How to Illuminate Your Garden Differently to Everyone Else

Illuminate Your Garden Differently to Everyone Else

The pandemic made gardeners out of millions of people. All over the world people took a renewed interest and developed a newfound love for their backyards.

This has led to many people transforming their gardens into spaces that can be enjoyed with friends and family. Extremely useful when there are social restrictions and lockdowns.

Many decided to grow vegetable patches, while others landscaped, or installed decking. Most remodeling ideas for a new garden should include lighting though. The owner can then make the most of their outdoor space, no matter what time it is.

Lighting up a garden is one matter, but doing it with style is something else. How can you do this while keeping the costs low and not creating an energy-draining problem for the future?

How can you illuminate your garden in style?

Solar Net Lights

Garden lights have evolved a lot over the years. There are now smart lighting systems to add colored gradients across lawns, and up-lighters to illuminate the home’s facade.

While there are huge benefits to outdoor lighting – which you can read below – there is also a downside. Outdoor lighting can lead to trails of cables, which must be thoroughly water-proofed, and they can be costly.

When it comes to the price of outdoor lighting, it doesn’t necessarily refer to the actual installation, but to the extra charges that will be added to your electricity bill.

If you bear this in mind, it could therefore be reasonable to consider other energy sources. Installing solar net lights will not only illuminate your garden in style, but it won’t add anything to your energy bills.

What are solar net lights?

This name is a little limiting as it actually refers to string lights, curtain lights, and net lights. Basically, solar net lights are made up of a series of interconnecting wires that form a net. At regular points over this net are efficient bright LED lights.

The framework for these lights can represent curtains, or strings also. They can be utilized in a number of other ways too.

Solar net lights can be used to cover a patio area so that they create a starry field above your head. They can be used to hang down fences or vertical barriers to create a twinkling wall of light. They can also be used to hang from any outdoor structure to give the effect of ethereal curtains.

All the while they are powered by stored energy from the sun and are completely off-grid.

How do solar lights work?

illuminated garden

Any solar light will have a panel attached to trap the sun’s rays. Normally this would be a panel made up of many photovoltaic cells. There is a thorough description of how solar panels work on Live Science. But basically, they work by letting photons knock electrons free and this then creates electricity.

The panels convert sunlight into what you know as electricity, and this is then stored for later use. Often solar devices will be fitted with some kind of battery storage system. This means that no excess energy is wasted.

In big systems such as where houses have solar panels on the roofs, excess energy can be sold back to the grid through utility companies. However, when it comes to outdoor solar lights, the energy will be used up during the night.

A typical solar light might store enough energy to power itself for 8-10 hours. Although there are many solar security lights that have the capacity to be on all through the night until the daylight comes.

Can you use them indoors?

Solar net lights could really transform a decked area or a patio, but would they work indoors too?

As you have read above, some of these types of lights are described as curtains or strings. The design of these lights lends itself to not only decorating walls and fences surrounding a garden but also to a bedroom.

The wall behind the head of a bed could be lit up with white or colored solar net lights or strings of LEDs. You would probably assume that solar lights wouldn’t work indoors, and to a degree, you would be correct.

Solar panels perform best when they are in direct sunlight. However, they can also work on cloudy or overcast days, and they take energy from any light, including artificial versions.

As long as the solar panel attached to net lights gets some sunlight from a nearby window, they will be able to function. They could look great on one wall adding a feature to a bedroom, or even across a whole ceiling.

What are the advantages of using net lights, or other types of solar lighting?

solar light in the garden

If you choose to use solar net lights indoors you may not get all the benefits, but you will still not be adding any charges to your utility bills.

In the garden though, there are many advantages to be gained to using solar lights.

All outdoor lights should be waterproofed, but solar garden lights can be very durable when it comes to all types of weather, and moisture. Solar lights usually make use of LEDs which last longer than regular light bulbs. This means you can expect a solar lighting system to be designed to last longer too.

This means less waste, and less cost replacing them. There is of course no electricity, or at least no dangerous currents. So safety is also improved when using solar.

Speaking of safety, adding outdoor lights is a great way to make your garden safer, and your home more secure. Lights can make driveways and paths safer, not to mention any water features or swimming pools.

As far as security goes, any home and garden that is lit up will be less of a target for trespassers or burglars. And then, there are the financial advantages of solar power.

You know that using solar lighting will make sure you don’t have any increases in your electricity bills. But, did you know that solar panels can increase the value of your home? If you were to take sustainable energy further into your home, you could end up making money eventually.

What other ways can you use solar lighting in a garden?

Solar net lights are quite a unique way to light up a garden, and there are many creative ways they can be used. Nevertheless, they may not suit everyone’s taste or outdoor space.

Not to fear, solar light manufacturers have been busy. There are dozens of options for lighting different areas of a garden now, all while using sustainable energy.

If you have a pool, there are lights available to create a safer space at night, not to mention adding ambiance. Ponds can benefit from floating colored lights, as well as submerged versions.

Homes can be uplit, and pathways illuminated. Fences and decking have specialized solar lighting options, as do porches, and there are hanging lights too for walkways.

There are plenty of reasons to switch over to solar power when the time comes to purchase replacement lighting. For a new garden, there is no need to rely on traditional electric lights at all, but there are many benefits to gain with solar.

Summary

Solar power is rightly the way that the world seems to be heading. Nations such as India, China, Germany, and the US, are leading the way in sustainable energy, notably solar power.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy reports that there is now enough solar energy being produced to power 18 million homes in the US. This doesn’t include all the solar gadgets and devices such as net lights.

If you want to light up your garden in style, there is no better way than to power it with sunlight. Sustainable power is by definition, stylish.

Article Submitted By Community Writer

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