Today, solar street and outdoor lighting present an important part of solar panel installation in most countries. Of course, market factors such as improvements in battery technology and reduced prices of components have made solar power lighting increasingly competitive.
What’s more, since solar power lighting aligns with the sustainability efforts, some states in the US continue to emphasize its importance. The year 2017 saw up to twenty states lay emphasis on the solar industry in a letter, citing it had created jobs for more than 260,000 people, which accounts for two percent of the new jobs generated.
Apart from commercial use, homeowners have also taken to solar lighting in the form of outdoor garden lights. Solar garden lights are practical and add a streak of elegance to one’s home. They are also eco-friendly, a big advantage to homeowners campaigning for green technology.
The beauty of this kind of lighting is the huge cost-saving it avails homeowners compared to the traditional lighting. These lights are easy to install and come in a range of designs to suit the unique tastes of most homeowners.
Where to Buy Solar Garden Lights?
The knowledge about where to buy the different types of solar lights will help you determine the light to illuminate your home while accentuating your space. Most electronic and retail stores now sell outdoor LED solar lights given that the concept is no longer foreign to homeowners.
They can be found in the home and garden section of these stores. Note that the lights tend to be seasonal, hence may be more available during the summer months and not the cold winter season. Apart from retail stores, you can purchase the lights online via sites like eBay and Amazon.
When it comes to shopping for solar garden lights, you want to match the lights to its function. There are two main kinds of solar outdoor lights:
Accents Lights
The lights are designed to create an inviting and enjoyable glow to your garden. They can also be used to warn about landscape hazards like a rock or step. The beauty of accent lights is that they can charge during cloudy days as they use multi-crystalline solar cells. Others use amber LEDs to form a warm ambiance.
Path Lights
They are ideal for lighting driveways, walkways, driveway perimeters, and other regions in your home’s outdoors. They are installed in multiples to guide you along dark walks or a set of stairs. Path lights come in different designs such as stakes, hanging hooks, and flange mounts. The TomCare outdoor solar garden lights make excellent path lights as they have waterproofing features and come in a dancing flame design, which looks like real flames.
Maintain Solar Outdoor Lights
Given the huge energy savings that come with installing garden solar lights, you may want to replace the dated deck lighting with outdoor led solar lights. However, some homeowners are hesitant to make this move, citing the short run time of the outdoor solar lights. Usually, solar lights can last for eight hours based on the season and location. During summer, the lights can last up to 12 hours, and 2-6 hours during winter.
Additionally, you don’t want to mount the lights under trees as this significantly reduces their ability to charge. LED solar lights, however, are designed to last long. They feature the latest technology as they come fitted with NiCad batteries that last up to three years. What’s more, they can be replaced to avoid buying new lights. So, how else do you ensure your outdoor solar lights last longer?
Routine maintenance: solar lights last long if well maintained. Be sure to clean the solar panels regularly and replace the batteries if they can’t light for eight hours. You also want to ensure the lights are located in direct sunlight to get fully charged like for 4-12 hours so that they can garner enough energy to light throughout the night. Unlike other kinds of lighting, solar lights give off illumination after detecting low levels of light.
Storage during cold weather: proper storage during winter not only prolongs the life of the battery but also that of the light. As such, it is important to store the lights in areas where they can still receive sunlight or house lighting so that the battery maintains charge. Keep in mind that solar lights are not designed to tolerate freezing temperatures and are often covered by snow, which makes it difficult to maintain charge. Cold weather also affects the useful life of the battery.
Homeowners living in rather temperate climates may be lucky as the solar lights operate year-round. However, since the winter period has shorter days and longer nights, the lights may receive limited amounts of energy, which reduces the amount of illumination they emit.
If you are living in areas that receive heavy rain and experience windstorms, you should consider switching off the lights to help extend the life of the battery. Outdoor solar lights are layered with glass, which is susceptible to damage, hence the need to store them inside during windstorms and heavy rain.
Clearly, solar lighting presents a unique form of green technology; one that is yet to be fully exploited. Homeowners looking to install these outdoor garden lights are well informed about how to maintain these lights.
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