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The Power of the Sun in your Nighttime Garden

by: ThomasFyrd
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Outdoor night lighting along paths and stairways provides safety, beauty and convenience. It directs company to your door, keeps guests from stumbling in the dark and can highlight an artistic landscape

Getting electricity to appropriate places in your yard can be a barrier to installing landscape lighting. It can be costly and time-consuming to dig trenches and gardening tools can cut through buried wires. Improper electrical connections are another potential hazard.

Solar-powered lights, which use DC electricity generated from sunshine, are a great landscape lighting option. They require no wiring and can be easily relocated. They have photo sensors and automatically switch off and on, day and night. Best of all, solar-powered lights require no burning of fossil fuels and generate no carbon dioxide or pollutants.

SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV) ELECTRICITY

Beach sand is made of silicon, the second most abundant element on Earth. Many PV cells are made from a purified form of silicon.

PV cells have two sides, one with extra electrons (negatively charged) and one with a shortage of electrons (positively charged). When sunlight hits it solar energy detaches electrons from the negative side of a PV cell to its positive side. This begins a flow of electrons through tiny wires connected to each cell.

Electrons flowing from all the PV cells form one circuit, generating direct current (DC) electricity. This energy is used to recharge batteries built right into landscape lights, where it is stored until night and then used to power the lamps.

Electrons are the only things that move in a PV cell. Because there are no moving parts to break, cells can last over twenty years.

SOLAR PV LIGHTS: TYPES

There are many kinds of PV lights to light plants around pools. Use small, red-glowing safety lights to line driveways and brighter, 4-watt florescent lights (comparable to 16-watt incandescents) to mark gates or dock ramps (Table 1). For shady spots there are lamps with detachable PV panels. There are even PV security lights that are triggered by heat or motion. Choose those that suit your landscape and your needs.

SOLAR PV LIGHTS: TIPS

To work well, PV cells need as much sunlight as possible during the day. Most current PV landscape lights have cells built into their lamp. These must be positioned to receive the fullest sunlight. Walk through your yard several different times during a sunny day to ensure that your selected installation sites receive enough sunlight.

Install lamp stakes firmly in the ground before attaching lamps. Never apply force to the PV panel itself.

PV lights are easy to install - and easy to remove. If theft is a concern install your lights securely. Drill two or three holes, large enough for a 3-inch galvanized nail, through the stake near the pointed end. Fill a wide plastic pot with cement. Stand the stake - with the nails - in it and wait for the cement to harden. Bury in the selected site and attach the lamp appropriately.

PV landscape lights should come with at least a 12-month warranty.

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The Power of the Sun in your Nighttime Garden

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