FAQ on Solar Powered Street Lights

How to Choose the Best Solar Powered Street Lights

Now many customers consider to buy solar street lights powered by the sun energy as it doesn’t consume your electricity bill and it is easy to install outside of house.

Let’s dive deep about this product and we will help you figure out what factors to take into account and make your best choice.

How do solar powered street lights work ?

The solar panel can absorb the sun’s energy via its solar cells or photovoltaic cells during the sunny daytime, store and convert it into elecrical power in the battery.

In case not to be overcharged, there is a smart PWM or MPPT controller to communicate between the solar panel and battery. It monitors the signal of the voltage & current from the panel.

Voltage is key factor to decide if the light should be on/off.

When the controller detect a low voltage, the LED light would be switched on automatically and battery is discharged; if the voltage increase, the light is switched off and battery begin to recharge.

As a core part of solar street light, the smart controller functions to control the following as well.

• Time control (set standby time and holding time by a remote)
• Motion detection (motion sensor is needed)
• Low voltage disconnect provention
• Dusk to dawn (photocell sensor is needed)

When night time comes, the solar street light can be turned on automatically with the photocell sensor, dusk to dawn controlled. This discarging and recharging process keep repeating day and night.

If there is no time control setting for the solar street lamp, the battery usually support to light up about 12 hours.

What’s solar powered street lights benefits ?

Since solar energy is a form of renewable energy coming from the Sun, totally inexhaustible to use.

Besides, people can make full use of it to power the lighting fixtures time and time again without paying electricity bills, unlike the coal thermal power generation or nuclear power generation, we need to pay it, while solar is more green and enviroment friendly to the Mother Earth.

What is solar street light advantages and disadvantages ?

The advantage of solar street light is simple,as a kind of cordless technology, you don’t need to or cannot be able to pull additional power line out there but still require illumination when needed, especially in rural area without electricity grid, and it doesn’t consume electricity so no money is spent on lighting up the area.

Also, since it is wired into low voltage direct current(DC) line, not the 120-277V alternative current(AC) power line, it is quite safe and can be installed by yourself, you save the installation cost by electricians.

The disadvantage of the solar lighting system is also obvious, if cloudy or rainy days last quite a long time in summer or winter season, the battery cannnot be recharged efficiently, then after its power energy runs out, the light cannot be lit up again.

Another shortage of solar street lighting system is that the solar street light output wattage cannot be made too high due to the restriction of the battery output power(usually under 100w), so its lumen output is often much less compared with the case that connected into the power line.

Kind to note, the solar street light quality is dependent on the solar panel, the higher of energy conversion rate, the better. Otherwise, you have to replace the solar panel every 1-2 years if buying low quality stuff.

Types of solar street light in USA & Canada

There are two kinds of solar LED street light popular for USA and Canada market, one is more integrated and compact all in one solar street light, the other is splittable LED street light with a separate solar panel.

What’s the components of solar street light ?

It is made up of 4 main components

1. Solar panel ( mono-crystalline or poly-crystalline solar panel, the former is more efficient to collect the sunlight)
2. Lighting fixtures (aluminum housing and PC housing, SMD LED chips & driver )
3. Rechargeable deep-cycle battery ( lead acid batteries or Lithium-ion batteries )
4. Pole mount extension arm or mounting kits

Is there 200W 300W 400W 500W LED solar street light and can give out its rated lumens as advertised ?

The solar energy street light brightness is determined by the battery, not by its nominal wattage of the LED chips. If the battery power is much less than the LED street lamps wattage, then it is hard to drive the LED to light up at its fullest lumens.

e.g. If the battery output power is only 50W, the street light nominal power is 200W, then it only have 1/4 (50W/200W) of its full lumen.

Therefore, you need to figure out the battery power first, then you can know how many lumens you’ll get.

However, due to the restriction of the battery technology, battery watt cannot be made quite high currently, most Max output power are under 100W, thereby, 200W 300W 400W 500W solar street light lumens are uncontent to some customer who want super bright effect.

Think about this before making purchase. If you can pull the power line and need high output, it is better to buy 100-277V version 150w LED street light or above instead of solar version.

For Chiuer Lighting, we are a time-honored solar street light supplier for American & Canadian home and commercial places. If you are looking for China factory for solar lighting fixtures, please feel free to contact us [email protected].