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Recently, more and more people have to think about saving energy. Prices for electricity and gas are constantly growing, we have to think about using free energy sources. Owners of private houses and summer cottages will benefit from solar-powered street lighting.
Advantages and disadvantages
The arrangement of lighting the yard, garden, adjacent territory requires a lot of money – it is required not only to install lamps, but also to lay a cable. More reliable is the underground laying of the cable, and this is a large amount of land work, plus a solid cost for the cable, since it must be in a protective sheath, and preferably in armor. But that’s not all – in the process of operation, you have to pay solid bills for electricity – the lighting works every day, for 6-8 hours. Solar-powered street lighting can partially solve the problem.
Advantages
Why partially? Because the most “important” areas (gates, parking, entrance doors) will have to be illuminated permanently – it’s more reliable that way. But in the rest of the area you can put lamps on solar batteries. They have a range of benefits.
- Solar-powered lamps are usually autonomous, they do not need to be connected anywhere. They are installed / hung in the right places, the installation is completed, they are ready for work.
- They turn on / off themselves, from the built-in sensors.
Ease of installation and safety are two big pluses - They require minimal maintenance – it is necessary to periodically wipe the photocells and the ceiling of the lamp from dust and dirt.
- They have a long service life – from 10 years or more (with proper quality).
- They do not harm the environment and are absolutely safe, as they operate from low voltage, which is not dangerous for humans.
- If solar-powered street lighting is made in the country, its conservation for the winter and installation takes very little time. You just need to collect the lamps before leaving and arrange them upon arrival.
Disadvantages
As you can see, there are many advantages, the main of which is energy savings and very simple installation / dismantling. But there are also disadvantages:
- Garden and outdoor solar-powered lamps usually do not give very bright light. You can’t use them as security lights. Rather, there are powerful models that are even used to illuminate highways, but their cost is completely inhumane, which is why their use in private courtyards is very limited.
Solar-powered street lighting is usually not very bright. - The number of hours of operation at night depends on the weather: in cloudy rainy weather, the lamps “store” too little energy. Sometimes it lasts only a few hours, and not all night.
- Reliable solar-powered lamps are expensive, but they work more reliably and last longer.
- Solar panels have a limited operating temperature range. They do not tolerate severe frosts and extreme heat. Therefore, they can be optimally used in areas with a temperate climate.
As you can see, the option is not ideal, but it really helps to save on electricity, because regular lighting of critical areas is far from half the cost of general lighting of the yard and garden.
Solar lamp device
Solar-powered street lamps can have a different shape, appearance, installation method, but they all consist of a certain set of elements:
- Solar panel or battery. A device that converts solar energy into electrical energy. It can be located on different parts of the lamp, but turned upwards – in order to better capture the sun’s rays.
- Battery. It accumulates electrical energy during daylight hours.
Solar lamp device - Lighting block. This is usually a housing, an LED lamp and a ceiling.
- A controller that turns on / off the power supply to the lighting unit.
- Fastening for installation/hanging.
As you understand, the principle of operation is as follows: during daylight hours, the sun’s rays are captured by a solar panel, where they are converted into electrical energy and transferred to a battery. At dusk (illumination 20 Lx), the controller turns on the power supply, the LED lamp lights up. In the morning at dawn (at illumination of 10 Lx), the lighting is turned off.
Selection of solar-powered street lighting fixtures
In the distribution network there are LED street lamps with a very wide range of prices – from one hundred rubles to tens of thousands. Sometimes there are models that look almost the same, but are very different in price. How to understand this and how to choose lighting fixtures for solar-powered street lighting? It’s simple – you need to look at the technical specifications. It is in them that the difference lies.
Power
When arranging lighting, it is necessary to take into account how much light a lamp can give. The number of fixtures and the distance at which they must be installed from each other depends on this. The technical specifications usually indicate the power in watts, and in the case of LED lamps, it says little.
To understand the level of illumination, it can be compared with an analogue of a conventional incandescent lamp – their power is more or less clear to us, and you can also convert this indicator into Lums (Lm) – units of measurement of illumination. So you can realistically assess how effective this particular lamp will be.
As you understand, models with a power of 1 W do not give so much light – about the same as a 20 W incandescent lamp, therefore they can only be used to illuminate or mark the area – marking paths, illuminating gazebos, etc.
Protection class and housing material
In order for solar-powered street lighting to work for a long time and reliably, it is necessary that the body and the light block (plafond) be protected from dust and moisture. It is desirable that the protection class is not lower than IP44 (more than a number is good, less is bad).
It is also worth paying attention to the material from which the lamps are made. Usually it is a special impact-resistant plastic or metal. If the “metal” is other than stainless steel or aluminium, it is better to give preference to plastics. They definitely do not rust and keep 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:
- Ground installation. This is a group of lamps on legs of different heights – from 20-30 cm to a meter and above. Their installation is extremely simple – they are simply stuck into the ground in the right place.
The most extensive group – lamps are simply stuck into the ground - Pillar lamps. As a rule, these are taller models with a leg height of 1,5 meters and above. They can also be installed on the ground, but require more serious installation measures – they have a greater height and weight. You will have to make a hole, insert a pole into it, fill it with soil and compact it. There are models for installation on hard surfaces – tiles, asphalt, etc.
Solar lamps on high poles - Solar powered wall lamps. There are different styles – from the classic “lantern” design, to models in a modern style. Can be mounted on a wall, fence, fence posts.
Wall options look decorative - Suspended. There are also a lot of options – there are models that can be attached to the ceiling, a beam, etc., and some that can be hung on branches.
For different purposes and conditions - Embedded in the ground, paths, stairs. Very practical models that allow you to illuminate even the stairs, and they are illuminated 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 the illumination remains good.
Illumination of stairs – convenient, economical and beautiful - Decorative. Made in the form of various figures. In the daytime, they look like a regular decor, at night they additionally emit light. There is no installation in this case – they simply put the lamp in the place intended for it.
Decorative figurines also have built-in solar panels.
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 advantages, street lighting with the help of separate solar-powered lamps has a significant drawback: the energy supply in the batteries is scanty. After a cloudy day, it lasts only a few hours. On a clear sunny day, the “extra” energy disappears, since the battery capacity is limited and it is not able to take more. The problem can be solved if you put a powerful solar battery, connect a battery and lamps to it. In this case, you can use any LED lamps that can operate from 12 V.
The advantage of this solution is that there is some energy reserve (depending on the battery capacity), which guarantees operation even after a cloudy day. The disadvantages are the high price and the need for cabling, since everything needs to be combined into a single system.
Solar-powered street lighting: photo ideas
This section contains ideas that are interesting in our opinion for lighting the site and lamps powered by solar panels.