The question that many people want an answer to is: how good are solar garden lights? Well, in order to answer that question we need to first define what we mean by “good” – in other words decide what criteria we wish to judge garden lighting by. A number of obvious measures that we might use to determine value for money include brightness, ease of installation, versatility, maintenance, reliability and robustness. Obviously, the importance of these various factors is a matter of individual preference since some people might value easy and quick installation more than brightness levels.
Where brightness is concerned then a conventionally powered garden light will always win out simply because it has more juice available, but not everyone wants their garden lit up so it’s visible from space and many solar lights will come close to the light levels of regular 12v low voltage lamps. The main difference is that very few solar lights are designed to make it through the night and start to fade after a number of hours, but again that’s usually not a problem unless you really do want to be out there till dawn.
For ease of installation it’s a clear win for solar landscape lighting as anyone who has installed conventional low voltage lighting using cables will agree. A normal 12v electric garden lighting system typically involves locating a transformer in a secure and convenient (so you can turn the lights on and off) location indoors, routing the cable to the outside (often by drilling a hole through a wall), running the cable to the parts of the garden where power is required, burying the cable so as to both protect and conceal it, then at every point a light is required cutting and reconnecting the cable so as to incorporate the spur to the light fitting.
Now that’s not to say that installing low voltage garden lights is terribly difficult, but it is most certainly time consuming and fiddly; in contrast to installing a solar light which involves carrying the unit to the desired location and… just leaving it there. There’s also the issue of changing the layout should you (or more commonly your other half) decide on reflection that it’s not quite right. Again, with solar garden lights you just pick them up and move them around; with a cable involved you have little leeway and will probably have to dig it up and/or go reconnecting bits, which can surprisingly quickly get well beyond tedious.
Versatility is something of a grey area – as noted above it’s real easy to rearrange solar lights, but there is a caveat. You’re restricted to locating them only in parts of the garden or patio that enjoy a large amount of daylight (and preferably sunshine). It’s for this reason that you’ll find the average solar shed light (other than the budget versions) use a separate rather than integrated solar panel. It’s so the light fitting itself can be housed in a potentially dim location (sheds are often tucked away out of sight and light) while the solar collector can go in a brighter spot elsewhere, limited of course by the cable length between the two. This design is also seen in some newer solar landscape lights and does to some extent alleviate this inherent problem with solar lighting.
Maintenance of garden lighting is an interesting topic, because both types (electrical and solar) have different maintenance characteristics. With a system using traditional low voltage garden wiring there is little to do once it’s installed other than replace the bulbs when they fail every so often; otherwise it’s likely to keep working for twenty years of more (the cable will eventually become brittle and/or the transformer burn out).
With solar garden lighting it’s common to find that the light bulbs (which are very often LEDs) are not replaceable; that’s probably because they’re expected to outlast the unit itself. Typically, the only component requiring replacement in a garden solar light is the battery – rechargeable batteries can only be recharged a certain number of times before they won’t hold a charge anymore. This isn’t such a big deal, but getting at the battery can be trickier than you might expect since they’re usually in a well sealed compartment held in with screws. Also, if you have solar deck lights for example, you’ll have to first pry them out of the hole they’re tightly slotted into.
The issue of reliability and robustness is where solar garden lighting has something of a poor reputation. Unlike a normal 12v lighting system that uses very simple technology and components (i.e. basically two wires conducting a current and a light bulb), solar lights contain reasonably complex electronics which significantly increases the possible points of failure. As with all electronic components, their longevity will largely depend on the original manufacturing build quality; but since you cannot determine this by simple inspection of the unit it’s something of a lottery. There are however a number of steps you can take to ensure your solar garden lighting is up to the job.
The first thing is to make sure you can easily return the goods should they prove faulty. It’s not uncommon for people to buy a set of solar lights, charge up the batteries and then discover that some of them don’t function properly (or at all). The reason so many solar lights are so affordable these days is that they have been mass produced using cheap LEDs and photovoltaic cells with flimsy wiring and no discernible evidence of quality control. If you are unlucky enough to encounter lights such as these then return them and move on to a different product.
The next thing is to look after the battery. Chances are that the one supplied with the light will be as cheap as the manufacturer could find and it won’t perform or last very well, so replace it as soon as you’ve had your money’s worth out of it with a better quality version of the same specification. You also won’t do yourself any favors if you get reduced daylight in the winter but leave your solar lights on since the batteries will never fully recharge. You should accept that these systems don’t perform well in winter conditions and protect their performance and lifespan by removing the batteries till spring – remember to fully recharge them using a mains charger before putting them back in.
To sum up then…
- Brightness – solar garden lights aren’t quite as good but that’s probably not a big deal for most practical purposes
- Installation – solar landscape lights score an outright victory for being quick and easy to install (and rearrange).
- Versatility – solar garden lighting can be highly versatile but only within the confines of those areas that get plenty of daylight.
- Maintenance – whereas conventional garden lights require new bulbs periodically, solar lights wear out batteries.
- Reliability & Robustness – solar lights suffer in this department, so either accept them as disposable items or shop around for better quality.
