Solar Residential Outdoor Lighting is Becoming the Product of Choice for Millions of Consumers
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Article by: Kavar Peter Residential outdoor , Colour in the Garden lighting is a billion dollar a year industry in the United States. It is getting so popular, there is now a corporation that franchises individual businesses dealing only in exterior landscape , House Name Plates lighting design, , Treating Rust on Metal Railings supply, and installation! Line voltage systems used to be the only option for outdoor , Sprucing Up Your Garden With Solar lighting but in recent years, low voltage lighting systems and solar , Indoor Gardening With Foliage Plants powered lights , How to Grow Cucumbers have made exterior decorative lighting available to every home , Gardening Tips For the Beginner owner -not just the rich ones. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 67% of adult Americans are homeowners (2004 statistics). Renovation, remodeling and home , How to Grow Cucumbers improvement are massively popular activities that only reflect the priority that consumers give in making their property , Spring is Almost Here - March Gardening Tips as comfortable and pleasing as possible. Gardening , Stock Lawn Mower Parts For Greater Availability Of Mowers has always been a past time homeowners enjoy in beautifying their property, , Spring is Almost Here - March Gardening Tips both for themselves and to raise the "curb appeal", but up until a decade ago, beautifying the nightscape was not a mainstream idea. Hotels, resorts and similar type commercial properties , Tips for a Bulb-o-licious Garden have always used light , Man Made Puddle to create beautiful , Treating Rust on Metal Railings atmospheres on their grounds, but given the cost of an outdoor , Home and Garden Decor Needs lighting system, residential lighting applications were mostly limited to basic security , Frame Your Garden With Edging needs. Landscapes , 5 Fengshui Ways to Increase Curb Appeal were enjoyed during daylight hours but when the sun , Outdoor Lighting Fixtures went down, the outdoor , The Zoo-Doo Man - Or How to Make the Best Compost in the World! portion of a homeowner's property , Location, Location, Location: Where to Put Your Water Garden was not used. Low Voltage outdoor , Tomatoes: History, Origin, Facts... or Fiction? lighting systems Low voltage lighting systems and solar , Abatement Challenges of Non-Native Noxious Weeds powered lights , Discover the Single Most Important Trick to Overwintering Pond Fish are changing this. A low voltage lighting system plugs into a transformer and takes household , Design Your Own Rose Garden current down to 12 volts. This means real energy , Man Made Puddle efficiency and eliminates the building , You Can Grow Your Own Herb Garden - Part 1 code requirements for burying cables 18 inches for line voltage systems. The lights , Garden Room Boundaries... can be used for any outdoor , Winter Injury to Trees lighting application, although they still need to be wired together. Trenching and some cable burying will also probably be required. Additionally, the capacity of the transformer must be sufficient to cover the combined power , Tips for a Bulb-o-licious Garden draw (watts) of every light , Caring For Bamboo in the system. The Solar landscape , You Can Grow Your Own Herb Garden - Part 1 lighting option Solar powered lights , Planning Tips for Compact Courtyard Gardens are not wired to anything and require no transformers. Installing them is as easy as sticking them in the ground, or mounting them wherever you need them. The draw back is that the photovoltaic charging panels (usually mounted on the top of the light , Location, Location, Location: Where to Put Your Water Garden fixture) that capture the sun's energy , Abatement Challenges of Non-Native Noxious Weeds need direct sunlight during the day to charge the batteries that provide power , The history of the gnome. to illuminate the light , Garden Room Boundaries... at night. And in higher latitudes where the period of darkness is longer in winter , Fence Companies months, there is a good chance that the lights , Design Your Own Rose Garden will not get enough sun , Gardening with Garden Decor during the day to be able to illuminate for the entire period of darkness. Even so, solar , Transplanting Trees powered landscaping , Vacation Proofing your Garden lights are becoming extremely popular although this was not always the case. Up until two or three years ago, solar lights , Sprucing Up Your Garden With Solar were not as bright as many consumers wanted, didn't illuminate for long periods and