Landscape Lighting – a Useful Decorating Product for Your Home

Landscape lighting and ceiling lighting is growing in appeal amongst homeowners. Along walkways and entry points to your home, landscape lighting can provide a measure of security as the light will deter most would-be burglars. Lighting is also necessary to increase the safety of your yard and garden for your family and any guests when you entertain. Of course, the wide selection of outdoor lighting options available can also add a lovely decorative effect to your yard which not only improves night time usability but also adds tremendous curb appeal.

The variety of landscape lighting products is quite staggering. There are lamps that can be hung from hooks or porch ceilings to illuminate your outdoor entertaining spaces such as decks or patios. Outdoor lights can be found in post styles which are wonderful for lining pathways or brightening entries. Lighting fixtures for landscape lighting come in every type of material and finish so you can easily blend your outdoor lighting into your yard and garden designs.

There are many small landscape lighting products that are used for spotlighting or highlighting the features in your yard. They can be used to bring attention to areas that you want as the focal points in your yard as well as draw attention away from areas that you don't want people to notice. By highlighting statuary, fountains and other ornamental elements, you not only increase the visual appeal of your yard but you are also increasing safety by lighting possible hazards to someone walking through your garden areas.
Landscape lights can be used to create many effects, depending on what you are going for. You can choose lights that add drama to your patio area or a whimsical touch throughout your garden paths. Larger light fixtures add a measure of safety and security and can even come in motion sensing styles which save money on utility bills. Outdoor lighting is necessary if you want to be able to safely use your yard at night. With the options available, you can add beauty to your landscaping as well.

Landscape Lighting - Increasing Garden Value

You must carefully plan the lighting for your garden. If you do not plan well, the whole purpose of the lighting will backfire. A well thought out landscape lighting system will increase the value of your garden and create a specific mood.

The two most common general methods for landscape lighting include "general purpose lighting" and "special purpose lighting". General purpose lighting will light up the whole garden at night.

Special purpose lighting is used to create mood, and it spotlights certain areas of your garden such as rock gardens, water features, or specific plants or trees. The light and shadow effects that result from this special purpose night lighting can be amazing. The shadows that you can create can be as interesting and as important as the lighted areas.

One sample lighting setup that is cheap and easy to create is "Japanese garden lamps". These lamps are carved in stone and can be used to line pathways. They are both functional and moody.

It is very important to start planning your lighting system early. You will need to lay the wiring underground before creating paths or other features to avoid extra work in the future.

If you wish, you can avoid using any wiring at all by using solar lighting. This type of lighting uses the power of the sun to make electricity. It stores the energy in a battery during the day to be used at night or at any time in the future. The battery is made out of nickel-cadmium, which works much better than the original lead-acid batteries.

The standard outdoor landscape light bulb has been replaced by an LED, which uses less power. These improvements have made solar power much more practical. You must place the lights in an area that receives plenty of direct sunlight during the day for them to work as well as possible, though. Shadows from trees or your house will reduce the effectiveness.

If you cannot avoid placing the solar powered lights in a shady area, special versions of the lights are available where the solar cell and battery are located away from the lights. This way, you can place the lights where you need them but they can still get power from direct sunlight.

This is a good way to light shady areas during the day as well. To make this possible, you will have to run wiring from the light fixture and the solar cell and battery. Again, planning this ahead of time will save you time and money. You will want the distance that the wiring has to go to be as short as possible.

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Solar Powered Landscape Lighting

Solar powered landscape lighting is becoming very popular these days and was even featured on Good Morning America, August 28, 2008. There is really no reason to use traditional wired landscape lighting unless there are areas of the garden that just do not get enough sunlight. Solar lighting is powered by the sun and must have some sunlight in order to operate properly. Five hours of sunlight is usually enough to keep the battery charged and ready for operation come nightfall. The lights use a photoelectric cell that turns them on at dusk and off in the morning.


Solar Lights are made from a variety of materials, such as plastic, metal or stainless steel. The lighting mechanism is almost always LED lights. LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) are quite bright, draw very little current and last a very long time, typically up to 50,000 hours. There is a battery to store the power, usually Lithium Ion or more commonly Nickel Metal Hydride. These batteries last about 2 years before they have to be replaced. The very inexpensive plastic lights do not have replaceable batteries, something to consider. There is a small solar panel on top of the light fixture to generate power during the daylight hours to keep the battery charged, so the light will function at night. These lights are very safe and quite easy to install. Just find a location that gets ample sunlight, use the ground mount stake and drive it into the ground. Be careful not to hit the stake with a hammer if it is made of plastic, it may be damaged. Some lights can even be mounted on walls, posts or fences and often come with all of the mounting hardware necessary.


There are a wide variety of lights to choose from as well as a variety of applications. Solar walkway lights, light up paths or walkways. Solar spotlights light up trees and other outdoor features. Solar Shed lights light up remote storage sheds with easy installation and minimal wiring. Solar address lights are self explanatory and there are even patio umbrellas with solar lights for that dinner party on the deck after sunset. The lights usually come in sets but the number of lights in a set varies. Some have two per set; some have four and some six. Prices seem to vary considerably with some sets costing $30 to $40 and others closer to $100. The difference in cost is reflected by the quality and brightness of the lights, how long they will last and styling.


So if you are considering installing solar powered landscape lighting you might want to ask yourself a couple of questions first. Is there enough sunlight to keep the lights powered? What kind of application will they be used for? What kind of styling do I like? Am I looking for lights that will last a long time or do I just need them to last a little while? How and where will I mount the light and is all of the mounting hardware included? There are prices, styles and types for any budget or taste. Solar outdoor lighting is a great way to improve the look of your home and to improve the outdoor safety of your home. They are very easy to install and on top of every thing else, they will lower your energy costs.