Before giving in to using solar power for any function, it would be a good idea to look at the inherent advantages and disadvantages of relying on the sun for power. Whether you choose solar powered lighting for outdoor areas or you choose traditional lighting methods, it’s important to consider the good and bad of each method.

The Good Of Solar Powered Outdoor Lighting

Reliability
When you use solar powered outdoor lighting for non crucial applications like outdoor house lighting, you are able to set up the outdoor lighting and forget about It. They can do their job for years without any need for maintenance.

Setup
If all you intend to do is light your pathways, dark corners or driveway, then solar lighting is a great choice, as you’ll be able to set the lights into the ground very easily, without any complicated, messy or potentially dangerous electrical hookups.

Long Term outdoor lighting Cost
When using solar powered outdoor lighting for non critical applications like landscape or outdoor lighting, you can often set it up and forget about it. With the suns rays being completely free, the long term cost of your landscape lighting amounts to the initial cost of the lights. This is a huge advantage, where using solar lighting instead of electrical lighting to light up your landscape and outdoor areas can in time save hundreds or even thousands of dollars over the course of years.

Solar Powered Outdoor Lighting Maintenance
There is very little maintenance needed for solar powered outdoor lighting, as they should last years before you need to repair or replace them.

The Bad

The Cost Of Solar Powered Outdoor Lighting
Just as with other types of solar powered lighting, the initial cost for solar powered outdoor lighting is usually higher than with standard electric outdoor lights. If you have a large yard, long driveway, long pathways or want to light up all your trees at night, then the initial cost of solar powered lighting may add up to quite a lot depending on the type and quality of the lighting.

Solar Lighting Reliability
While the need for maintenance is cut down considerably by using solar powered outdoor lighting, there is also another side to the reliability coin. You are using a power source that is only available for little more than 12 hours a day. When you factor in rainy, foggy, snowy or stormy days will allow the lights to gather very little energy for lighting at night. In the case of weather inhibiting energy storage, some solar lighting kits have a built in back up battery or use electricity as a backup power source. However, in the case of lights that have no backup battery or power, you may find that on winter days, they only light up for a few hours a night.

Traditional or low voltage lighting may cost less to purchase but will be much more difficult to install and maintain.