Are you considering solar power lights for your home? Solar energy can easily be harnessed and stored to provide natural light for the inside of your home and for your outdoor landscape. The initial investment in the equipment necessary to do so is well worth the long-term savings and benefits over time.
How Solar Power Lights Work
Essentially, solar lights soak up the sun’s energy through a simply designed configuration and then release the light when it gets dark. Solar cells contained inside the solar light capture the sunlight. The solar cells are connected to a battery, which will charge itself during daylight hours. A small component called a photoresistor (basically a sensor) senses when nighttime falls and in turn will kick on the LED inside the solar light. Voila, you have light!
Indoor Solar Power Lights
Natural light is a welcome addition to any home. For those building a new home, the inclusion of many windows in the house design simply makes sense for taking full advantage of any and all available natural light. Existing homes can also take advantage of natural light by installing skylights into various rooms of the house.
Solar skylights, also called tubular skylights, are a new and improved way of capturing and using sunlight to light the inside of your home. A tubular skylight consists of a tube that features a dome-shaped, clear lens on the end. The lens efficiently captures sunlight and transfers it to what appears to be a traditional ceiling fixture in the room. Currently, tubular skylights are used to bring natural light into bathrooms, closets, and hallways.
Solar powered light fixtures are also available for the home (powered by solar panels).
Outdoor Solar Powered Lights
It’s quick and easy to softly illuminate your garden, outdoor buildings, landscape features, trail, pool area, balcony or deck, walkway, driveway, or steps by using outdoor solar lights. Solar lighting for outdoor applications come in many styles, so you can incorporate them easily at ground level or by mounting them onto a building or fence line.
There are no wires to consider, so these lights can be relocated on a whim if desired. You’ll absolutely love the soft ambient lighting that solar power lights provide for all of your outdoor spaces.
Benefits of Solar Lights
We all want to know about the benefits of an investment, right? Solar lights are beneficial in so many ways, and some of them can be life changing!
- Money saved each and every day by using a renewable energy source, the sun.
- Natural light is easier on the eyes, which means less eye strain.
- Depression symptoms are lessened when people are bathed regularly in natural light because our brains produce serotonin, which makes us feel better emotionally.
- Mold and mildew growth is inhibited by natural light.
- Fatigue is lessened by exposure to sunlight.
- Research has even shown that students who attend school buildings with natural light are more productive and score higher on tests!
What more do you need to know about solar power lights? Begin designing ways to capture and illuminate your home inside and out with natural sunlight and you’ll benefit in more ways than just seeing your electric bill decrease.
M.S. Rochell, Ed.M. is a writer and a passionate lover of the environment. Her newest interest is learning about affordable solar energy and sharing this information to inspire and educate others. For our growing library of articles on solar power lights, and our free eBook on Residential Solar Power Basics, please visit http://www.go-green-solar-energy.com/solar-power-lights.html