Cheap solar garden lights online
This is relatively long guide about everything you need to know about solar garden lights. I tend to do these long posts once in a while to give you everything you need to know before you make a purchase. In this guide, you will learn what how these solar lights work, what are their benefits, how to install them, where and how to buy cheap lights online and what the brands you can consider. It is going to be a long read so, let’s get going.
How solar garden lights work?
The way they work is through a small photovoltaic (PV) cell. This technology allows the lights to absorb, and charge an integral battery during the day. The battery does the job of storing the power so that the lights can be used when there is no sunlight. Most of these lights contain a sensor that can detect whether it is night or day. Once it knows that darkness has fall, it will activate the garden lights, which draw their power from the internal battery.
Benefits of solar garden lights
If you under the previous section, you will know the straight forward benefit is the savings you can achieve for your household lighting. The solar lights takes the energy from the sun and converts them into light, helping you to cut down on your electricity. Over the long run, this will actually save you quite a bit of money.
Another benefit is helping the environment. Solar energy is a form of clean energy that doesn’t pollute the environment like fossil fuel does. It is also replenish-able , which means we have no fear of running out of it. In this time where we are facing a global climate crisis, we should contribute what we can to reduce pollution.
Finally, these lights can beautiful our garden landscape. If you know something about night gardening, you will understand that proper lighting can help to enhance our landscape. For more impact, you can opt for the color changing solar lights. These give off different colors and during night time, they add quite a festival mood to your garden. Perfect for Christmas or Halloween.
Types of solar lights
Solar powered lights come in a variety of designs. There is the patio lights which are typically installed along the walkway, or the staircase area. There is also the hanging lights variety where they will be either be suspended on a string or wire and/or mounted on top of your garden fences. For more unique types, there are the decorative lights that may take the form of animals, human figures and any other weird or usual shape.
In terms of bulbs, there are two common types: the LED solar garden lights and regular incandescent lights. The former is recent invention. They are able to longer than incandescent bulbs and give you more mileage and cost savings per bulb. Their drawback is the lack of the ‘warmth’ glow that incandescent lights are capable of producing.
How to install solar garden lights
Before installation, you need to figure where you want the lights to be placed. The rule of thumb is to locate them in direct sunshine during the day. The thing to note is to place them under tree shades which is the common mistake people make during the installation.
Next, you need to decide on how many solar lights do you need. That will depend on how large your garden is and how brightly lit you want it to be. Take note though that these lights tend to be significantly dimmer than your average garden light. Therefore, you may need more than the typical number of lights. A general guide is that solar powered garden lights should be placed every 5 feet at least for optimal lighting.
Talking about installation, the process of getting these spotlights to work is a no brainer. Most manufacturers will provide supplied a detailed manual that contains instruction on how to set things up. Just follow the steps and you will be able to get your lights up easily. If you need further instructions, you can always call their helpline, which is provided in the manual as well.
Buying solar lights online
Now, you might be thinking about where to buy these lights. My advice is to go online where you can also compare prices and features more easily. Amazon for example provides more models and selections than what the local retailer can provide. If you want to find the cheapest prices, this is where you need to be. You will be amazed that some of the resellers you find there can offer very competitive prices. If you are thinking of buy some spotlights, I seriously recommend you to go online.
Compared to a couple of years back, the prices of these solar lights have been coming down for the past years. They have become much more affordable and in fact have soon be cheaper than your traditional lighting. If you purchased the lights online, you can get even lower prices due to the savings in having a physical store. That is why I have strongly encouraged you to go online.
The best time to buy cheap lights is always after the festival season. This is when retailers are trying to clear their wholesale inventory. If you are in a hurry, this is be the best time to buy. Expect lots of discount or budgeted items after say Christmas. Trust me on this. I have purchased them before during this season and I have seen discounts of up to even 50% or half price.
