The Tribune

By Joshua key

Nightscaping is the design of outdoor accent lighting to enhance your property’s beauty at night. This should not be confused with floodlights. You can use nightscaping to show off your plants and gardens, to line your walkways and driveways, to add pizzazz to your pools and fountains, or just to delineate certain areas – such as entrances and exits. On an industrial scale, you might turn nightscaping into hardscaping through having low-light markers in the asphalt along secluded roads.

Nightscaping has always been an appealing, yet challenging, venture. To do it right required wiring, trenching, a long and disruptive installation, the placement and purchase of dozens of low voltage lights and, of course, recurring electricity bills. Combined with the short life span of the product, due to poor quality and harsh weather, many a property manager has hesitated to move forward.

Today we get to discuss an easy, quick and affordable solution for nightscaping your property – high quality solar wireless lighting. High quality solar solutions come with three to five years’ warranty in the Bahamas, and 10 or more years of maintenance-free life.

Aside from the quality, what makes solar lights an ideal solution for nightscaping? How do you know they are high quality? Consider the following:

Environmentally friendly – There is no need to burn fossil fuels to give you beautiful light all night, every night.

Financially friendly - No wiring is required. That means no costs for you in trenching, running wires, tying into electricity supply, filling in and smoothing over the trenches. Most importantly, there are no recurring electricity bills. You avoid all those costs.

Installer friendly – The quick and simple installation procedure is secure, and involves no trenching and little disruption. Many installations are completed in less than a day. This saves time and money.

Theft unfriendly – In my experience, some people have hesitated to upgrade to solar landscape lights because they feared they would be easy to steal. However, proper nightscape solar solutions are firmly bound to the ground or wall by hardened epoxy. Many are even flush-mounted, so someone cannot just walk by and pull up your light.

Weather friendly – Quality solar solutions are fully IP68-rated for all outdoor weather, and give 16 hours of light. It only take three hours to fully charge in bright sunlight, and eight hours when it is overcast. That means even in winter, the lights will last all night.

Just as important is that they are UV protected, and will not turn yellow over time. Beware cheap counterfeits for this reason. Who wants an ugly yellow blotch on their property that does not give proper light?

Hardscape friendly – If desired, solar versions are available that are built to be walked over or driven on.

Underwater friendly – Suitable solutions are available for both above and below the water level. If you want lights in your pool, you can rest assured that they will charge underwater and last more than 10 years.

Maintenance un-friendly – There is no maintenance at all. With no batteries or bulbs to replace, each unit is entirely self-contained.

Innovator friendly – These solutions use cutting-edge pseudocapacitor and LED technology to make the most of solar power.

Designer friendly – There are multiple designs and an array of colours to suit any taste. Similarly, your light pattern can be steady or flashing, depending on preference.

It doesn not take much to realise why wireless solar lighting is such a great solution to the challenge of nightscaping. It just makes sense. That is why these solutions have be used in every hemisphere of the world, and in locations such as boat ramps, roads, zoos, memorials and parks. You can also use them for nightscaping or hardscaping in foot paths, driveways, stairs, gardens, decks, walls, guardrails and almost anywhere else you can think of.

Do you want to add more appeal to your property every night? Choose an environmentally-savvy solution. Choose a solar light designed for nightscaping, and save time and money while enjoying it. Contact your local energy-efficient product specialist to find out how you can get started.

• NB: Joshua Key is general manager for SuperGreen Solutions Bahamas, located on Wulff Road next to FYP. SuperGreen Solutions is one of the premier advisors, suppliers and installers of domestic and commercial energy efficient solutions.