If you’re looking to upgrade your garden or give your backyard a nicer look, outdoor lighting can be a great solution. However, considering the cost and how much energy it can consume over time is important while making this decision. Knowing which lighting systems work for you is also necessary.
Outdoor lighting is relatively expensive, but it depends on the landscape lighting you pick. Some can be efficient but expensive to purchase, while others can be hard to maintain but inexpensive to install. For example, LED bulbs have a higher cost but save electricity and are changed less often.
Understanding what you’re looking for first can be the key to making the right call. Once you know the pros and cons of each lighting system, further analysis can be made regarding the types of lights available in the market. Let’s look at the cost and usage of electricity while using landscape lighting.
Having access to outdoor lighting can be a great convenience. However, one needs to ensure that it’s affordable and worth it before installing in your outdoor space. The cost of outdoor lighting can vary depending on the quality, warranty, and type of lighting you’re opting for. Considering outdoor lights that are waterproof and do not corrode can be relatively more expensive.
The bulbs that these lights are paired with plays an important role as well. For example, halogen bulbs can be cheaper but tend to go out randomly, which leads to higher cost when these bulbs are changed more frequently.
On the other hand, LED bulbs are much more reliable. Their cost is higher than halogen bulbs, but most of the time they are only changed once every years.
It’s important to understand the cost of lighting systems as well. Hardware Store Lighting can be cheaper to install but more expensive to maintain over time. On the other hand, High Quality Lights or Kichler Potted Lights are expensive to install, but their maintenance costs are really low.
While comparing costs, one should always include the time and effort invested in the maintenance and the possible inconvenience caused by the lighting system and its bulbs. Summing it up, you’ll receive what you pay for. Good technology and design always has a price to it, but its worth the investment.
Do Outdoor Lights Use a lot of Electricity?
If you are someone who uses outdoor lights more often, the thought of how much electricity it uses is very common. This cost is highly dependent on the measure of electrical energy being consumed and the number of watts being consumed in this process.
If the usage is around six hours per night, 540 watts will be drained, leading to a total of 197,100 watts burnt throughout the whole year.
An average 15-light LED outdoor lighting system will cost you less than $22 per year. This cost has been calculated by multiplying the yearly watts to unit price of average electricity rate. Once this cost is divided in your monthly electricity bill, the difference would be minor. So, the cost is definitely worth it for your security and the aesthetics of your house.
Along with money, energy consumption is another factor to consider. Installing efficient bulbs to support your lighting systems can result in less electricity used. Modern lighting systems support LED bulbs, and these have proven to be 15% more efficient than halogen or incandescent bulbs which were used in the past.
Another alternative which can lead to less energy consumption is solar-powered options. Since most of these outdoor lights function only at night, they will have lots of time to charge during the daytime using sunlight. Installing a solar-powered system can be a slightly expensive investment, but it will prove to be energy friendly and save on electricity costs.
However, the problem with outdoor solar lights is there are so many options that reliability is hard to confirm before you have the product on site. Options like the SOLPEX Solar Deck Lights Outdoor (on Amazon) are worth trying, but there’s so many of these cheap solar options on the market, it’s no surprise when one of them shows up and is only dimly lit for a few hours after dusk, so, the product reviews are your friends here!
Ultimately, however, LED bulbs are one of the best choices you can make while opting for outdoor lights. Along with consuming less electricity, they are durable and elevate the look of your house as well. Often, avoiding inexpensive choices like halogen bulbs can prove to be beneficial since maintenance costs and time are saved drastically.
