Answers
I want to know what will provide excellent spotlighting for the landscape and will hold full charge providing great lighting throughout the night. Also what is easy to install. I want the most for my money
NONE ! Sorry to put it that way but there is no such thing a a good solar landscape light. Even though other will probably chime in saying they have some they like. You need to go with a 12 volt system which you can install yourself or the 120 volt which you will need an electrician.
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I've heard of lights that use capacitors but have only found them in paver type applications. I am looking for traditional "stake" lighting.
no, thats how solar works you use the sun to charge batt, then use the power at night, I have a set of 12 that i got thru Harbor freight 3 yrs ago there still working,
they were around $20
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.
No, they may not tarnish either. Most of the landscape lights you buy will be pre-finished and coated with a clear protectant. Our copper lights have been outside for months without any damage at all, they are coated in a clear sealer by the manufacturer. If yours are (and they probably are) the most you should need to do is wipe them clean every so often. If they are not, over time they will darken and slowly turn green, the package should say if they aren't. There are any number of commercial cleaners out there to clean the tarnish off, some very good home remedies too. If they do tarnish and you don't like it, you can clean them and coat them with a clear sealer yourself so they don't tarnish again. I like Minwax Satin Finish Acrylic Sealer, which you should be able to get at Home Depot, or Lowes.
Electrical line is already available so what are pros and cons other than ease of installation for solar-powered? This is for a walkway from our driveway to front steps.
Also, how about low-voltage vs normal voltage?
To answer your question properly, one would need to know why you are wanting landscape lights & the location of those lights.
Most people only want a decorative effect & therefore don't need full-blown hard-wired lights. Good quality solars will be fine for them.
Solar-Powered Lights | Alternative Energy HQ
While some alternative energy solutions for the home, such as complete solar energy systems, require a major investment for their initial installation, there are others which are not so complicated.
Solar lights are relatively simple to acquire and install, and are powered by clean energy. Since they usually require no wiring, they are very simple to set up.
Solar garden lights (or solar landscape lights) are one example of this. Solar garden lights have solar panels embedded into them at the top, facing the sun. Of course one drawback of these is that they might not stay lit forever. The amount of sun they receive will influence how long they last. The specifications of these lights can give you some idea of how long they will stay lit in the dark. But 8-12 hours is not an unusual estimate for a reasonably priced light, which should be plenty of time to get through the night in most circumstances.
Furthermore, these lights usually have sensors so that they turn on automatically at dusk and turn off when the sun starts shining again. This means that you don't have to run your lights the whole night through, if you don't need to. Motion sensors are also used in some solar lights, such as those that would be placed along pathways or near the front door, so that the lights turn on when an person or animal is present. This is good for security, and its also good for just seeing where you are going when you walk in a garden or path, or approach a home in the dark.
...How To Use Solar Powered Landscape Lighting | travelcrowd.net
Take a walk past a public garden at night an you will probably not notice what makes it so appealing when the sun goes down. It is literally right in front of you, but you will not recognize it. It is the fact that the public garden is lit up using light sources.
Like most public gardens, a team of professionals is employed to design and install the landscape. This team will arrange and plant all of the foliage, statues and rocks needed to create a pleasing look. In addition to this, they will also develop a lighting scheme that will highlight the garden’s features at night. If you are not a professional landscape designer, do not worry. The ease of installing outdoor light fixtures will allow you to achieve the same results.
Once you decide to install lighting for your garden, you might be put off by the increased power needed for the lights and the increased cost associated with it. Fortunately for you, there are solar lighting fixtures that require no electricity to run. These solar lights can be placed anywhere that receives alot of sunlight during the daylight hours.
...News
Start small with solarCharlotte Observer - Feb 04, 2011
Landscape lighting. You#39;re not going to read the newspaper by most of these lights, but they#39;re cheap. You can illuminate a tree or light a pathway. and morenbsp;raquo;
News Virginian - Feb 07, 2011
A proposal to run power lines to the site proved cost-prohibitive, so solar panels were installed to power landscape lighting, Askew said.R D Magazine - Feb 11, 2011
What#39;s ecomagination Mean to You? (Gallery)(Translation: Landscape of the forest to the castle of Montmorency Hunting.) Category: Light and Water. Titled, Chalaine 11, by GeneMariePhotography.Huffington Post (blog) - Feb 09, 2011
Within the year, our house became solar-powered and what we don#39;t use, we give back to the grid (aka, our neighbors). It#39;s hard to imagine that any oneAmerican Thinker - Jan 17, 2011
Obama#39;s Solar NightmareWere the lights, at least, run on solar power? The landscape of America will be littered with these green scheme boondoggles going belly-up after gorging at and morenbsp;raquo;National Geographic - Feb 04, 2011
With a design using 40 percent less steel than other stadiums, integration with mass transit, and use of solar power and reclaimed water it would aim to be
IBTimes - Jan 26, 2011
The city is energy independent, generating much of its power from a vast parabolic trough-style concentrated solar power plant. This alone should produce