Landscape Lighting - any solar brands worth buying

Probably not. The panel and battery have to be so big to match the light output of wired that nobody will like how they look.

Would direct burial landscape wire be do-able?

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Trying to avoid electrical hook up and running conduit under a small stone path

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Direct bury landscape low voltage landscape wire. Won’t tear up anything hardly.
We have cheap solar and they will show you where walkways are and that’s about it.
I’m happy with them because the old lady is happy but they don’t illuminate anything but the ground for a few feet.

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We have cheap solar and they will show you where walkways are and that’s about it.

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they don’t illuminate anything but the ground for a few feet.

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Rough math for a solar light to match wired lights:


I think a decently bright uplight will be in the range of 5-10 watts. Let's go with 5.

If you want it to shine most of the night it will need to work for at least 8 hours, but let's go with 4 to get us close to midnight sometimes.

So we need 5 x 4 = 20 watt-hours of energy each day. If we're generous we can count on ~4 hours of direct sunlight each day, so we need about a 5 watt solar panel. That will be a panel roughly 8" square. On each light. Each light will also need batteries that take up a volume about the size of a deck of cards.

Then of course all that has to be integrated into a light, then you'll have something half as bright and works half as long as a wired light.

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Probably not.

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spend a little more and install a 12v transformer and run wire underground.

hell, as bad as the moles have been at my house this year i wont even have to dig a single trench.

Short answer is a definite no. I replaced all my landscaping in front and put in new lighting. Low voltage and looks amazing. Stays on all night and very bright. Put solar in back. Not very bright even on max setting and only lights for a few hours. I know it sucks and you want it to work but it just doesn’t.

I pulled all the solar from the beds this summer and added wired low voltage. Purchased a 300 watt 2 zone transformer and 14 floods and 4 path lights. With the wire I'm in it for 400. Time will tell on the light durability. I didn't want to look at those weak solar lights again this winter.

Buy one of the VOLT landscape lighting packages from Costco. They’re easy to install and good quality. To run the low voltage wire under a concrete walk I simply bought a long drill bit from Harbor Freight to go through the dirt and taped the wire to the end and pulled through.