Solar Lights - 10 Things to Consider When Selecting Solar Lighting

by Jerome Sturgeleski

Solar lights have been around for a long time and have greatly improved though the last few years. They come in various sizes, colors, materials and lighting types. Picking the right ones requires a little advanced planning. They can easily be installed anywhere and require no wiring. They only require direct sunlight and they will give you many hours of lighting pleasure.

Some ways to use Solar lightsare:

1. Solar pathway lights. You may want to light up a pathway to your outdoor hot tub, flower garden, and gazebo or even use they as driveway markers.

2. Solar landscape lights. You may want to enhance facets of your landscape. You can do this with sets of landscape lights that can be place anywhere to accentuate whatever you want to bring out.

3. Solar spotlights. You may want to light up a special tree, shrub or flower garden or just light up your house numbers. Many types of solar lights are available to do just that.

4. Solar stepping-stones. You can add a solar stepping-stone as a part of your pathway. These solar stepping-stones come in 12-14 inch square or round shapes have a small light that lights up at night. What a marvelous way to accentuate your pathways.

5. Solar rock lights . Solar rocks are lights in the shape of rocks and are usually spotlights. Their natural looking and add a subtle and practical touch to your yard. They can be intermingled within your rock garden to light up your ponds or pathways or whatever you’d like to light up.

6. Solar security lights. These come in a variety of styles ranging from all night-lights to motion detector lights. These are especially ideal for areas where running wires to them would be impractical. There are models that do can be hard-wired but only use electricity when not enough power has been stored in the rechargeable battery.

7. Solar frog lights. There are solar lights in the shapes of frogs and can be either a spot light or ones that glow in the dark. Image what your guest will say when they see something like this!


8. Solar dog lights. Just like solar frog lights, there are lights that come with dog figures holding a solar lantern. These types of lights can be put almost anywhere. What a great conversation piece these would be. A true addition for the dog aficionado

9. Solar Gnome lights. Gnome figures have become increasingly popular. These come in spotlights and with the gnome holding a lantern. Line your garden path with these whimsical solar gnomes lights.

10. Specialty solar lights. There are many of types of solar lighting solar lights in the form of owls, squirrels, angels, fairies, turtles and many other shapes.

As you can see, there are solar lights for practically any application. All you need is a sunny area to place them in. They do run on rechargeable batteries and they need to recharge during the light of day. Solar lights are relatively in expensive to they afford you the opportunity to experiment.

Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/landscaping-articles/solar-lights-10-things-to-consider-when-selecting-solar-lighting-348540.html

Light Up Your Garden or Patio With Solar Lights

Solar patio lights can turn your patio into a summer living room Iif you spend a lot of evening time outside. They can light up a lot of your patio with a warm glow that will make you want to stay out well into the evening. They will all you to sit quietly or socialize with friends and family over midnight snacks. They will allow you to enjoy your landscaping that you worked so hard to attain.

Solar patio lights come in a variety of different shapes and styles; from pole lights to novelty figures. They come in plain functional designs to very elegant designs. Globes or shades made of plastic, copper or stainless steel are available in a selection of colors and a wide price range. Solar patio lights come in tabletop designs to freestanding lights in traditional, elegant European street lamp styles. Some will have a base that will also serve as a planter box.

You can obtain very subtle lighting by adding solar patio lights installed into the ground around the perimeter of your patio, garden or deck. They are available in a variety of different colors. They can be adjusted to enhance your flowers in your garden or to just light up areas that you want to accent.

The only thing you have to be concerned with solar patio lights is that you need to place them in a well sun lite area. The lights are powered by re-chargeable batteries charged during the day with small solar panels installed on each light. Fully charged, you can expect 6-8 hrs of lighting.

These types of light will make a great enhancement to any area.

Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/landscaping-articles/light-up-your-garden-or-patio-with-solar-lights-364412.html

Solar Lighting

While some alternative energy solutions for the home require a major investment for their initial installation, there are others which are not so complicated.

Solar lights are relatively simple to acquire and install, and are powered by clean energy. Since they usually require no wiring, they are very simple to set up.

Solar garden lights (or solar landscape lights) are one example of this. Solar garden lights have solar panels embedded into them at the top, facing the sun. Of course one drawback of these is that they might not stay lit forever. The amount of sun they receive will influence how long they last. The specifications of these lights can give you some idea of how long they will stay lit in the dark. But 8-12 hours is not an unusual estimate for a reasonably priced light, which should be plenty of time to get through the night in most circumstances.

Furthermore, these lights usually have sensors so that they turn on automatically at dusk and turn off when the sun starts shining again. This means that you don't have to run your lights the whole night through, if you don't need to. Motion sensors are also used in some solar lights, such as those that would be placed along pathways or near the front door, so that the lights turn on when an person or animal is present. This is good for security, and its also good for just seeing where you are going when you walk in a garden or path, or approach a home in the dark.

Solar lighting can also be used in Christmas lights. One might not think that December is the best time of year to utilize solar energy, but I suppose Christmas lights don't require too much voltage. Since solar powered Christmas lights are not hard to find.

Solar spotlights and floodlights are used in landscaping, among other things. These are used to set out and highlight the best features of a garden or landscape, and again, no wiring required means they are much easier to install than electrical lights. Not to mention cleaner and cheaper.

Again, with solar powered lights, one disadvantage can be the fact that they only stay on for as long as their stored solar electricity permits. In most cases, however, they should last throughout the night if they are receiving sufficient solar energy during the day. You could run into trouble if they are placed in a shady area or if you live in a cloudy climate. They will probably still work, but not as well. Snow can also block sunlight when it covers any photovoltaic surface. But solar lights are often designed in such a way as to let snow slide off of them more easily.

