Consider Using Solar Garden Fountains

 

Talented gardeners who successfully cultivate and propagate plants, flowers, vegetables, trees and shrubs are said to have "green fingers". While all gardeners wish they had green fingers it is now crucial that everyone, including gardeners, begin to lead green lives taking up new habits and destroying our old habits which appear to be destroying the plant. Modern society is a power greedy society which is extremely wasteful and, apparently, global warming is now such an important issue that just cutting down our power consumption and wastage will simply not have sufficient an impact to halt the oncoming disaster, doom and gloom. On a brighter note we can, as individuals, do much to help in the fight to save the planet and using solar powered items in preference to mains power or battery power is one of the easiest ways in which we can contribute and the following article takes a look at solar garden fountains.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint By Taking Little Steps

If you examine your home I would take a bet that there are many areas where you can cut back on power consumption just by switching things off properly rather than leaving them on standby. However you can take a further step by investigating and utilizing alternative green power, especially that generated by solar panels. I have already installed solar powered outdoor lighting in my own garden and when I get around to installing a garden pond I shall also be considering solar garden fountains. Step by step I plan to tackle each area of my power consumption until I not only have green fingers but also a 100% green lifestyle. Though I may not reach the 100% target I shall give it a good try.

Generally solar powered devices come in two forms, those which have the reactive cells/panels built in and those which make use of an external solar panel to trickle charge an internal battery. Of course a third, and most wonderful option, would be to have a few large solar panels charging a bank of batteries from which you can power a number of gadgets. Obviously it would be ridiculous to have solar cells on a submersible pump as it simply would not get sufficient light so solar garden fountains are generally powered from an external solar panel as shown in the photograph at towards the top of this page.

Solar Panel Placement

To me the cable in the above photograph appears a little too short for my liking as a short cable will vastly reduce the placement options and you will be forced to place it close to the fountain. While it is possible to hide the panel by carefully planting a few tall plants around it you should take extreme care not to block out the sunlight.

Another associated problem is that the panel really needs to be in direct sunlight but water features, especially ponds, need to avoid such conditions to curtail algae growth. The only solution I consider practicable is to use a longer cable and place the panel away from the fountain pump and, if possible, high off the ground. Ideally such a panel should be placed upon a roof of a garden shed where it will have few obstructions and gather the maximum sunlight possible.

In the next article I shall be taking a closer look solar powered water fountains.

 

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