Solar lighting is not nearly as cheap as standard lights that plug into the wall and are powered through our normal electrical, usually nuclear based, power grid. If you go to any garden shop or home improvement store and start sizing up your options, you might take just one look at the price and settle on the old fashioned garden lights to save a few dollars.

But are you really saving money by buying the cheapest lights?

As you know, there is more to it than this…

Consider that many solar powered garden lights come equipped with the technology to be self-sustaining, at least so long as the sun lasts, capturing the energy of the sun freely and using it to remain powered. And being that the sun is already about 4.5 billion years old at this point (give or take a few years), scientists estimate it’s nearly half way through it’s life cycle. So that means you’ve got up to another 4-5 billions year of getting free energy from the sun for your garden lights. Not a bad deal!

Now here’s where the cost saving fun statistics come into play:

If you estimate that each year you save $120 off your electrical bill (a conservative estimate) by powering all your garden lights via solar power, you stand to save an estimated $480 Billion to $600 Billion dollars over the course of the lifetime of the sun. That’s enough for another government bailout package!

ACTUALLY, I’m just seeing if you’re paying attention. If you are, then let’s get into the real specifics of the cost saving scenario that solar lights offer us.

If you estimate that your solar garden lights will last 10 years, and each month they save you $10 off your standard power bill, that’s $120 that stays in your pocket every year because of the one time investment you made into solar powered lights.

Over the 10 year lifespan of these products, that’s $1200 that you otherwise would have spent on powering standard lights and paying the electrical company for the priviledge to do so.

So considering that while shopping for garden lighting, the $100 or $200 set of high quality solar powered garden lights might set you back a bit over the much cheaper “normal” lighting, in the long run – yes, this sounds cliche, and it’s even a double pun, but nevertheless – it pays to go green!

In sum, solar garden lights are cheaper in the long run. It’s that simple!