There are plenty of other uses for solar lighting. And they aren't all for the home owner.

Street lights can be run with solar power. It will be interesting to see how that concept develops, as the world turns its attention more and more toward clean alternative energy solutions. Arguably, it would be dangerous if street lights went out early on days when their solar energy wasn't sufficient.

But a simple solution would be to use a hybrid system, with a backup battery, a backup power generator, or the like. That way, if the energy from the sun weren't sufficient one day, the lights would continue to shine nevertheless.

source:http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/solar-lighting-715728.html

Solar lights have been around for a long time and have greatly improved though the last few years. They come in various sizes, colors, materials and lighting types. Picking the right ones requires a little advanced planning. They can easily be installed anywhere and require no wiring. They only require direct sunlight and they will give you many hours of lighting pleasure.

Some ways to use Solar lightsare:

1. Solar pathway lights. You may want to light up a pathway to your outdoor hot tub, flower garden, and gazebo or even use they as driveway markers.

2. Solar landscape lights. You may want to enhance facets of your landscape. You can do this with sets of landscape lights that can be place anywhere to accentuate whatever you want to bring out.

3. Solar spotlights. You may want to light up a special tree, shrub or flower garden or just light up your house numbers. Many types of solar lights are available to do just that.

4. Solar stepping-stones. You can add a solar stepping-stone as a part of your pathway. These solar stepping-stones come in 12-14 inch square or round shapes have a small light that lights up at night. What a marvelous way to accentuate your pathways.

5. Solar rock lights. Solar rocks are lights in the shape of rocks and are usually spotlights. Their natural looking and add a subtle and practical touch to your yard. They can be intermingled within your rock garden to light up your ponds or pathways or whatever you’d like to light up.

6. Solar security lights. These come in a variety of styles ranging from all night-lights to motion detector lights. These are especially ideal for areas where running wires to them would be impractical. There are models that do can be hard-wired but only use electricity when not enough power has been stored in the rechargeable battery.

7. Solar frog lights. There are solar lights in the shapes of frogs and can be either a spot light or ones that glow in the dark. Image what your guest will say when they see something like this!


8. Solar dog lights. Just like solar frog lights, there are lights that come with dog figures holding a solar lantern. These types of lights can be put almost anywhere. What a great conversation piece these would be. A true addition for the dog aficionado

9. Solar Gnome lights. Gnome figures have become increasingly popular. These come in spotlights and with the gnome holding a lantern. Line your garden path with these whimsical solar gnomes lights.

10. Specialty solar lights. There are many of types of solar lighting solar lights in the form of owls, squirrels, angels, fairies, turtles and many other shapes.

As you can see, there are solar lights for practically any application. All you need is a sunny area to place them in. They do run on rechargeable batteries and they need to recharge during the light of day. Solar lights are relatively in expensive to they afford you the opportunity to experiment.

Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/landscaping-articles/solar-lights-10-things-to-consider-when-selecting-solar-lighting-348540.html

10 Uses for Outdoor Solar Lights

Solar Lighting can be used in many ways

Here are just a few examples of practical applications for outdoor solar lighting:

Solar Accent Lights
For specialist use in the yard or garden these are designed for accent lighting along the edges of driveways, walkways, paths and entrances to homes, garages and other buildings. They can also be used to enhance any other features which you want to illuminate within your garden.

Solar Lanterns
Typically these solar light fixtures include many different and unique designs of solar lights to enhance any part of your garden and yard. You will find designs that vary from the very traditional to the ultra-modern and the styles in between so that you will be able to create or compliment any style you want.

Solar Motion Sensor Lights
Perfect for lighting those areas that you only want illuminated when you or an intruder approaches. They enhance the safety and security of your home for you and all of your family. Because solar lights are easy to install they can be located in those places where traditional lights and the wiring required are a problem.

Solar Spot Lights
Use solar spots to light up any individual objects outside you home such as trees, bushes, a flower bed, statues or even a pond or stream. They can be mounted low or high to give different effects. They are easy to install as they require no external wiring and can be simply attached to a stake, normally supplied with them, which can be pushed in to the dirt wherever you like.

Solar Flood Lights
If you want to light a much larger area then solar flood lights will help you to do this. Again they can be mounted low for a very dramatic effect or even used to light up a large area of a wall or side of a building to give a silhouette effect to any trees or bushes etc which are located in front of them.

Solar Sign Lights
No need to get electricity down to the end of your driveway anymore if you want to illuminate the number of your house at night. Just use a solar powered sign light to get a great effect and allow everyone who is visiting you to find you really easily.

Solar Pond and Pool Lights
Today you can now get small solar powered lights in a wide rage of different colors that will float permanently in your pool or pond to giving a dramatic and potentially moving light show all night long. If you haven't seen these then you really should as the effect they give is very impressive.

Solar Flag Light
Just like the solar sign lights there are now specialist lights for lighting the flag on your flag pole if you have one or the whole flag and pole together.

Solar Rope Lights
These are great for creating great lighting effects anywhere in your yard and garden but especially on patios and decks, They can be run along anything such as under a deck railing or around things such as tree trunks and deck posts or hung on buildings or in trees.

Solar Christmas Lights
Yes, you now even get solar Christmas lights for your tree or other features outside and around your home. But you don't have to just use them at Christmas as they can be hung in any tree or bush or other suitable object at any time of the year, even all year if you want. Great for parties and other special occasions

Have Fun with Solar Lights
Use your imagination to get any lighting effect you desire. Outdoor solar lights will help you do it cheaply and easily while you have lots of fun.

source:http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/10-uses-for-outdoor-solar-lights-416124.html