Landscape lights have many benefits that can help make your home safer and more visual appealing. There are two different kinds of landscape lights for you to choose from to allow you to find the ones that are best for your needs and your yard.

If you are searching for a way to add a touch of color and excitement to your gardens, then you may want to try landscape lighting. They are not only beautiful and stylish. They also help to give your home more security. The good news is that you can add landscape lighting to any kind of landscaping design. They can be easily installed anywhere that you choose, whether it is in your front or back yard.

Security Benefits
Adding landscape lights are an easy way to add some security to your home. The lights will help to brighten up any dark corners of your yard, as well as illuminating the steps or other areas in your landscaping design for ease of use.

Garden Accents
Enhancing your garden area is easily done by installing landscape lights. There is a great variety of landscape lights that will allow you to landscape your garden with style and finesse. They are also relatively inexpensive ways to update a boring garden area. If you need a new feature in your rock garden or flowerbed, then look no further!

Types of Lights
Landscape lights are usually powered in two different ways. One is solar powered and the other is electric. Solar powered landscape lights have a solar cell that takes the energy from the sun and stores it inside of its rechargeable batteries. Solar Landscape lights are not very expensive, but, depending upon the solar batteries, they may not shine very long or brightly. They are easy to install, however, and are easy to maintain.

Another option for landscape lights are the ones that are powered by an electrical source. The wires are run underground and they are then powered into your home's electrical system. This type of landscape light is best used for larger areas and can be installed yourself if you are comfortable with working with electricity.

Decorating With Landscape Lights
Using landscape lights to decorate your yard is a wonderful idea. You can line your walkway with the lights or make a path to your home using the landscape lights. They will not only illuminate your way, but they can also add interest and charm to your home. If you choose the electric lights, then you can change out the light bulbs to go with the seasons - red and green for Christmas, orange for the fall and Halloween, and pastel colors for the spring and Easter. This is a simple way to integrate your lights into your decorating scheme.

Partying with Landscape Lights
If you enjoy entertaining, then you will definitely want to add landscape lights to your yard. Installing lights around your yard will make an ideal setting for all of those outdoor parties. It is also a great way to show of your newly designed landscape.

Landscape lights are a great way to light up your yard and feature the special parts of your landscaped area. You, your friends, and your family will enjoy the ambiance that the landscape lights help to add to your home and yard.

About the Author

Andrew Caxton is the editor of many articles on lawn care published at http://www.lawn-mowers-and-garden-tractors.com . A website with tips on
landscape lighting
, amongst many related topics.

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Firefly Solar Garden Art Green Finial $34.99 FireflyTM Original garden art serves many purposes, including a plant stake, garden art and pathway lighting. But ultimately, it’s a beautiful example of solar energy collection and garden art combined. Our FireflyTM Originals consist of six popular hand-blown glass styles. Using a photovoltaic solar cell, the FireflyTM collects sunlight all day, converts it to energy and stores it to light the LED at dusk. The magic happens when the sun goes down. When darkness falls, the Firefly’sTM amber LED light turns itself on automatically. The hand-blown cracked glass tops gives the Firefly a classic amber 'refracted' glow to accent the landscape. The stainless steel stake won’t rust and will blend with its surroundings and you can shorten the stake for low-profile use in a flower bed or pot. As with nature, the FireflyTM can get along fine with no help from you. There’s no maintenance required. The amber LED light never needs to be replaced. The easy to replace rechargeable AA batteries will last about two years. This product is beautiful both day and night. Just plant the FireflyTM in your garden and let nature takes its course.Available In - Clear Globe, Red Globe, Fuchsia Finial, Blue Finial, Purple Anemone (w/White LED) and Green FinialProduct Dimensions (with Planting Stake) - 3L x 3W x 60H

