Solar Lights

Cut Your Electricity Bills With Solar: Cost-Effective And Eco-Friendly Light Source

With steadily rising energy prices and increased environmental awareness, solar lights have become a cost-effective and energy efficient way to illuminate homes, gardens, streets, and businesses. In addition to reduced carbon footprint, solar lights harness sunlight as fuel. Their ultra-low maintenance requirements and long-life span saves money through reduced power consumption, reduced maintenance costs, and lower installation costs.

Be it illuminating a path, accentuating your landscaping, or securing outdoors with light, solar lights provide a cost-effective and eco-friendly alternative to traditional electrical lighting systems. In this article we will identify what solar lights are, how they work, types of solar lights, advantages of using solar lights, and things to consider when purchasing them.

What is Solar Lights?

Solar lights, or solar powered lights are use solar energy to create electricity. They have four main components to a solar light:

• Solar Panel - captures sunlight and provides electricity.
• Rechargeable Battery - stores electricity generated from the light panel throughout the day.
• LED Light - converts stored electricity to light for illuminating at night.
• Controller/sensor - regulates the charging and illumination process with a motion sensor or light darkness sensor.

Solar lights are completely off grid source of lighting because they use the solar rays to charge the light source. They are extremely useful as overhead lighting in a dark area where it is difficult to entertain trenching of proper wiring.

How Do Solar Lights Work?

The operational mechanism of solar lights is pretty straightforward:

• In the daytime, the solar panel captures sunlight and converts it to direct current (DC) electric energy.
• That energy is stored in a rechargeable battery (usually lithium-ion or NiMH).
• At dusk, a sensor activates the LED light using its stored energy.
• The light will stay illuminated for hours, depending on the amount of sunshine and battery capacity each day.
• Many solar lights also come with motion sensors or timers to extend battery life and add function.

Types of Solar Lights

Depending on usage and design there are several types of solar lights:

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• Solar Garden Lights: They are the perfect decorative light, used in gardens, patios and landscapes. They often provide a gentle glow in designs that often appear attractive.
• Solar Pathway Lights: Used to light driveways, sidewalks, paths, these are usually located at ground level and made to help guide people safely through poorly lit areas.
• Solar Flood Lights: Provides bright, wide-angle lighting for large outdoor areas like backyards or sports fields. Most of them come with motion sensors and larger wattage panels.
• Solar Wall Lights: Solar lights can be placed on walls or fences and can provide light and visibility around entrances, garages
• Solar Street Lights: Solar street lights are high-powered systems that are made for ongoing exterior lighting in public areas, highways, or rural areas.
• Solar Lanterns & Portable Lights: Ideal for your camping trip, outdoor adventure, or a power outage, solar lanterns and solar portable lights are lightweight, portable, and easy to charge.

Benefits of Solar Lights

Utilizing solar lights in the following ways, can provide a number of practical, economic, and environmental advantages:

• Energy Efficient: Solar lights operate completely on solar energy so they decrease dependence on grid electricity while lowering energy costs.
• Eco Friendly: Carbon emissions are reduced with solar lights, making these options a more green alternative to conventional lights.
• Cost Efficient: Although the upfront cost can be more, long term savings on electricity bills and maintenance costs can be considerable.
• Low Maintenance: With most solar lights, maintenance is low. Usually you will occasionally need to clean the solar panel and just put in a new bettery every few years.
• Easy Installation: Solar lights have no wiring which means you can put them anywhere you have good sun exposure; so they are perfect for extreme remoteness or temporary setups.
• Increased Safety: Safety outdoors is increased because there is no exposed wiring in solar lights! Reducing exposure to electrical hazards.

Things to Consider Before Buying Solar Lights

To get the best results out of your solar lights, consider these aspects:

• Sunlight Exposure: Make sure the solar panel receives direct sunlight for 6-8 hours daily. Shady and less sunny areas will reduce such efficiency. 
• Battery Size: Increased battery size means longer continued run time. As a general guideline, when looking at outdoor lights, look for lithium-ion (or li-ion) batteries that are AT least 1000 mAh capacity.
• Brightness (lumens) : The brightness of your solar lights will depend on the application you need:
  • Garden lights – (5-100 lumens)
  • Path lights – (100-200 lumens)
  • Flood lights – (700-2000+ lumens)
• Motion sensors & timers: Extra smart features like motion sensors and timers are great ways to promote energy efficiency and security around your home or business.
• Build quality: Look for products that are going to be exposed to the outdoors to be made from weatherproof (IP65+) and UV resistant materials.

Applications of Solar Lights

• Residential : Gardens, patios, driveways, balconies, etc.
• Commercial : Parks, parking lots, malls, etc.
• Rural electrification : street lights/residential lights in rural parts.
• Emergency Lighting : instead of a candle during outages, or for disaster relief. 
• Events & decorating : weddings, festivals and any celebrations.