Garden Solar Lighting - how to choose and
install solar lighting in your garden
In the dark about solar lighting - let the sun shine in!
Solar residential outdoor lighting is
becoming the product of choice for millions of consumers by:
Kavar Peter
Residential outdoor lighting is a billion dollar a year industry in the
United States. It is getting so popular, there is now a corporation that
franchises individual businesses dealing only in exterior landscape lighting
design, supply, and installation! Line voltage systems used to be the only
option for outdoor lighting but in recent years, low voltage lighting systems
and solar powered lights have made exterior decorative lighting available to
every home owner -not just the rich ones.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 67% of adult Americans are homeowners
(2004 statistics). Renovation, remodelling and home improvement are massively
popular activities that only reflect the priority that consumers give in making
their property as comfortable and pleasing as possible. Gardening has always
been a past time homeowners enjoy in beautifying their property, both for
themselves and to raise the "curb appeal", but up until a decade ago,
beautifying the nightscape was not a mainstream idea.
Hotels, resorts and similar type commercial properties have always used light
to create beautiful atmospheres on their grounds, but given the cost of an
outdoor lighting system, residential lighting applications were mostly limited
to basic security needs. Landscapes were enjoyed during daylight hours but when
the sun went down, the outdoor portion of a homeowner's property was not used.
Low Voltage outdoor lighting systems
Low voltage lighting systems and solar powered lights are changing this. A
low voltage lighting system plugs into a transformer and takes household current
down to 12 volts. This means real energy efficiency and eliminates the building
code requirements for burying cables 18 inches for line voltage systems. The
lights can be used for any outdoor lighting application, although they still
need to be wired together. Trenching and some cable burying will also probably
be required. Additionally, the capacity of the transformer must be sufficient to
cover the combined power draw (watts) of every light in the system.
The Solar landscape lighting option
Solar powered lights are not wired to anything and require no transformers.
Installing them is as easy as sticking them in the ground, or mounting them
wherever you need them. The draw back is that the photovoltaic charging panels
(usually mounted on the top of the light fixture) that capture the sun's energy
need direct sunlight during the day to charge the batteries that provide power
to illuminate the light at night. And in higher latitudes where the period of
darkness is longer in winter months, there is a good chance that the lights will
not get enough sun during the day to be able to illuminate for the entire period
of darkness.
Even so, solar powered landscaping lights are becoming extremely popular
although this was not always the case. Up until two or three years ago, solar
lights were not as bright as many consumers wanted, didn't illuminate for long
periods and too often, did not operate longer than a year or two before becoming
defective. Today however, solar lights are bright enough for almost any outdoor
application, will illuminate for the entire night and -provided you get quality
models - will last 20 years without maintenance or defect.
These dramatic increases in solar outdoor lighting reliability are due to
recent advances in two areas of technology: photovoltaic cells and the
introduction of the Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulb.
The photovoltaic cell is the technology that "captures" the sun's energy. In
the 1980's, these cells could absorb only about 5% of the sunlight they were
exposed to. Today this figure is moving past 15% and as further development of
the compounds used in these cells continues (they are now silicon based but
other compounds are being studied) they will only get more efficient.
Perhaps even more exciting has been the introduction of the solid state LED
bulb. This technology involves manipulating electrons and moving them in a
certain direction so that photons are produced. This creation of photons is the
visible light. Unlike the traditional incandescent bulb, there is no excited
gas, no burning filament, and therefore next to no heat production. Almost all
of the energy produced is used as light. The bulbs last for 10,000 hours,
require no maintenance and draw on average only three to five watts.
Today's solar lights are excellent value
One of the biggest critiques of solar lights in the past has been the
intensity of brightness they produce. This was a fair comment, but today's solar
lights are much brighter. Many mistake the term watt as a measure of brightness,
which of course, it is not.
A watt is the measurement of the power required to operate something. If
talking about only one type of light bulb, then there is a relationship; a 40w
incandescent bulb will not be as bright as a 60w bulb. But when dealing with
different technologies, this comparison is not fair. Indeed, one LED bulb
drawing between three and five watts will produce the same brightness as a 40w
bulb. And many solar lights are now manufactured with multiple LEDs, therefore
producing light much brighter than the glow of a traditional 40w incandescent
product.
More and more consumers are realizing that outdoor accent lighting really
does have an enormous effect in creating a beautiful nightscape environment.
Some prefer a low voltage lighting system because they will illuminate for the
entire period of darkness and are reliable and energy efficient. Other consumers
prefer the solar outdoor lighting solution because these lights are now just as
reliable, are far easier to install and can be moved around at whim when trying
different effects. There is also a satisfaction in getting free energy from the
sun! But whatever the choice, there is no denying that residential outdoor
lighting systems are becoming a standard feature on millions of properties.
About the author
Kavar Peter is a successful
freelance writer with a strong interest in renewable energy issues. He
writes regularly about
solar
powered products including
garden
lighting and
pathway lighting solutions. Copyright Kavar Peter 2005
Source:
www.go-articles.com