Solar Spotlight 8 LED Green $59.95 A Versatile Lighting Solution This solar spotlight has 8 super bright green LED's that are perfect for illuminating garden features. It's high performance solar panel charges the include Ni-Mh batteries by day, and the light turns on automatically at night to brighten your home and garden. This fully adjustable light can be extended from 14 to 19 inches above the ground. Specifications: Light is 6.5" W Height is Adjustable from 14" to 19" Light Duration: Up to 10 hours Power Source: Mono Crystalline Solar Cell Lamp Type: 8 Super Bright LED's - Green Features: Decorative solar lighting for illuminating landscape features No wiring needed 8 super bright green LED's Adjustable height from 14" to 19" Durable weather resistant construction Provides up to 10 hours of light on a single charge Automatically illuminates at dusk, and turns off at dawn Easy installation, no wiring In Stock-Ships Fast

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Landscape lighting plans have become an important part of the overall design of homes today. Homes are being designed with landscape lighting plans that accent the house and surrounding landscape without overpowering it. From the driveway entrance and pole lighting to the garden area with moonlights, a good landscape lighting plan will bring the overall home plan together.

Safety First

One of the main features lighting brings to the landscape is safety. Lighting allows visitors to see their way from the driveway to the front door. Path lighting allows family and friends to move freely about the garden without fear of falling.

Path lighting can be designed to be inconspicuous, low to the ground and soft in hue. This type of lighting is pleasant to the eye, adds enough illumination to see for walking and doesn’t annoy others in the neighborhood.

Moonlights are another pleasing option for path lights. These lights are made to look like moonlight. They can be purchased in heavy duty path stones that can endure heavy foot traffic. These soft lights are covered in a resilient plastic that protects the lights and adds to the glow.

Another safety feature lights can bring is security from intruders.  Floodlights positioned in darkened areas of the lawn and combined with motion detectors are great deterrents to would-be deterrents. Burglars tend to shy away from homes with ample lighting for fear of being discovered.

Outdoor Activities

Outdoor Garden Lighting allows for activities to continue outside, even after darkness falls. Warm summer evenings with friends gathered around the garden become more enjoyable with a good lighting design. Using lights to add to the theme of the evening or to highlight focal points is all part of a good design.

In addition to lighting for paths, tikki torches can be used to add ambience and a feel of the tropics. To continue the tropic feel, rope lighting can be draped in and around bushes and trees, adding the feeling of twinkling stars. Rope lighting can also be placed around the edges of tables or the pool to outline the objects.

Outdoor garden lighting can be used to spotlight water features in a unique manner. Using softly colored lighting, available in various hues, pools and ponds can be uniquely highlighted, for both safety and aesthetic purposes. Pool lighting creates interesting shadows that dance across the water.

Simply Understated

Outdoor landscape lighting plans do not have to ornate or complicated. Some homeowners might only want enough lighting added to show the way to the door and keep intruders at bay. Depending on neighborhood codes and home owner’s association rules, the lighting plan may have to be low-scale. This doesn’t mean that a good lighting plan can’t be designed.

Low-voltage, softer hues, and smaller lights can all be used to make a simple lighting design that enhances the home and yard without going overboard.

Regardless of the lighting plan, outdoor garden lighting is something all homeowners should consider for safety and enhancement to the home. Homeowners can design their own plan as they go or hire a professional landscape lighting designer to design it for them. Either way, the end result will light up the night.

About the Author

Sharon V Chapman provides tips and information on landscape lighting for A1 Outdoor Lighting.

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LED lights can help you save energy outdoors by providing Exterior Lighting that consumes very little energy. But before you go stocking up on solar-powered LED landscape lights or LED security lights, you should first think about the product life cycle energy costs of what you are buying, and how much you really need the outdoor lighting. After all, while LED lights are more efficient than incandescent or most other types of lights, it's still more environmentally friendly not to light up your garden or back yard!

LED lights can be powered by solar power, typically at 12 volts DC, or can be connected to the grid, at either 120 volts AC or 12 volts DC. You can use them for security - to light up a driveway or doorway; safety - to light up an area where walking would be unsafe in the dark; or for creating a pleasant setting in a garden or yard, for instance LED Christmas lighting.

