Outdoor solar lights have come a long way in the last few years and you can now use them for a variety of different uses outside your home.  In fact, solar lights can even form the backbone of your outdoor lighting system.  Here are a few of the best ways that you can use solar lights.

One of the most useful places that you can install solar lights are on any decks, patios, or porches that you have and plan to use for a gathering areas.  For lighting here    , you want to choose a solar garden lamp that matches the style of your home and will cast a wide circle of light, without being too bright.   This will allow people to see what they’re doing, but it will also make sure you keep the nighttime atmosphere.

Solar lights are also very useful along your driveway and other paths leading around your property.  For lighting here, you will want to install lights that are low to the ground and cast their glow down.  This will help people to keep their night vision and will also keep the lights out of their eyes. Just make sure that you install the lights on alternating sides of the paths so that you avoid giving your driveway the look of an airport runway.

Finally, solar lights work incredibly well as accent lights as well.  For accent lighting you want to have a series of small solar powered spotlights that are concentrated on illuminating an interesting part of your property, whether it is a fountain, bird bath, or a large tree.  Be careful not to apply too much of this though, less lights many times result in greater effects.

There are many great ways to add solar garden lighting to your property.  Start thinking of a few ways that you can add some to yours today.

Your landscaping can really be improved by installing driveway lights.  Driveway lights are low voltage lights that are spaced evenly along the perimeter of both sides of your driveway.  While they are utilitarian in purpose and designed to help prevent you from accidentally driving over the edge of your driveway while you’re backing out at night, they are also quite pleasing to look at.  It’s difficult to see a person’s landscaping during the night but installing solar driveway lights can really make a lasting impression on people who visit your home that night.

Many people who install driveway lights often make the mistake of getting the spacing unequal.  It may not be very apparent during the day as you are laying out the driveway lights that the spacing isn’t correct but at night when the lights are on, it will be quite blaring.  To get the best results when installing driveway lights use a tape measure to space the driveway lights evenly along the edge of your driveway.  Be sure and take the extra effort to make sure that the lights are at the same distance from of each other on both sides of the driveway for the best results.

Before you install driveway lights you’ll have to decide which type you want to purchase.  There are two choices when purchasing driveway lights.  The first type of driveway lights are the kind that are connected to each other with electrical wires.  At the end of the electrical wire run, there will be a plug with a transformer on it that is designed to lower the voltage to 12 volt DC.  The reason these driveway lights have the transformer is for safety sake.  If the driveway lights were not low voltage, you would have to bury the wires extremely deep and run them through some heavy duty plastic electrical conduit.  Because these driveway lights use low voltage electricity, you only need to bury the wire a couple of inches under the soil.

If the idea of working with electrical wiring turns you off, you probably be better off choosing the next type of driveway lights and that solar driveway lighting.  These solar lights are much easier to install.  There’s absolutely no wiring at all.  All you have to do is take the solar driveway lights out of the box and press them into the ground or glue them to your driveway.  Solar lights are also cheaper to operate.  After buying them, they’ll never cost you a penny on your electric bill.

Someone asked me a question the other day about solar lights. I had no idea what they were, so I had to look it up. I probably could have guessed actually, because the name is pretty self explanatory.

Solar lights are those little lights you’ve probably seen on pathways around hotels when you’re on holiday. Very ingenious little devices they are too. Basically they have a solar panel at the top, which charges the battery during the day. Then, when night falls, the light comes on automatically and stays on until the battery runs out (usually six to eight hours or so).

Click on image to order from Amazon.com

Solar lighting is becoming increasingly popular these days. Whereas in the past you would only find them at commercial establishments like hotels, conference centres, etc, more and more people are now buying solar powered lights for their own gardens. This is probably due to a couple of reasons. First, solar panels and solar technology has become steadily cheaper over the last few years and second, recent advancements in LED (light emitting diode) designs enable LED lighting to be much more powerful than before. LED lamps consume much less power than traditional filament lamps, so are ideal for solar lighting, where the amount of power available is not great (particularly in the less than sunny climate of the UK!).

Outdoor solar lights are very easy to install and use. Typically they come on a stake, which you just shove into the ground. Of course, it goes without saying that you should never hammer the stake into the ground with a mallet while the lamp is on top, otherwise you will smash both the solar panel and the lamp itself. The lamps are usually detachable from the stakes, so make sure you hammer the stake in first, then attach the lamp.

Most varieties of solar outdoor lamps are automatic, i.e. they have a sensor so they can switch themselves on when light gets below a certain level. Some come with a switch that allows you to power them on or off yourself, but to be honest it is a lot easier to just “set and forget”.

Another popular application for this technology is with solar Christmas lights and solar fairy lights. These can look great when surrounding the trees in your garden during the festive season. Of course, the only problem is that in the winter months there isn’t ha huge amount of sunlight, so they may not stay charged for very long!

Solar lights are a great invention, and very environmentally friendly too!