When we go through the place such as rural road, path way and parks, more or less we will find that there are solar panels on top of the street pole. Yes, they are solar led street light or solar parking lot lights. Solar power is already not a new technology in 2020. And we make sure that these solar street lights will become more and more around your city. Because the components price of the solar street light, battery and solar panel, lowed down a lot in the past 10 years and will go on lowing down in the future. And the solar street light price will go on lowing down in the following years.
There are so many advantages for solar powered street lights that the end users prefer the solar powered outdoor lights instead of grid-tie industrial lights. The solar street lights is off grid, it can be installed more conveniently and safely. Because it no need wire trench and low DC voltage. The installer can even finish the all in one solar street light installation in five minutes. And customers will cost less because the solar powered street lights can make sure them do not pay any electric bill for many years. What is more, the solar led street light can be smart controlled easily to save the energy, such as motion dim for example. Energy saving means emission reduction. And emission reduction is the main policy all around the world.
There are so many benefits to install solar street lights that you may want to know more information before you plan to install it. Are your place right for solar street lights installation?
Key point one, your place need to have enough sunshine so that the solar panel can generate enough energy to support led lighting. That is why countries near the equator have the most solar lights requests at present.
Key point two, the sunshine in your place is stable or the place need a strictly stable lighting time. The high-speed way need the street lights work every night for example. And the solar parking lot lights can be not work in the late night when there are no cars or passers-by.
Key point three, return on investment of solar powered solar street lights in your place. The solar street lights price is much more expensive than led street lights price. If the electric cost in your city is very cheap and you need to set very big solar system to make sure enough lighting time to make the solar street lights cost very much, then your place is not suitable to install solar street lights. For example, the cities in Canada are the place not suitable for solar street lights. We need to set much bigger solar panel and battery to make sure the enough lighting time in Canada. Then the solar street lights cost in Canada will be very expensive compared with the led street lights.
When you are plan to install solar street lights, following solar street lights design proposal will be helpful.
First: Confirm the pole height. Different place has the different request for pole height. The posts height in park are 3-5 meters mostly. Pole height in small roads can be 4-6 meters. And the pole height in high-speed way can be 8-10 meters.
Second: Set the led lumen according to the pole height. Here we must clear and correct a misunderstand among most of the customers: It is not the led power but the led lumen that decide the brightness. Because the led luminous efficacy can be different from 150 lm/w to 220 lm/w in 2020. The same led power, brightness can be different for using different lumen efficacy led chip. And we advice using high luminous efficacy led chip to lower down the led power, so that we can use smaller power solar panel and battery capacity to low the price of whole solar street lighting system.
Third: Make sure the lighting time according to the traffic. As we mentioned above, one advantage of the solar lights is that we can control the lighting time and dimming of the solar street lights smartly. For the high-speed way which has big traffic all the night, we can set 100% brightness in the first 6 hours in the night and 50% brightness in another 6 hours to save the energy. And for rural street in countryside which has very small passer-by whole night, we can set 30% motion dim. When there is person nearby, the solar lights will 100% brightness. And it will be 30% brightness when there is no person nearby to save the energy.
Last: Set the solar panel power and battery according the led power and lighting time. Because the solar panel and battery are the two main components in solar street lights. And they are also two components which take most parts of the solar street lights. So be careful when you choose the solar panel and battery.
