Selecting and Installing Solar Powered Lamps for Your Garden Using solar powered lamps in your garden will allow visitors to admire and appreciate it even at night. This article describes how these lamps work, and how to select the right lamps to use in your garden. Many new homes are being constructed with small gardens in the front yards. These gardens are often very beautiful, containing flowers and small shrubs. The delicate exquisiteness of these plants is something to be admired. In daylight it can be quite easy to see and admire these fragile gardens, but at night, without proper lighting, they cannot be appreciated whatsoever.
Lighting What’s more, if not properly lit, the garden may end up trampled under the foot of an unwary caller. Yet, installing electrical lights can be problematic at best. Wires would have to be run underground. In order to prevent the hazard of a person being shocked any time he dug down into the soil, the wires would have be buried very deep indeed. Such work, if not done before the garden was created and planted, would cost a fortune to be done after it was in bloom. The entire garden might have to be ripped up. Even if the lights were merely used to light a path, the time and effort to lay the wire would be more than most people would even want to consider. Indeed, this seems to be a troubling problem with no clear solution. That was the case until recently. Not long ago, developments in the realm of solar powered electronics led to the advent of the solar powered lamp. These tiny sources of light are virtually autonomous and independent.
Solar Power All that is required for them to operate properly is exposure to a good amount of sunshine. As with all types of solar powered equipment, these lights have small panels on top of them which collect energy from sunlight. These panels are not only able to collect the energy, but store it as well. The panels are composed of photovoltaic cells. The scientific appellation “photovoltaic” refers to light and batteries. What solar panels do is store energy from the sun in batteries for use later on. A solar powered lamp, then, stores the energy of the sun for use when it is dark outside. The lamps are often able to “sense” when it is dark using a photo sensitive device.
When a sufficient amount of light is no longer detected by the device, the lamp is triggered to turn on. Thus, a solar powered lamp will turn on by itself, without the help of a person. One or more light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, generate the luminosity of the lamp. LEDs are very bright and economical.
LEDs The LEDs are activated when the energy is released from the battery, allowing it to flow to the LED. As previously mentioned, this generally happens as a result of the photo sensitive device no longer receiving a sufficient amount of light. If you choose to use solar powered lamps to illuminate your garden or path, there are a few considerations to keep in mind while purchasing and installing these fixtures. The first consideration to make is how many lamps you will need. Make sure that you have a general idea of how many will be needed to properly illuminate the area. Keep in mind that small rises may block some of the light being emitted by the lamps. When purchasing the lamps, try to find a model that will go well with your landscaping and home design. Remember these lamps will be entirely visible during the day, so you don’t want them to be an eyesore.
Installation After you have purchased your lamps, take the time to test all of them before installing them. You will be saving yourself some unnecessary grief. It is best to test them on a sunny day, for obvious reasons. Set the lamps out in your yard, keeping them upright. Allow the lamps to charge for the entire day. If any of the lamps does not light, you will probably need to change the battery or just exchange it for a working one. When you are ready to install the lamps, make sure that the area you are attempting to illuminate is open to get plenty of sun. Check the ground as well before installing the lamps. If the soil is too loose, you may need to reconsider where you will be setting the lamps. Select good soil and use a spade to dig a small hole for the lamp’s post. Once the lamp is in the hole, firmly pack the loose soil back into the hole. Try to be sure that each lamp is standing straight.
When all is done, you can stand back and enjoy the fruits of your labors. Good luck! Photo Credit: Farm4, Farm3