Cool Driveway Lighting

Last Memorial Day weekend our family rented a small cabin in Door County Wisconsin.  This is a favorite vacation and tourist destination of many folks in the Midwest, but primarily families from Chicago or Milwaukee tend to go there to “get away” from the big city for a weekend.   I am always really shocked when I go there to see actual stars in the sky and the blackness of night that exists when you get outside of the city’s night glow.  The trip last year was very exciting as it was our first visit to the place we rented.  I thought I’d share one of the things that I remember from the trip.   It seems a little odd that I remember this about the trip, but then again…my wife would certainly chime in here and say…”you’re a little odd, honey”.   Basically the one key thing I can remember about the property we visited was that the cabin had an incredibly long driveway that was completely pitch black at night.   If there was a quarter mile of driveway with no driveway lighting on it, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.   That got me thinking…

Wouldn’t it be cool if the owner could install driveway lights along this driveway?  Sure I thought.  However how would they do it and how much would driveway lights on a gravel paved driveway work?  Which kind would be best?   So here is our discussion of driveway lighting.

For me, the first and most obvious choice for lining the driveway with proper lighting would have been installing low voltage driveway lighting.  Solar lights “might” have been a good option IF the house didn’t sit back in the woods.  There were too many shade trees and bushes along the gravel path and quite frankly even though solar driveway lights might have gotten enough sunlight to technically stay lit, they would have been quite useless.   Low voltage lighting would certainly provide enough light, however with the distance involved, the setup would have to be quite involved and significant wiring would be required. It would be a great option if the homeowner had electrical skills but again it might be a bit expensive for a home that doesn’t necessarily get used year round.  (remember this was a vacation rental)

So I thought more about the problem at hand and came up with a different solution.   The “real issue” is really the fact that at NIGHT you can’t see where you are driving on the driveway.  There are no lights to show the edges of the driveway.  However, during the daytime, you can clearly see the driveway with no issues.   So I personally think in this instance the best value for the money for this cabin would have been to install high visibility driveway markers and not driveway lights.

Driveway Lighting vs. Driveway Markers

I know the title of the article throws you off a little bit, and again I do think that in an ideal setup, low voltage lighting for the driveway would have been perfect.   But honestly, for the money and for the real issue at hand… which is to provide some visibility to the driveway edges when driving at night, you really can’t go wrong with these driveway markers.  I did a quick search online and found a cool site that sells these markers for really cheap.  Essentially its about $35 for a pack of 12 markers and in my case, if I was the owner of the vacation property I would need to buy 2 or 3 packs I guess.  Here is a photo I got from their site. If you click it, it will take you to their web page.

Driveway Lighting That Doesn’t Require Electricity

You can see from the picture that it illustrates what I was referring to with driving at night.  Essentially your car’s headlights are the illuminating factor and the reflection from the high visibility material on the markers lights up the driveway edges perfectly!   Amazing innovation and it saves a TON of money vs. installing fancy inground driveway lights

Good luck in your driveway lighting experiments and let us know if you found this idea helpful,we always love to hear from our readers.