too often, did not operate longer than a year or two before becoming defective. Today however, solar lights , Abatement Challenges of Non-Native Noxious Weeds are bright enough for almost any outdoor , Patio Umbrellas and Beach Umbrellas. Practical and Appealing. application, will illuminate for the entire night and -provided you get quality models - will last 20 years without maintenance or defect. These dramatic increases in solar outdoor , Transplanting Trees lighting reliability are due to recent advances in two areas of technology: photovoltaic cells and the introduction of the Light , Growing Orchids In Greenhouses, Can You ? Emitting Diode (LED) bulb. , Home and Garden Decor Needs The photovoltaic cell is the technology that "captures" the sun's energy. , Transplanting Trees In the 1980's, these cells could absorb only about 5% of the sunlight they were exposed to. Today this figure is moving past 15% and as further development of the compounds used in these cells continues (they are now silicon based but other compounds are being studied) they will only get more efficient. Perhaps even more exciting has been the introduction of the solid state LED bulb. , Tips On Caring For Your Cut Flowers This technology involves manipulating electrons and moving them in a certain direction so that photons are produced. This creation of photons is the visible light. , Design Your Own Rose Garden Unlike the traditional incandescent bulb, , Man Made Puddle there is no excited gas, , Chain Link Fences no burning filament, and therefore next to no heat , House Name Plates production. Almost all of the energy , How To Make Moss On Your Landscape Rocks And Garden Statues produced is used as light. , Sprucing Up Your Garden With Solar The bulbs , Vacation Proofing your Garden last for 10,000 hours, require no maintenance and draw on average only three to five watts. Today's solar lights , Tips On Caring For Your Cut Flowers are excellent value One of the biggest critiques of solar lights , Vacation Proofing your Garden in the past has been the intensity of brightness they produce. This was a fair comment, but today's solar lights , The history of the gnome. are much brighter. Many mistake the term watt as a measure of brightness, which of course, it is not. A watt is the measurement of the power , Mosquitos... Beware! required to operate something. If talking about only one type of light , Grass Clippings bulb, then there is a relationship; a 40w incandescent bulb , Patio Design - Add Awnings As A Colorful Finish For Your Patio Design will not be as bright as a 60w bulb. , You Can Grow Your Own Herb Garden - Part 1 But when dealing with different technologies, this comparison is not fair. Indeed, one LED bulb , Gardening with Garden Decor drawing between three and five watts will produce the same brightness as a 40w bulb. , Tips On Caring For Your Cut Flowers And many solar lights , Discover the Single Most Important Trick to Overwintering Pond Fish are now manufactured with multiple LEDs, therefore producing light , 5 Fengshui Ways to Increase Curb Appeal much brighter than the glow of a traditional 40w incandescent product. , Tips On Caring For Your Cut Flowers More and more consumers are realizing that outdoor , How to Choose the Most Economical Pond Pump accent lighting really does have an enormous effect in creating a beautiful , Fence Companies nightscape environment. , How To Make Moss On Your Landscape Rocks And Garden Statues Some prefer a low voltage lighting system because they will illuminate for the entire period of darkness and are reliable and energy , Gardening Tips For the Beginner efficient. Other consumers prefer the solar outdoor , Abatement Challenges of Non-Native Noxious Weeds lighting solution because these lights , Location, Location, Location: Where to Put Your Water Garden are now just as reliable, are far easier to install and can be moved around at whim when trying different effects. There is also a satisfaction in getting free energy , Park Benches from the sun! , Discover the Single Most Important Trick to Overwintering Pond Fish But whatever the choice, there is no denying that residential outdoor , How to Grow Cucumbers lighting systems are becoming a standard feature , Things You Should Consider When Buying Your First Garden Leaf Blower on millions of properties. , 5 Fengshui Ways to Increase Curb Appeal Kavar Peter is a successful freelance writer with a strong interest in renewable energy , Gardening with Garden Decor issues. He writes regularly about solar powered products including garden lighting and pathway lighting solutions. |
  
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