For every garden or backyard space, it is important to have sufficient lighting. Not only does it helps you create better visibility but also deters crime and unwanted access. There are many kinds of lighting options available for gardens but the most popular ones are solar and electric garden lights. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and to find which one is better, you can read the following given information.
Advantages of Solar Lights
Solar garden or outdoor lights draw power from the sun and do not need any electricity to function. This means that besides purchasing cost, they need no operating costs. These lights turn on automatically as soon as the sun goes down and get charged during the day. They are highly durable and very cost effective as far as the long term use is concerned.
Disadvantages of Solar Lights
Even inspite of zero operating costs, solar lights can prove to be expensive at the time of purchase and definitely more expensive than electric garden lights. In most of the cases, one light may get more charged than others and this can create a non uniform lighting effect in your garden. They are unreliable during low light or low sun days as they do not get charged enough to remain lit up throughout the night.
Advantages of Electric Garden Lights
These lights work on electricity and draw power from a transformer. They are much more reliable and uniform in terms of functioning as compared to solar lights. One of the advantages that they have over solar lights is that the initial cost of purchase is much lower and they are also more easily available. You have more control over these lights and can decide to switch them on or turn them off when you want.
Disadvantages of Electric Garden Lights
Getting the wires of these lights installed can be a troublesome and time taking process as compared to installing solar lights which need no wiring at all. The lifetime cost of running these lights is much more than that of solar lights because they run on electricity.
They need to be switched off manually and if you don’t switch them off, they may keep on running even during the day, which can lead to wastage of electricity and hence money. These lights may lead to electric shocks during rain or short-circuits and this is one major disadvantage.
