Landscape Lighting

Low To No Maintenance

A garden is more than enough work on its own without having to worry about maintaining exterior landscape lighting. What can you do to ensure that you never have to worry about the lighting once you've installed it? One of the newest developments in landscaping technology is the invention of the solar powered lighting fixture. Once you install this fixture, it draws all the power that it'll ever need to run from the sun, and once the sun goes down, these lights will automatically turn on and run off a battery that has been recharging all day. Not only that, but they are incredibly easy to install. In many cases, all you have to do it plant them in the ground, and they will run automatically with no further activation or installation.

A solar powered landscape lighting fixture saves you money. It doesn't run off the power grid, so you don't pay a dime for the electricity that it uses. It's a great idea for lining pathways and flower beds, and when the power goes out, you don't have to worry about not being able to see your way to or from the car in the driveway. The light bulbs that they use have also been improved, and now they last many years before needing to be replaced.

Not only that, but solar landscape lighting is environmentally friendly. Solar energy is extremely efficient, and it doesn't generate any pollution. If you do choose to go the more traditional route, then you will have to dig up the ground to install wiring, and you'll also have to worry about rodents chewing through the wires.

Ultimately though, landscape lighting is not about money or the environment. It's about enjoying in the night all the hard work you've poured into your yard during the day. Lighting is also a security measure some people use to discourage thieves and other disreputable characters from coming near your home. However, what's the point of throwing thousands of dollars into a landscaping project if you cannot enjoy it after dark? Enjoy your yard with landscape lighting.

Solar Landscape Lighting Saves Money

Many homeowners, when landscaping their exterior living space, use lighting to mark pathways or to illuminate shadows around their home for safety. By choosing to use solar landscape lighting, they can reduce the installation time while reducing the cost, as well as the dangers, of exterior lights. Most low voltage lights still require an electric line to run from a transformer somewhere in the home to each light, taking time to dig a trench in the yard in which the line is buried. With solar landscape lighting there are no wires needed, lessening the time and work needed to install them.

Additionally, many of the low voltage systems will show a drop in power after the first few lights, meaning that the ones placed further away from the transformer will be dimmer than the ones closest to the house. With solar landscape lighting all of the lights will be of uniform brightness as they draw their power from the sun and not the transformer.

One of the downsides to using solar landscape lighting is they need to have exposure to the sun during the day to charge their small batteries so they can light up in the evening. However, external solar cells can be used for lights installed in shaded areas with the cell placed in the sunlight and a short wire extended to the charger built into the lights.

Remote Areas Require To Extra Wires

Installing solar landscape lighting in remote areas of the yard only requires mounting the lights on their poles. Making sure the solar cells face to the south to take advantage of the sunlight eliminates the need to have a contractor install a cable several hundred feet into the yard. Around swimming pools, patios or just to mark a path located away from the home, solar landscape lighting can provide the desired illumination in a much shorter time.

Most of the solar landscape lighting is designed to turn on after dark and turn off at sunrise to save the battery power. The solar cells charge the batteries, which operate the lights in the evening. It is like having a flashlight set along the path with rechargeable batteries that are kept at peak charge by the power of the sun.

From a safety standpoint, solar landscape lighting has no wires running underground and can save pets and small children from a minor shock if they become too curious about what is in those pole sticking up from the yard. Additionally, the power for charging the batteries comes from the sun and not the electric company, saving money on the electric bill.