Article Updated 25/04/21
Solar driveway lights are an Eco-friendly, cost-effective solution to illuminate your driveway. Solar lights for driveways are not just for improving garden landscape aesthetics. Installing solar-powered lights increases security, makes it easier to park, and helps to avoid accidents. Of course, driveway or pathway solar lights make your home more attractive to visitors.
How Do Solar Driveway Lights Work?
Solar lights for driveways charge during the day and then light up when it’s dusk. On a full charge, the best solar driveway lights shine for between eight and fifteen hours. Because the driveway marker lights run off the sun’s energy, you can illuminate your drive all night without adding to your energy bills.
What are Solar Driveway Lights?
Solar lights for driveways are LED lighting units, powered from the sun’s energy, and are usually installed at ground level. The photovoltaic cells absorb sunlight and convert this to energy to recharge batteries. A sensor in the solar lighting unit turns the light on when it’s dusk.
Although most solar driveway lights are marker lights, you can also buy lighting units mounted on spikes. These staked driveway lights come in all shapes and sizes. Some are stainless steel for a modern, contemporary look. Other types of pathway LED lights look like lanterns, flickering flame torches, or vintage lamps.
Why Use Solar For Lighting?
The main reason to use solar-powered driveway lights is to make your yard a safer place. However, installing solar garden lights is amazingly easy. With no wiring or digging to worry about, you can place the lighting units wherever you need them. You also eliminate the risk of electric shock from mains wiring.
The Advantages of Installing Solar Driveway Marker Lights
There are three main advantages of installing solar lights along the borders of your drive. The benefits are cost, negative impact on the environment, and installation. Of course, the advantage of added safety and security in your property is also a plus of solar garden lighting.
Here are the benefits of solar driveway lights:
- Cost—LED driveway lights are cost-effective outdoor lighting solutions. Because they don’t add to your energy bills, you will soon recoup your investment.
- Environmentally friendly—Solar path lights use a renewable energy source, the sun. So, by installing solar lighting, you are not increasing your carbon footprint.
- Easy to install—Installing solar lights on your driveway usually takes a few minutes.
How to Choose the Best Solar Driveway Lights
It can be challenging to choose the best driveway solar-powered lights for your property. There are many styles to choose from, and some units charge more efficiently than others. Here are a few handy tips on buying solar driveway lights:
- The number of lights you need—The brightness of the LED lights will help decide how many you need. There should be enough light on your driveway or path to guide your way. The illumination range can be as low as 2 feet (0.6 m) or as much as 10 feet (3 m).
- Durability—The best LED solar lights are fully weatherproof with an IP rating of at least 65. Make sure the units are heatproof, frost-proof, and waterproof. The unit should be made from durable materials that can also withstand being driven over or stood on.
- Style—Choose a style that suits your garden landscape. In-ground lights for driveways are perfect for illumination at ground level without illuminating your whole yard.
- Charging efficiency—Solar lights with a charging efficiency of at least 20 percent means that they should light up on dark winter evenings and shine for at least six hours.
There Are Different Types of Solar Driveway Lights
As you can imagine, with solar lighting becoming very popular, there are many variations of these types of lights, although in the main there are two designs you could use. The first is where the light is embedded into the driveway itself, i.e. the light becomes part of the driveway. This design looks very classy and professional but is a more difficult process to complete.
The second choice is to use some simple garden type lights such as Solar Lights for Fence Posts. These particular solar lights can also look very appealing with their polished finish, plus they have the added benefit of being easy to install or even relocated as desired.
What to Expect From Solar Driveway Lights
Generally the common type of solar light emits a gentle or soft light and may only cover an area of one to two meters in diameter, but this is usually sufficient for the purpose of which they have been designed for. These lights are only needed to highlight the extremities of the driveway, not to illuminate every square meter of it. There are other types of solar lights for that purpose, e.g. solar floodlights or solar powered yard lights.
The Choice is Yours
If you are still reading this article hopefully the information has helped you in a positive way. Ultimately the final choice is up to you. Each driveway has its own characteristics and will demand different lights, but regardless of this rest assured you will be pleasantly surprised with the outcome because adding some attractive solar driveway lights will set your driveway apart from all others and give you bragging rights for your efforts.