Outdoor solar lights have several clear advantages when compared to standard electrically powered lights, but it’s not at all a one-sided contest. This article takes a look at the arguments both in favour and against solar lighting. First, the positive side of things.

Undoubtedly a primary benefit is the sheer ease of installation that solar lighting offers. There are no cables to connect and hide – all you have to do is place each light fitting where you think it would look good. When the evening comes then you can admire your new purchase and, just as easily, move it around if need be until you find the perfect location.

Financial outlay is another consideration. Although solar lights do cost noticeably more to buy than their conventionally powered equivalents, they are still far from being an expensive purchase and the full cost (which includes running costs) usually works out quite a bit less. There are very few maintenance issues and the only significant ongoing cost is replacing rechargeable batteries when they exceed the limit of charging cycles.

Apart from being almost maintenance free and dead easy to install, solar lighting also scores well where reliability and safety are concerned. It is also an extremely versatile technology in terms of potential applications and the range of styles and formats to choose from is huge.

So is outdoor solar lighting all sunshine and roses then? Well, only if you can actually guarantee the sunshine; if you have a naturally shady aspect, or seasons that reduce the hours of daylight for half the year, or mixed weather that can result in several overcast days then your solar lighting won’t always be able to get its full charge and will suffer.

Solar lights can also suffer if debris, falling leaves or snow block their solar panels. If you only have a modest number of solar lights then a simple solution is to periodically put the batteries into a regular battery charger to keep them topped up, but obviously this isn’t practical with large numbers of lights. Which leads neatly to the topic of rechargeable batteries. These are limited to a certain number of recharging cycles which effectively tells you how many days they will last before needing replacement.

Regular mains electric outdoor lighting is slightly cheaper than solar powered equivalents but the difference isn’t hugely significant for most domestic installations. For larger scale landscape lighting it might be an issue but you would have to carefully compare the operating and purchase costs to assess the impact.

When it comes down to it though electric outdoor lights score over solar lighting in two specific areas. Firstlly they’re almost always noticeably brighter and they stay bright all night. Secondly they can be switched on and off rather than relying on detecting changes in light levels.

So on balance then, if all you want is a limited amount of lighting that you can bring home and have working that same evening, plus you don’t need it on all night attracting low flying aircraft then outdoor solar lighting is a great choice. For more sophisticated setups and greater control you probably want to put the effort into installing regular electric lighting.

Check out this related article to learn more about solar powered outdoor lighting.