Low Voltage Landscape Lighting

When you want to show off all of the yard work you have accomplished, you have a choice between low voltage landscape lighting and solar lights for your yard. This can be a difficult choice but after you consider the location of your house and the features of low voltage landscape lighting in comparison to solar outdoor lights you may feel "illuminated".

First of all, if you don’t want to deal with the cables and electricity, you may want to choose solar lights for your outdoor landscape design. These units are a little more pricy than the low voltage landscape lighting but they're a breeze to install. But, the ease of installation is not the only thing to consider when choosing outdoor lighting.

You also have to consider the location of your home. My husband and I chose solar lights over low voltage landscape lighting simply because they were easier to install. There were no wires to hide and no electricity was being used whatsoever. The bigger price tag was well worth the savings we would reap in time alone.

Unfortunately, we didn't consider our overall landscape. We live on two wooded acres of land. This secluded place really needs extra outdoor lighting. We just didn’t realize that it really needed low voltage landscape lighting instead of the solar version.

There are three large oak trees in our front yard that add interest and beauty to the landscaping. The large trees also provide a lot of shade. Solar powered outdoor lights require about eight hours of sunlight in order to work properly.

The solar lights worked but they were relatively dim. They really did not provide adequate illumination for the area where we needed it. The secluded street has no street lights and it can be very difficult to navigate through certain areas of the yard without outdoor lighting.

So, we sold the solar lights at a neighborhood garage sale. They came in handy for a neighbor who lives on the top of a hill. His yard does not have large trees, and boasts stone pathways that beg for night lights. The solar lights worked well in his sunny area but shady places (such as ours) require low voltage landscape lighting.

We have now installed low voltage landscape lighting and we are amazed by the difference. This outdoor illumination was worth the work and the whole learning experience may have been even more expensive if our neighbor hadn’t stopped at our garage sale.