Solar Floodlights and Spotlights

Floodlights provide an even spread of lighting across a wide area. They're common above garage doors, sheds, patios and entryways, and represent the more powerful side of solar lighting. Most solar floodlights utilize light emitting diode (LED) light bulbs.

Solar landscape lights usually provide accent lighting via low-watt panels, but because of the need for more power, most solar floodlights have larger panels that are often separate from the light fixture itself. Because of this, they can be strategically mounted to receive as much sunlight as possible.

The more limited the sunshine in your area, the more powerful the floodlight you'll need. Solar Illuminations, for example, offers 7 to 20-watt solar floodlights. The 7-watt model is designed for sunny southern states and the 10-watt model for cloudier northern regions, providing the equivalent of 60-75 watt incandescent lighting. The 20-watt models are for super bright lighting (100-150 watt equivalent) and function best in northern regions.

Solar spotlights are also available. You might interchange spotlight with floodlight, allowing differentiation between functional and aesthetic purposes. Spotlights are typically staked into the ground and are used for highlighting, spotlighting, shadowing and uplighting. They are used at the base of trees to provide either shadows against a background or illuminate the tree from underneath, bringing an ethereal, if potentially haunting, quality to the landscape.

Solar spotlights and floodlights are more powerful and therefore more expensive, due mainly to the need for larger solar panels and more light bulbs. Spotlights for landscaping can run from $50 to $150 and often come in sets of three or more. Floodlights can easily run into the several hundred dollar range, the bright side being that they require no wires or grid electricity and will last for many years, ultimately paying for themselves in energy savings.

Solar Garden Lights / Solar Tubular Lights / Solar Power Driveway Lights / Solar Deck and Patio Lights / Solar Floodlights / Solar Pathway Lights / Solar Power Lanterns / Solar Power Pavers