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14 solar-powered garden lights to create a gorgeous twinkly glow
Light up your garden without driving up your energy bills
Bringing a charming glow to alfresco summer evenings, solar-powered garden lights are a popular, affordable and low maintenance way of illuminating your outdoor space.
There are plenty of styles on offer, from traditional stake lights that mark pathways and border edges to hanging lanterns to wrap around pergolas, wall sconces, and floor lamps. And that's without mentioning all the fun, decorative designs (such as the tree-like Alliums below), which are perfect for scattering in flowerbeds and staking into plant pots.
Solar lights aren’t especially powerful, however, so don’t rely on them alone for illumination (for that, you'll likely need some mains-powered lights), but they're great for creating ambience and adding a final twinkly flourish.
The best solar lights should be durable, easy to use and responsive. So, to give your garden a glow up, the GHI experts have been busy testing them out, with the help of our at-home panel. These are our top picks, but keep reading for everything you need to know.
How do solar-powered garden lights work?
Solar lights use the sun's energy to charge their battery during the day before coming on in all their glowy glory in the evening. It means they won't add to your energy bills but may not shine as brightly on gloomier days.
To make the most of your lights, ensure they – or the attached solar panel – are positioned in a well-lit area that gets lots of sun and away from walls that cast shadows over them.
Do solar lights work in winter?
The short answer is yes, but not as well. The more daylight the panels get to charge, the longer the bulbs will glow. So, expect your lights to work for six to 10 hours in the evenings in the summer, gradually reducing as the nights start drawing in.
However, as you'll be less likely to sit outside come autumn, this shouldn't be so much of a problem. Once it starts getting colder, we recommend bringing your solar garden lights inside or storing them in the shed, to ensure they stay in good condition for the next year.
Megan is the Good Housekeeping Institute’s homes writer. She loves diving into the latest product releases to find the very best buys on the market. When she’s not writing about the newest gadgets and gizmos for your home and garden, you’ll find her cooking, running and exploring London’s foodie hotspots – or trying to make friends with every dog she passes. Megan has an MA in Magazine Journalism and has previously written for Stylist, Glamour, TimeOut, SquareMeal, and YOU magazine. You can find Megan on Instagram @meganlouisegeall and on X @megan_geall
Blossom is our Senior Homes Tester. Passionate about finding the best home products and appliances for our readers, she has tested everything from blenders to pizza ovens. Blossom enjoys delving into the intricacies of products and refining testing protocols for hundreds of items. Innovative items like robot vacuum cleaners and wine coolers are among her favourite tests to date, and her most notable accomplishment is toasting 360 slices of bread in a determined bid to find the best toaster. In her free time, Blossom openly admits to being a music geek and indulges her creative side through crocheting, baking, singing and writing.
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