Choosing The Right Garden Light

Garden lights are outdoor lighting meant to illuminate and decorate the exterior of a home and other types of buildings. Landscapers use garden lights to highlight and accentuate areas of the garden, home or other landscape. Of course, the same lighting also serves practical purposes in making it easier for people to see at night and to avoid possible hazards. For example illuminating your swimming pool, fish pond, or other water garden features can make them a real feature of your garden after dark.

Garden lights are a great way to add to the beauty and attractiveness of a home or building while at the same time making it safer and more pleasant to walk through during the night. The range of available garden lights allows you to choose the option that best serves your pricing, utilitarian and aesthetic requirements

In order to save money on outdoor lighting, many people choose to use solar garden lights that are powered by solar cells. These lights charge during the day using the Sun’s rays and automatically turn on at night. Some solar garden lights are self-contained having their own solar cells while others are wired to large solar panels. Some solar lights even float and can be used with water gardens.

There is a great range of standalone solar garden lights that are disguised as other parts of you garden. For example you can find lights disguised as rocks, branches and more! These are an interesting and unobtrusive way to add an accent to features in your garden.

If saving power is your top priority, low voltage garden lighting fits the bill. It also increases safety. These garden lights will typically have wattage in the 20W to 50W range. There are both bulb-type and LED low voltage lighting options.

Garden spot lights are designed to illuminate a specific area of the landscape that you desire to highlight. Spot lights are like flood lights, providing high intensity illumination. The wiring for these lights is often hidden in a trench or conduit underground. Solar spot lights are also available, powered by solar panels. Some garden spot lights use flames as their source of lighting. Gas and oil are typical fuels for flame-powered garden spot lights. This can be an economical alternative, as spotlights do use a lot more electricity than a standard bulb. However I have seen some beautiful examples of feature trees lit up by a spotlight, visible from a deck or patio.

LED garden lights use light emitting diodes (LEDs) which have the benefits of a long bulb life and low power usage for the light they produce. These types of garden lights tend to have a lower intensity of illumination which gives a soft quality to the lighting. You may have to deploy more of them to light up a large area. LED garden lights can be solar-powered, battery-powered or wired to another electrical source. With increasing interest in renewable energy, LED lights are the bulb of choice for their low power use and examples can be found hooked up to waterwheels, windmills, and even treadmills for the really keen garden and exercise enthusiast!