Solar powered garden lights are examples of lantern lights that are becoming more and more common as they are easy to put in and do not add to your monthly electricity bill. There are a huge assortment of solar lantern lights to pick from including lantern lights, pathway lights, hanging lights, globe lights and solar lights made in the shape of flowers. A number of them come with a stake to simply set in the ground. They all have rechargeable batteries which employ solar energy amassed during the day to charge them and they generally turn on without human intervention at twilight.

Advantages of Solar Lighting

Solar garden lights do not require any wiring so there are no trailing wires that can be a risk to family and pets or that require widespread burying underneath the ground. They are extremely trouble-free to install, simply set the post in the ground, or hang them from an appropriate tree or post. You can set them to come on automatically at nightfall, and they don’t use any electricity so they are really economical to run once purchased.

Some Disadvantages of Solar Garden Lighting

The main drawback of solar garden lighting are the rechargeable batteries which tend not to be able to collect enough energy to last through the hours of darkness and need to be replaced every few years. In addition they have only a very minute area of solar panels that can only collect a small amount of energy. The power stored gives only a small number of hours of illumination which tends to decrease as the batteries get older. Nevertheless if all you really need is lighting for an evening they will almost certainly be enough. The advantage, that they need no wiring or detailed setting up, turns into a shortcoming, as what is effortlessly put in place can be just as easily removed. This makes them exposed to pilfering unless you fix them in position as you would do with a conventional light.

They make use of energy from the sun so they require a certain quantity of sunlight to recharge the batteries. They cannot consequently be used in sheltered places, or on walls that are in the shadow for part of the day. They only work really well when there’s sufficient sunlight so can work disappointingly during the winter months.

Is Solar Lighting Environmentally Friendly?

Well, partially! They do not use any electricity, so there is no impact on the environment there. They do use rechargeable batteries which need to be replaced and disposed of. However we would conclude that they are undoubtedly more environmentally friendly than wired lights.

Conclusion

If you require illumination for just a few hours in the evening in an area that is in complete sunshine throughout the daylight hours, solar garden lights would be suitable. Be equipped to change the batteries every couple of years and if you consider your backyard is vulnerable enough for theft to be a problem you might want to install them into the ground more firmly than usual.