Using Lighting in your Landscape

Do solar powered landscape lighting systems work well? Yup! Just make sure to clean your Batteries! Solar is a great way to get energy but it also requires a little bit of maintenence yes they work very well and are pretty an night with just the right amount of light to see for walking yes--they r nice!! They work,but they are merely accent lights.I would use them for "security lights" About as bright as a candle.They are also somwhat $.You would need to buy a lot of them to really be effective. The ones I got from QVC have been going for 18 months with the same batteries. I love 'em. They don't throw off as much light as wired lights, though, so if you're doing up-lighting or something like that, you might check out your options. I guess others have had better luck with them than I have. I didn't care for mine and I tried two types. I like to put my lights near and around my plants and shrubs, rather than just along the walkways. So they just didn't work well for me. Solars produce a yellowish light, so they were very dull looking. I like the brighter look, so that you can subtly see the flowers and shrubs in the light. I'm surprised so many say yes to them, I think they're much too dim, they cast hardly any light power. I love the 12v systems, Many more choices of light direction and intensity. The do a much better job lighting the way! I have had them for years and I like them. I prefer the Malibu brand. They have held up well haven't yet had to change the batteries some are going on 4 years old. Get the ones that have the white light compared to the orangey yellow color as they are much brighter. We can't wait for them to be perfected!!! We have tried several brands and while still living in Canada blamed their poor preformance on lack of sunlight. Well, I can tell you they get enough sunlight here in Barabados and still do not perform that well - when they come on at all. Where as, we do not have a hot water heater - all of our hot water is solar heated and boy does that get hot!!! If you like fireflies in a jar. Solar is a good idea but so is an electric car. The problem is the light out put. The LED light is very efficient but the light level and color quality leaves much to be desired. I think the people that rave about Solar haven't been exposed to really good landscape lighting where the lighting design is the most important part. Check these guys out (ELS). They helped me with my lighting and it turned out great. I used the Vista Pro brand. We tried them along a walkway and were very disappointed. The light they produced was very dim at best. We soon replaced them with low voltage wired lights. We now use the solar lights on a boat dock and still consider them ineffective. Good luck with your lighting project.