Several of my neighbors have private street lights for their driveway. They look just like a regular street light but you pay the utility company $10/month for the power used. Granted, the light source is very efficient and the cost seems minimal for the watt-hours you get; however – what a waste of energy! We live in a very rural area. Don’t they want to see the stars at night? Do they really want to pay good money for light pollution? Don’t they worry about giving would-be robbers plenty of illumination to do their thing in the dark of the night?
Be that as it may, the best illumination puts the light where you want it: in this case, at ground level. There are many inexpensive solar-powered yard lights available to illuminate a path, the driveway, or a back patio. You don’t have to pay an electrician to run underground conduit to the lights. You just jam the stake into the ground or attach it to a fence or other post, and you’re all done. Some are also motion-controlled: as the robbers tip-toe down the path, the lights click on and illuminate their path nicely.
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Excerpted from Going Green, available as an eBook at this list of eBook retailers online.