Easy to Install Solar Garden Lights

Solar lighting provides a simple way to light gardens, pathways, highlight garden ornaments, and evoke atmosphere in your landscape and garden. Since you do not need to hire an electrician to bury wires, easy to install garden lights are not only low-cost, they are easy to move around. Unlike fluorescent lighting which can be harsh, solar-powered lighting produces a soft glow. Its little wonder that solar garden lighting is so popular.

Solar garden lights work naturally and efficiently, drawing their energy and storing it during daylight hours from the sun, then releasing it at night. Comprised of solar cells encased in plastic housing, sitting atop the light fixture, the cells are wired to rechargeable batteries that store energy. The built-in photoresistor detects darkness, then turns on automatically its LED light, much the same way your new car headlights sense darkness and turn on automatically.

While solar garden lights are easy to install and maintain, there are several things to consider before making a purchase at your garden or home improvement center:

• Since solar garden lighting needs sufficient sunlight in order to charge during daylight hours, make sure to place them in locations that receive at least six hours of direct sunlight daily.
• Decide upon the type of garden lights you want. You can choose from staked lighting, placed directly into the ground, or hanging lights or lanterns.
• Are there special areas of your garden to accent at night? If so, consider buying solar spotlights staked into the ground to shine softly on your splendid garden ornaments. A delightful garden fairy looks luminous in night solar lighting.
• Don't neglect your walking paths at night. Invite visitors and guests for a summer nighttime stroll through your gardens, softly lit with solar garden lighting and panels. Visit your local retailer to discuss the right lighting to fit your space and garden accents, or buy them online.
• Realize that solar garden lighting is moveable, but wait a week or two after installation before you relocate them. Solar garden lighting needs a full week of sunlight to work optimally at night. If you discover a few nights after installation that the lights aren't bright enough, give them more time to charge before returning them for a different brand or a refund.

If you find that you have an area of your garden that you want to light with solar lights, yet it is a shady area, you do have the option of installing solar panels in a different location, wired to the lights in the shade, in order to absorb the sunlight needed to power the light at night. Although that option is more expensive, you will provide light in those shaded areas at night for a beautiful summer evening enjoying your garden on a bench by that moss-covered toad statue.