You have probably seen many a garden with the old-style incandescent or fluorescent Solar Landscape lights, typically green or stainless steel plated. They consist of a stake you shove in the ground, a lamp above, and a very small, cheap-looking photovoltaic module on the top. They also typically throw off very little light, and only early in the evening. They use cheap, small photovoltaic cells and poor quality rechargeable batteries, which combined with an incandescent light means they burn the little power they've managed to save up through the day within the first hour or so after sunset.

Good-quality solar LED landscape lights solve this problem of low, short-lived light on three counts: the quality of solar modules has been rising and costs have been falling; battery technology has improved; and LED lights use less energy.

Solar powered floodlights and security lights have a more robust and larger solar panel than LED landscape lights and better batteries; they often come with enough wire to let you place the panel in an area that gets lots of sun during the day, in case your light placement is not in a sunny area.

These lights consume so little electricity, that a grid-connected LED light may make more sense. A 50-foot long LED rope light with LEDs spaced one per inch can consume just 40 watts - and the amount of energy it takes to manufacture the solar panels and battery for an outdoor security light, for instance, may exceed the amount of electricity the light will use over its lifetime!

Security LED lights with motion sensors can light up an outdoor area brightly when movement is detected at night. Because the LEDs use little electricity and are typically not on for very long (unless you have a particularly determined burglar on your porch, or a very hungry raccoon), you can get a lot of light even from a solar-powered LED security light with a small solar panel and small built-in battery unit.

The simplest option for a security LED light, if you already have an outdoor security light, is to switch the existing incandescent bulb to a compatible LED bulb. But if the light is only on when a motion sensor detects movement, it's probably not worthwhile (unless there's a ton of movement near the light!). There's little savings to be had in switching to an LED light that will only be on for a few minutes each night.

I wouldn't suggest replacing an existing incandescent security light with a solar-powered LED light unless the current fixture isn't working - if possible just swap in a replacement LED bulb.

If you want to light up your outdoor spaces so you can eat outside, find your way to the garage at night, barbecue in the dark, or otherwise turn your yard into an extension of your house, there are a number of great outdoor LED light options for you.

LED flood lights can light up a large area for just pennies, and they last for up to 100,000 hours. That's a lot of patio parties! You can get LED flood light fixtures that attach to a wall or ceiling, as well as ground-placed lights that can shine up onto trees or shrubs.

LED rope lights are great for stringing along fences, along house walls, or for lining a pathway. You can buy lengths anywhere from 8 feet to 150 foot reels.

LED barbecue lights clip onto the tray beside your barbecue to light up the grill - and can run off a single battery.

Also look out for pond lights - which are waterproof - and shed lights with a solar panel and batteries - a cheap alternative to running an electrical line to your shed.

Battery powered LED candles are a great choice for gentle lighting at the table, both indoors and out. These candles are made of translucent plastic that has the appearance of real wax; they have a small black wick on the top; and an LED light inside flickers inside, giving the appearance of a candle. They provide 200 hours of light, or more. They look like real wax candles, even flickering like real ones when on.

LED landscape lights are the sensible replacement for those always dim solar landscape lights sold over the past 10-15 years. As I mentioned earlier, they provide a brighter light, for a longer time, then previous incandescent or fluorescent based landscape lights.

We'll be seeing more and more LED technology over the coming years, as quality improves, costs come down, and electricity prices go up. I expect the technology to keep improving. So while I wouldn't recommend switching all your lighting to LEDs just yet, it's probably a good idea to try one or two LED lights, to get used to their longevity, energy use, and the quality of their light; and outdoors is as good a place as any to start.

About the Author

Robin Green runs Green-Energy-Efficient-Homes.com, a website on home energy saving. For more on this topic see Outdoor LED lights on his website.

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