Backyard Living

Making the most of summer at home

   Sep 03

Environmentally Friendly Garden Solar Lighting

Solar powered garden lights are examples of lantern lights that are becoming increasingly common as they are trouble-free to install and won’t increase your electricity bill. There are a wide assortment of solar lantern lights to pick from including pathway lights, globe lights, lantern lights, hanging lights and solar lights made in the form of flowers. A number of them come with a stake to simply plant in the earth. They all use rechargeable batteries which use solar energy collected through the day to charge them and they usually come on automatically at dusk.

Some Advantages of Solar Garden Lights

Solar garden lights do not need any wiring so there are no trailing wires that can be a risk to children and animals or that need widespread burying underground. They are extremely straightforward to install, simply set the post in the ground, or suspend them from an appropriate post or tree. You can set them to turn on automatically at twilight, and they don’t use any electricity so they are very inexpensive to use once purchased.

Some Disadvantages of Solar Garden Lights

The most important drawback of solar garden lighting are the rechargeable batteries which often are not able to amass sufficient energy to last through the hours of darkness and must be changed every couple of years. Additionally they have only a very tiny area of solar panels that can only gather a small amount of energy. The energy stored gives only a small number of hours of light which tends to drop off as the batteries get older. Nonetheless if all you actually want is lighting for the evening they will probably be adequate. The advantage, that they require no wiring or detailed putting in, turns into a drawback, as what is effortlessly set in place can be just as effortlessly removed. This makes them vulnerable to stealing unless you fasten them in place as you would do with a conventional light.

They draw on energy from the sun so they require a certain quantity of sunshine to recharge the batteries. They cannot therefore be used in sheltered places, or on walls that are in the shade for part of the day. They only work really efficiently when there’s a lot of sunlight so can perform disappointingly during the winter months.

Is Solar Garden Lighting Environmentally Friendly?

Well yes and no They don’t use any current, so there is no effect on the environment there. They do use rechargeable batteries which require replacing and disposed of. However we would conclude that they are unquestionably more environmentally friendly than electricity powered lights.

Conclusion

If you want lighting for just a few hours in the evening in a part of the backyard that is in complete sunlight throughout the day, solar garden lights would be appropriate. Be equipped to replace the batteries every few years and if you think your backyard is open enough for theft to be a problem you may need to set them into the ground more firmly than normal.



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