Autonomous solar lighting on the street, in the yard, at the summer house

In recent times we have to think more and more about saving energy. Prices for light and gas are constantly rising, so we have to think about using free energy sources. Owners of private homes and dachas will do well to save money with solar-powered street lighting.

Pros and cons

Arrangement of lighting of the yard, garden, adjacent territory requires large costs – it is required not only to install lamps, but also to lay the cable. More reliable underground cable laying, and this is a large amount of ground work, plus solid costs for the cable, as it must be in a protective shell, and better – in the armor. But that’s not all – in the process of operation have to pay a solid bill for electricity – lighting works every day, 6-8 hours. Partially solve the problem can street lighting on solar panels.

Advantages

Why partially? Because the most “responsible” areas (gates, parking lot, entrance doors) will have to be illuminated permanently – it is more reliable. But on the rest of the area you can put lights on solar panels. They have a number of advantages.

Disadvantages

As you can see, there are many pluses, the main of which is energy saving and very simple installation/dismantling. But there are also disadvantages:

As you can see, the option is not ideal, but it really helps to save on electricity, because the regular lighting of responsible areas is not half the cost of general lighting of the yard and garden.

Arrangement of a solar-powered luminaire

Street lamps on solar panels can have a different shape, appearance, method of installation, but they all consist of a certain set of elements:

As you have realized, the principle of operation is as follows: in the daylight hours, the sun’s rays are captured by the solar panel, where they are converted into electrical energy and transferred to the battery. At dusk (illumination 20 lux), the controller turns on the power supply, the LED lamp lights up. In the morning at dawn (at an illumination of 10 lux) lighting is turned off.

Selection of fixtures for street lighting on solar panels

In the trade network there are LED street lamps with a very wide range of prices – from a hundred rubles to tens of thousands. Sometimes there are models that look almost identical, but very different in price. How to understand this and how to choose lighting fixtures for street lighting on solar panels? It’s simple – you need to look at the technical specifications. It is in them that the whole difference.

Power

When arranging lighting, it is necessary to take into account how much light the lamp can give. From this depends on the number of lamps and the distance at which they need to be installed from each other. In technical characteristics, the power is usually indicated in watts, and in the case of LED luminaires, it does not say much.

To understand the level of illumination, you can compare with the analog of a conventional incandescent lamp – their power is more or less clear to us, and you can also translate this figure into Lumens (Lm) – units of illumination. So you can really assess how effective will be this particular lamp.

As you can see, models with a power of 1 W give not so much light – about as much as a 20 W incandescent lamp, so you can use them only for backlighting or marking the site – marking paths, lighting arbors, etc.

Protection class and housing material

To street lighting on solar panels worked for a long time and reliably, it is necessary that the housing and light block (plafon) have protection from dust and moisture. It is desirable that the protection class was not lower than IP44 (more numbers – it’s good, less – bad).

It is also worth paying attention to the material from which the lights are made. Usually it is a special impact-resistant plastic or metal. If the “metal” is different from stainless steel or aluminum, it is better to give preference to plastics. They definitely do not rust and maintain a good appearance for a long time.

Type and method of installation

According to the method of installation, LED street lamps are divided into several groups:

• Installation in the ground. This is a group of lamps on legs of different heights – from 20-30 cm to a meter or more. Their installation is extremely simple – they are simply poked into the ground in the right place.

  

• Pole luminaires. As a rule, these are taller models with a leg height of 1.5 meters or more. They can also be installed in the ground, but require more serious measures for installation – they have a greater height and weight. You will have to make a hole, insert the post into it, fill with soil and compact it. There are models for installation on hard surfaces – tiles, asphalt, etc.

  

• Wall lights on solar panels. There are in different styles – from the classic “lantern” design, to models in a modern style. They can be mounted on the wall, fence, fence posts.

  

• Suspended. There are also many options – there are models that can be attached to the ceiling, beam, etc., and there are models that can be hung on branches.

  

• Recessed into the ground, paths, stairs. Very practical models that allow you to illuminate even stairs, and illuminate not from above, as usual, but at the level of the steps. An interesting and practical solution – with this option, the light does not blind the eyes, and illumination remains good.

  

• Decorative. Made in the form of various figures. In the daytime they look like ordinary decor, at night additionally still emit light. Mounting in this case there is no – just put the lamp in the place intended for it.

  

The choice of solar-powered street lamps for street lighting is really great. In terms of style, size, price the range is large, so you can choose.

Autonomous solar-powered street lighting

With a lot of pluses, street lighting with the help of individual lamps on solar panels has a significant disadvantage: the energy reserve in the batteries is meager. After a cloudy day it is enough for only a few hours. On a clear sunny day, the “extra” energy is gone, as the battery capacity is limited and it is not able to take more. The problem can be solved if you put a powerful solar panel, connect the battery and lights to it. In this case, you can use any LED lights that can operate from 12 V.

The plus side of such a solution – there is some energy reserve (depends on the capacity of the battery), which guarantees operation even after a cloudy day. Disadvantages – high price and the need to lay cables, as everything needs to be combined into a single system.

Solar-powered street lighting: photo ideas

In this section we collected interesting in our opinion ideas of illumination of the site and lamps that work from solar panels.