This is the first decision, it decides everything after it, and most shops dodge it because half their range is on each side.
We sell both. Here is the honest answer.
The short version
| 12V low voltage | Solar | |
|---|---|---|
| Light output | Full, every night, all year | Good May–August. Poor November–January. |
| Runs until | Whenever you tell it to | As long as the battery lasts — 3–8 hours in summer, often under 1 hour midwinter |
| Installation | Cable trench, transformer, a 230V outdoor supply | Push it in the ground |
| Electrician | For the 230V supply, yes | No |
| Cost of ten lights | Several hundred pounds fitted | Tens of pounds |
| Lasts | 10–20 years | 2–4 years, battery first |
| Control | Timers, zones, dimming, scenes | Dusk to dawn, and whatever the battery allows |
The thing about solar nobody puts on a product page
Solar is a summer product. A panel in a British garden gets roughly six to eight times less usable energy in December than in June — shorter days, lower sun angle, thicker cloud, and often a wet or leaf-covered panel on top of that.
So a solar path light that runs beautifully for seven hours in July will give you forty minutes of something dim in January, and by February the owner has decided the light is faulty. It usually isn't. It is a solar light in a British winter.
We put a "When to buy" note on every solar product for this reason, and we would rather lose a December sale than take one we know ends in a return. If you want light in January, buy 12V.
Buy solar when…
- The lighting is decorative rather than functional — a path you can already see, a border, a party.
- You use the garden April to September and barely look at it the rest of the year.
- There is no power anywhere near and trenching a cable is out of proportion to the job.
- You rent, or the garden might change next year.
- The spot gets six or more hours of direct summer sun. Under a tree, against a north wall, or in the shadow of a fence, even a good solar light fails.
If the panel can't be in the sun but the light must be in the shade, buy a model with a separate panel on a lead — there are several in the range, and they solve more solar failures than any other feature.
Buy 12V when…
- The lighting has a job — steps you need to see, a drive you reverse down, a path used in the dark in February.
- You want it on at a set time, or dimmed, or zoned.
- You are lighting trees, walls or water, where output actually matters.
- You want it to still be there in ten years.
- You are having other garden work done anyway — the trench is most of the cost, and it is nearly free while the ground is already open.
12V is extra-low voltage, which is why it is the domestic garden standard: the buried cable is safe to cut, the fittings are safe to handle, and the only part that needs an electrician is the 230V supply feeding the transformer. See Sizing a Transformer and Cable.
Mains 230V — the third option we mostly talk people out of
Full mains garden lighting is the right answer for long drives, commercial sites and anything needing serious output at distance. In a domestic garden it usually isn't: it must be installed by a qualified electrician, buried at depth in the right protection, and every future change is chargeable. 12V does almost everything a garden needs and you can move a fitting yourself in ten minutes.
Most gardens want both
This is the answer we give more than any other, and it isn't a fudge.
12V where it matters, solar where it doesn't. A 12V run down the steps, across the terrace and up two trees — the lighting that has to work in February. Solar in the far border, along the fence and around the shed, where it being seasonal costs you nothing and trenching sixty metres of cable costs you a weekend.
Done that way, a garden looks lit from the house all year, and you spent the money only where it buys something.
Three questions that settle it
- Will you be annoyed if it's dim in January? Yes → 12V.
- Is there 230V power within about 30 metres? No, and you don't want to lay it → solar, or one of our off-grid systems, which are a bigger panel and a proper battery rather than a stake light.
- Does the panel get real, direct summer sun? No → 12V, or a separate-panel solar model.
If you're not sure
Send us a photo of the garden in daylight, roughly what you want lit, and where the nearest outdoor socket is. We'll tell you which side of this page you're on, and if the answer is "solar, and spend a quarter of what you were about to", we'll say that too. support@homartuk.com — no charge, and you're not obliged to buy anything.
Battery and output figures here are typical for UK domestic solar garden lighting and vary with model, siting, weather and battery age. They are guidance, not a specification.