higher level from a post. These are your basic get around the garden at night lights, and they cost from about $10 per light, and are cheaper in sets.

As with all things that can be decorative, there are a lot of variations on the market. There are some mushroom lights that actually look like mushrooms, for instance! There are lights for every taste, including ones that look like frogs, dwarves, snails and even dogs carrying lights – a search on the Internet is probably the best option if you are looking for a special type, as local stores are not able to carry all the variations.

Don’t forget to look for a solar solution for your more utilitarian needs, as well as esoteric wants. You can get solar powered floodlights for those dark corners, and lampposts to illuminate your driveway. The range of lighting is limited only by the imagination of the manufacturers, and, as they’ve been at it longer than you have, they’ve probably got more ideas in production than you could conceive.