When browsing through the shopping sites, there are a couple of things that can tell whether this is a site to buy from. Try to go for stores that offer warranties and a return policy. There are some brands that produce durable solar lights and these have no problems guaranteeing that you can enjoy your lights for a couple of lights.
Also, try to buy from sites that have decent presentation. Look out for if they have good navigation that not only helps to direct the customers but recommend relevant products as well. Good images of the products are a big plus as they indicate professionalism and seriously in their online sales. Sites that don’t offer these is an indication that they might be not focusing on provided some customer service through the Web.
If you don’t like to buy online and would rather find a local store, here are some tips for you as well. Try to find a good online directory such as Yelp that can give you a list of local stores that carry such products. After finding these stores, you can call them and enquire about the availability of the model before going to the store itself. This will help you save lots of time. For bigger selection, go to stores like Walmart or Ikea for solar lights. They carry a wide selection and their customer service is always top notch, especially those from Ikea.
If there is no local directory, try Google instead. These are some the search terms that you can use to find relevant results. Try to key in the type of products such as “solar garden lights” or solar garden spotlights or solar hanging lights etc + some location modifier keywords. What are these location modifier keywords? Here are some examples:
Country keywords: Because the Web is so US centric, you might want the results to be filtered by country. For these, you can type in keywords such as “solar lights UK” or “solar lights Australia” + “solar lights Canada“. These will hopefully help you narrow the results to your country
City keywords: If you think country is too board, you might use the city names as the modifier keywords instead. Again, you can type in things like “solar lights” + “New Mexico” or “Montana” or “London” or “Colorado”. These will typically give you only results that are based in your location.
Sometimes, you can also some different variation for the word solar lights as these will give you different results. For example, some people use solar lanterns while others might use words such as solar lamp posts or even solar flagshops. Just try different names and see what Google gives you.
Solar light brands
When you first start browsing, you might be confused about which brands offer the most reliable and durable solar garden lights. Personally, I like Westinghouse. Their solar lights are easy to install and offer very solid build. For example, they use glass light bulbs instead of the cheap plastic that many other brands use. In addition, they also offer a wide range of models that can fit into your garden. For small gardens, you can try their solar mini lights or even their spotlight range, which figures all kinds of animal and/or special shapes.
How to maintain and clean solar lights
Once you have finished all completed all the above, let’s talk a bit about maintenance. Right off the bat, I must say there is actually minimal maintenance you have to do though there are still somethings you need to do if you want the lights to last longer. For traditional garden lights that used batteries, you need to replace them frequently and that not only costs money but time as well. With solar lights, there is no worry about the lack of power. While there might be rainy or cloudy days, you will be surprised at how little sunlight these spotlights need to be powered up. In addition, the rechargable batteries that manufacturers provide you can last you a long while. This install-and-hands-off process is something I really like.
In terms of cleaning, just make sure you take the effort of cleaning the bulbs once every 6 months. You will be surprised at how much dirt they can accumulate inside the bulbs. If you don’t get these dirt out, they will affect not only the brightness of the bulbs but also operating of the lights themselves. What you need to do is just take them apart once each season and dust or clean the inside of the fixture with a damp rag.
Also, during winter, it is good practice to store your lights inside your home if your area will experience lots of snow. Solar lights are reported to be designed for all types of weather; however, if your lights have glass panels, they may be affected by snow and extreme cold. If you decide to store them, be sure to turn the switches to the Off position to save your batteries, and store them in a closed box or other dark place.
Other solar products for your outdoor garden
Besides solar lights, there are actually other solar items that can complement your garden as well. Solar foundation is one example. You can have a foundation centerpiece that your lights can shine upon, creating the feeling of majestic garden. There are many other types of solar garden item but this post is already too long. I will leave it to my next post.
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If you like tips for bathroom lighting, I recommend that you click on that link. It has lots of useful information that I am sure that can you in your buying of any form of bathroom lighting.
Hope you like this post on cheap solar garden lights online.