So you’re thinking about buying some solar landscape lights?
I am often asked if we would install solar lights. Although I’m thinking many different things at that moment (and unfortunately, very few of those thoughts are positive) I simply smile and say, “As of now, there is not a solar light available that is worth the money, or will do a very good job enhancing your landscape; so no, I do not install solar landscape lights.”
However, let me say that I am definitely in favor of saving energy, and I think that solar is a great way of producing electricity. And I love the sun – who doesn’t love the sun?
But so far, every solar light fixture product I have seen is so sub-standard that I can’t risk my own reputation or integrity to stand behind them, to be quite honest. They use very cheap LED chips which give off an ugly blue hue. As color is such an important part of the desired design result, this is unacceptable. They also do not produce enough lumens to actually illuminate anything, including a walkway. The solar path lights seen in many neighborhoods are actually nothing more than walkway markers because all you really see are eerie glowing balls. There is not nearly enough light to create a safe walkway or highlight a step. Sadly, in my experience, solar spot or flood lights are pretty much an industry joke in every aspect.
Why is it that these solar landscape lights just don’t work?
In order for a solar reception panel to collect enough sunlight to power a lighting fixture it has to meet several important criteria: size and direction matter. Because the solar panel on these plastic light fixtures is so small, there is just no way for it to collect, convert and produce an adequate amount of energy to charge the battery which will then operate the LED illuminator with enough lumens to make a difference in the landscape. Then, if you place the fixture in a shady area, or clouds move over it – forget it.
You can get a pretty good idea of the complexities of solar energy production from this article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power
After getting all of that off of my chest, I can say that there actually is a way to get great solar powered landscape lighting! I promise that I’m not losing my mind here – stay with me ….
One of the great things about LED landscape lighting is that it uses so much less energy than the old halogen lighting – about 75% less in fact. Therefore, we can operate a lighting system off of a solar collection system – and the collector does not have to be very large, depending on how much lighting is needed. As long as there is a place where a solar collection system can get plenty of sunshine, then there is no reason now that a solar outdoor lighting system can’t be created. To learn more than you probably need to know about these systems and how they work, you can check out this article:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_collector
Here you see one of our solar systems. It uses a 2’x4′ solar collection panel and a deep cycle marine battery. The lighting operated from dusk to dawn with the use of a photocell.
Here in central Texas, we have a lot of ranches with really interesting rock entries, particularly down dark county roads, far away from the city lights. We recently had the opportunity to work with a ranch owner who posed this dilemma: They have a solar operated gate control, but people can’t see the gate area at night as they’re driving by. This is bad for guests and emergency responders. By installing a separate solar powered lighting system at his gate, we were not only able to make his ranch entry easy to find, it also shows off the cool rock gate structure with the added light enhancement! One more bonus — it costs less than installing an electrical service, AND there’s no monthly usage fee!
We also have a few other solar systems in the area which use this very same collection system. But I must say that not everything is perfect. The other day I got an email from one of our solar clients and a phone call from another. They both informed me that their lighting was not working. I then reminded them that we had been under cloud cover for about 11 days in a row and so their batteries were probably dead since they weren’t able to charge. Sure enough, the next day we had a full day of sunshine and all was well in the world. Here in central Texas we don’t get a whole lot of cloudy days in a row very often but it does happen a few times a year.
Do you have an area that might be a good place for a solar lighting system? We can evaluate the area and let you know if it’s possible to go with solar. Contact us here for a free consultation.
