Garden Lighting Made Easy With Solar Power

Anyone who has ever visited a public garden will know that they are usually illuminated after dark. The garden designer will often use accent lights to highlight specimen trees and shrubs, or to create a certain mood or tone in the garden space. Such a thing can be easily replicated by the home gardener who chooses to use solar lighting fixtures.

It is important to remember, however, that a lighting fixture doesn't disappear when the sun rises and the loveliest bed of roses can be made ugly by several large and unpleasant spotlights stuck in front of them. This is something to always keep in mind when selecting and placing garden fixtures.

Fortunately, anyone who wants to add decorative garden lighting, but who also wants to retain the charm of their daytime garden can do so with the many stylish and lovely solar powered lights. Because they are designed to be used strictly out of doors, solar fixtures are crafted from the same high-quality materials as traditional, hard wired fixtures. This means that copper, bronze and cast iron appear just as frequently in the solar powered selections as in the others.

Garden lighting can encompass everything from beauty to security and solar lighting fixtures are available for every need. There are sturdy and strong lamp posts, motion detector fixtures and even decorative strings of lights for porches and patios. The important thing for the gardener to do is remember that the lighting should highlight and accent the garden, but not be distracting. A good garden lighting plan takes into consideration the changes that occur throughout the seasons and will really emphasize the well-developed areas of a yard or garden.

The great thing about choosing solar lighting for a garden is that the fixtures can be quickly and easily installed without disrupting the plantings in any way at all. Consider that traditional electrical fixtures would require wiring, which could mean digging trenches to bury the lines, which in turn could mean digging up established beds and destroying roots.

Additionally, the appeal of solar lighting of any kind is that it requires only the initial investment, and then operates entirely for free thereafter. The bulbs used in solar lighting are usually LED, and they offer an average life span of roughly sixty to one hundred thousand hours. This is compared to the standard fluorescent lifespan of twelve to twenty four thousand hours.
This means that solar garden lighting fixtures are free to operate, require little to no maintenance, install without disturbing the garden and are just as durable, lovely and sturdy as traditional fixtures.

Jonathan Gal is a solar lighting expert and owner of YCA Solar Lights, an organization dedicated to promoting clean, energy efficient

Garden Lighting Made Easy With Solar Power was Originally published on SearchWarp.com for Jonathan Gal Friday, May 15, 2009.

Saving Energy with Solar Power: Are we Going Backwards in Time?

Residential heating has more than doubled in the past several years and its looking like it will double or triple in the coming years. As more supplies are consumed and less fuel becomes available for creating energy we need to look for a renewable source of fuel. Solar energy is free but the equipment is not. So how can we lower the cost to take advantage of the power of the sun?

At this time it’s not possible to go to the store and choose a solar heating system from stock. Hiring a contractor to install a system requires the components, man hours and costs. Costs that don’t make it “cost effective” to install a solar panel system in your home. The “do it yourselfer” has the advantage but only if they have knowledge of carpentry, plumbing, and electrical wiring.

Back in the olden days they used iron to heat their homes. The iron was heated by the sun and air was blown over it forcing it into the house. Solar water heaters were used in the 1930s but were replaced by, at the time, low cost natural gas. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been researching solar energy since 1939. They build three houses to test and research solar panels. (You’d think they would have come up with something by this time) As far as I know they’re still researching solar energy.

There are two kinds of solar collectors, the focusing type and the flat panel type. Focusing collectors use special shaped mirrored surfaces to concentrate the sun power. Focus type collectors produce very high temperatures, even up to a thousand degrees but they need a tracking system to track the collectors with the sun. Of course, overcast skies won’t produce any heat.

The flat panel will collect even on cloudy days plus the simplicity of a flat solar panel doesn’t need a tracking system. It’s also less expensive than a focusing collector and a flat solar panel is easy to install for the “do it yourselfer”.

The major components of a solar heating system is the solar panel, hot water distribution system, storage tank, circulating pump and flow controls and a water to air exchanger for return air from the furnace. And if you understand all that then you should put one in yourself. Back in the 1930s and 1940s they used water based systems heated to 180 degrees to heat houses. Many houses today still have the components in the house but the system no longer work. If you have one you might think about using it again as the price of oil, natural gas, and home fuel rises.

There are several solar powered system that don’t cost too much to install and don’t require a contractor to install them. One way is to use the power of the sun to cook. Solar cookers can be made with a cardboard box, duct tape, and tin foil. The only disadvantage of a solar cooker is you have to plan ahead. They take more than 15 minutes to cook your dinner. They will work on cloudy days too. Another way to heat without solar panels is another cardboard box, piece of glass, a fan and your window.

The box is painted black; (to create more heat) The fan is put inside on the window sill to pull the heat from the box. The box is taped or stapled to the outside of the window and as the sun heats up the box the fan pull the hot air out of the box and into you home. Volia! Instant heater.
Of course, there are disadvantages to this method but they can outweigh the advantages. If you need heat in a hurry this little box system will work during the day but at night, well, no sun at night. But it will keep your house warm when the sun is out so you’re not spending money on power.

I don’t want to sound preachy but if everybody tried one way of saving power with solar energy you could cut the cost of your energy in half for the year. Good luck!

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The Best Use Of Home Solar Panels To Power Your Home

We get our energy from the sun. The sun has been supplying Earth with solar energy for millions (billions?) of years and people have been using home solar energy for thousands of year. Mostly to heat their water and homes. Until recently this was done in a crude way but with the newest technology we now have a more reliably way to convert solar energy into electricity. And that way is the use of home solar panels.

Home solar panels pull in the suns energy and convert it to electricity that will run your home. I could say without a hitch but you have to take into account cloudy days. If you live in an area where you get mostly sun every day you won’t have many problems. But that’s what battery backup are for.

How A Solar Panel System Works

There are three things home solar panels have in common with the power grid you now use. The first is solar panels as well as your power grid use photovoltaic panes as a power source. This matches up with the turbines and fossil fuel generators in your power plane.

The second is they all need to have a power storage unit to store the power that is generated. This stores the incoming energy so it can be used later. Usually when the sun goes down. And the last is how much power your home draws or what is call” the load”. The load is the capacity of energy your house uses everyday. These three components make up the overall power system of your power use.

There’s also three types of home solar panel systems you can be on. The first is the grid. This means you’re on the local power grid and receive supplemental power from them. Like when you have three or four days of clouds and have used up your supply of power from the storage units. The local power grid takes care of your power needs until the sun can charge up the storage units.

The second type of home solar panel systems is when you’re off grid. This means you’re on your own. If there are three or four days of clouds then your stored power will be used up and it will go to your battery back up. But if the local power grid goes down then you’ll be fine but your neighbors won’t be. They won’t have any power. Any extra power you have can be used for something else.

The last type is a home solar panel system on the grid plus a battery backup. If you run out of power the local grid will supply the power and if the local grid goes down then you can supply them with power. Well, depending on the size of your system. Always if you’re attached to the grid any extra power you have can be sold to the power company.

Before you consider installing home solar panel systems in your home do your homework first. Find out how much power you use for a month and make your home as efficient as possible.

It is now possible to make environmentally friendly and free energy from the sun by using home solar panels.

How to build home solar panels

This site provides tips and techniques for home solar panel. For the do-it-yourselfers you will find valuable information on how to build home solar panels.