The utilization of free solar power to recharge LED light bulbs and batteries, which only need a fraction of the amount of electricity to deliver just as much light as traditional lights bulbs gives solar landscape lights an overwhelming advantage over traditional bulbs in terms of both energy savings and a clean outdoor lights environment. 

How To Install Outdoor LED Solar Lights

If you want to get the most out of your garden lighting system, it’s important to consider a few  major factors before taking the plunge and purchasing and installing solar LED garden hamulight lights

The most important factor by far is sunlight.

Rechargeable batteries are what power your solar garden lights.  How long the bulbs remain switched on at night is roughly equivalent to the amount of sunlight the solar charging panel has been exposed to during daylight hours.

As you can imagine, people who live in northern latitudes during winter months are going to have a problem getting enough sunlight to sufficiently recharge their solar garden lights.  This problem can be resolved by doing one of two things:

(1) Turn the lights off for one or two nights.  Doing this will enable your solar panel to fully recharge the batteries.

(2) Remove the batteries and recharge them using a traditional battery recharger.

An initial primary objective when installing solar garden lights is to situate the solar panels (also known as the Photovoltaic (PV) cells) in an area that receives an abundance of natural daylight.  Ideally, you want them to absorb as much sunlight as possible to ensure optimal performance.  But the solar panels are able to obtain a reasonable charge even amid overcast days.

Buildings, trees and other obstructions are naturally going to limit the daylight recharging cycle.  Consequently, this is going to limit both the duration and brightness of the exterior solar lights once evening arrives.

Another point to consider is whether your solar LED garden lights have a central solar panel or an integral solar panel.  Whichever type of panel you have, the solar panel incorporates a slight tilt that enables it to face the most amount of sunlight during the day. 

Solar lighting that connects to a central solar panel has two distinct advantages:

(1) Since only one solar panel needs sunlight, the lights can be situated without regard to the amount of sunlight they will receive during the day.

(2) All of the solar garden lights can be controlled from one central location. 

But, to accomplish this, you’ll need to connect each of the lights to the shared solar panel through the use of wires. 

Exterior solar lights that utilize an integral solar panel do not require wires and are therefore much easier to install.  All you need to do is locate each light where you want it to be placed.  But, since there is no central solar panel, each light needs to be exposed to as much daylight as possible.