Your experiences w/ solar-powered landscape lighting vs. hard wired?
 

For years, I've been thinking about doing some sort of lighting in our yard, but I never seem to get around to it.

In researching solar powered lighting, it seems that while super convenient and more affordable...they may not last a good while (?)...? Anyone have experience with them? Can you recommend a certain one? I've found some at Amazon and Home Depot ranging about $25-50 per fixture, with some fairly decent consumer reviews.

In researching the hard wired option, it's initially quite pricey and while the lighting units do seem durable, they're mostly LEDs now...which means those units will need to be replaced at some point anyway, ugh! I talked to some installers and it seems the avg price around here, including all supplies and install, comes out to about $165 per fixture.

Any thoughts / advice?

I love solar powered things and have little dragonfly and bird fun lights that have lasted along time but yrs ago we had the solar powered spot lights and they didnt last but I think no matter what kind of light you get you will have to replace them periodically or thats just what Ive found with the lighting we put in and around our pond. It really makes a difference in your yard though when you do have the landscape spot lighting. I find alot of good deals at Home depot in fact we were just there buying stuff on Saturday

I spent soooooooo much money on solar landscaping lighting.....such a waste of money for me! I probably went thru at least 5 sets of different style of lights....I was wanting a specific "look"....I wanted my shrubs to be lit with descrete light fixtures...like they were glowing....with the solar sets, the lights were just stuck out there and when I drove up to my home at night, my beds were outlined with a dot of light and I never did get the bushes adequately lit up.

I finally gave up and hired a landscaper to put lights in...they are very pretty and they uplight my shrups and my trees....cant see the light fixture, just the light they throw up into my shrubs.....very expensive, but very, very pleased with the way it turned out....just the "look" I was wanting.....kind of how they light up model homes with their flower beds....

I look across the cul-d-sac at a neighbors solar lighting....and it is exactly what I had that I was not wanting....at night, you can count 36 little solar fixtures across the front of their flower bed....does NOT light the shrubs or tree up....and these fixtures only stay lit well for about 6 hours....???!!!

I DO have little butterfly and hummingbird solar lights on sticks that go into my flower pots....they have lasted a long time, but the "coach lights" I mounted on the fence down the drive way did not do well at all.

If you get hard wired lights definitely get led lights you will save alot of money on your electric bill

Yup, see....this is partly what I'm worried about....that I'll go ahead and spend like $200-300 on solar fixtures, only to be disappointed...?!! So I'm conflicted.

How many wired fixtures would you guess you now had in your yard, that give it an adequate lighted ambiance?

I went and counted them....I have 6 on the left side flower bed, and 7 on the right....the fixtures look like a bullet...the light comes out of the "cut off" end....the pointed end is not lit, so you do not see that when coming up to the house at night....the fixtures are tucked up close/under the bushes, which makes them look like the light is coming from within the bush....Of the 6 on one side, 4 light shrubs and 2 up light the two crepe myrtles in that bed....on the left bed, 4 light bushes, 1 is aimed at lillies, and 2 up light the vitex tree and the crepe myrtle....

I have my oak tree in the yard up lit by one, and on the opposite side of the yard, I have my red bud tree up lit by one.

Totally agree about the wired being better than the solar. If you want that model home look you can't use solar. Just not bright enough. At our old house we had the wired system. We put it in ourselves. Can't remember how much it cost but it wasn't too much. We bought everything at Home Depot.

The solar lights are more like for lighting up the pathway to your door. Not really for spotlighting trees.

I prefer hardwired. In fact, I dug mine out at the last house and pulled the electrical wires out from the tubes they ran through under the walkway, and took my lights with me to my wee house. 1). I like the verdigris colour, and 2). They were expensive architectural grade lights.

I currently have them installed in front of my wee house and I love them! I've never had an issue with them. I really like that they stay lit for whatever time I designate, unlike solar, that come on at dusk and go out whenever the battery life dies. Plus, they give off a much brighter and consistent light.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

My stepson bought solar lights at the dollar store! He and his wife rent so they wanted something temporary. they are plain, but they have lasted him for at least two years. They look fine especially tucked into the landscaping.

Solar can't even come close to wired, they don't give enough light and they don't last.

One other thing to consider in wired lighting is LED, which is very popular now, vs older style low voltage Malibu type. Personally I don't like the intense/too bright white of LED, and prefer softer low voltage lights. They are getting harder to find though.

I also don't like LEDs. They actually are very much harder on my eyes bc of astigmatism. Esp car tails lights that now have LEDs. Very distracting and I hate to drive at night bc of it. The older bulbs are much more pleasing to look at.

The wired low voltage Malibu lights we put in to light the front walkway came as a kit with about 10 fixtures, all the wire and transformer box, for around $150 at Costco probably 8 years ago and we installed it ourselves. Wish they still carried the same set, I would do more.

Yup...I generally cannot stand the color of LED lights -- it's too blue-purple-white, rather than a warmer yellow light which I much prefer! I see some yards around here lit up w/ LEDs and I think it just looks awful!

So, when you 2 installed these systems yourselves -- what did you have to do in terms of an outdoor box? In other words, where is this "transformer" supposed to be installed? Does it just plug into an outdoor outlet, or do you have to hard-wire it in somewhere and then go from there? Does each light work off of that 1 transformer then? I just don't understand how these systems are set up yet...

Bf installed ours, but it's been awhile. It was our old house. There's one transformer box. But that house was a new build so at the design center they had an option of a switch in the garage to operate outside lights/xmas lights. There was an outside outlet to plug in all in.

Hi Wylie's Mom, my husband owns a landscape business. He does it all-landscape design, hard scapes, and landscape lighting. My suggestion to you would be steer clear of solar, they are not near as bright and you are not getting the lighting bang for your buck. I think you could probably do hard wire yourself with some research and patience. If you have a local nursery or irrigation supply that retails the lighting they will have a display and/or catalog that you can look through. Much better quality than big box store such as lowes and Home Depot, these lights are a little more pricey BUT will last you many many years. You are going to want the warm white LEDs, they do not project the blue hue. Also hard wire puts off quite a bit more light for up-lighting trees or architectural details of your home. You want something that has a strong casing made of copper or another hard material that will take weather conditions. Hope that helps, I will go to the office in a bit and see if I can put my hands on some of our brochures and give you the names of manufactures my husband uses.

My box is in my garage, and we also made a little hole in the wall for the light sensor that makes lights turn on an off when it's dark. They can also operate on a timer which you set. One box powers up about 100' of wire, with 8-10 fixtures snapped in wherever you choose, and additional strands/wire can be added (don't know what the max is though).

You will want to make sure to get metal fixtures, not plastic which will get brittle and break in Arizona sun.

We have both a hard wire back yard, 120 watt PS and solar front yard. The problem with the solar is the stock battery, Hampton Bay, Home Depot, when they go out (6 months to 1 year) replace with energizer recharge and they will really last all night. We also have solar and hard wire security lights those both work great. Solar is a great option if digging, routing will be a pain and the newer LED's are getting really good. For us the biggest benefit of Hard Wire is a easy on/off switch, you can turn of most solar but you have to get to location.

Ann . . .. We started looking for the same thing. . . We did find out that solar lights are still not as good as hard wired. It is going to take a little more but it will be worth it. Now to find fixtures that will work with a 18th century house lol

Hi, the names of some good manufactures are Unique Lighting, FX Luminare & Kichler, hope this helps :)

Verbena I am absolutely jealous and would love to have your problem to find anything for an 18th century house! It is my dream to one day own an old beauty, so much character and charm!

18th c house? Where do you live? Paul Revere's old house? LOL