With the core advantages of energy saving, environmental protection and low maintenance cost, solar lights have been widely used in outdoor lighting scenarios and become the mainstream choice of green lighting. Whether it’s garden decorative lights, road solar street lights or landscape lights, these outdoor lighting products can effectively reduce energy consumption and electricity expenses.
However, in actual use, many users will encounter a common problem: the service life of solar lights is gradually shortened, which is manifested in the decline of lighting brightness, shorter range time, and even early failure. This not only affects the normal lighting needs, but also reduces the cost-effectiveness of the product, so that the user’s investment is not worth it. In fact, the life of solar lights is not entirely determined by the quality of the product, scientific maintenance methods and correct use of habits, can significantly extend the life of solar lights. In this article, we will dismantle 7 core tips in detail to help you make solar lights shine steadily for a long time.
commercial solar street lights
Solar lights rely on solar panels to absorb solar energy and convert it into electricity, the cleanliness of the panels directly determines the efficiency of the energy conversion, which is the basic link to extend the life of the lamps and lanterns.
Solar panels are exposed to the outdoors for a long period of time, it is very easy to accumulate dust, leaves, bird droppings, snow and other pollutants, these impurities will form a masking layer, reducing the efficiency of the panels on the absorption of sunlight, which leads to the battery charging insufficient. Long-term inadequate charging will exacerbate battery loss, not only shorten the lighting time, but also significantly reduce the battery and even the service life of the entire lamp.
Cleaning solar panels without complex tools, the operation is simple and easy to start, the basic cleaning can be used to moisten a soft cloth or soft brush to gently wipe, remove surface dust and debris, pay attention to avoid the use of hard tools to scratch the coating of the battery panel. At the same time, you can use most of the solar light panel tilt design, in the rainy days with the help of rainwater automatically flushing dust, this design can also prevent birds stay nesting, further reducing the accumulation of pollutants.
The frequency of panel cleaning should be adjusted according to the environment. Normal urban environments can be cleaned every 1-2 months. In areas with high air pollution or around deserts, the frequency should be reduced to weekly or monthly. In rainy areas, the frequency of cleaning can be reduced with the help of rain, but after the rain, you need to check whether there is any residual stain. In rainy and snowy areas, after the snow covers the battery board, you can gently shake the pole to make the snow fall off, to avoid damaging the structure of the lamps and lanterns with too much force. If the snow is frozen, gently pour warm water to melt it (to avoid high temperature water causing glass breakage) before wiping.
If you have enough budget, you can equip your solar street light with an automatic cleaning system. This system can automatically clean the panels at regular intervals without manual operation. It is especially suitable for high-altitude fixtures, large-area lighting projects, or outdoor solar lights in remote areas, which significantly reduces the maintenance cost and ensures that the panels are always in the best working condition.
The solar light installation needs to meet 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day, which is the key to a fully charged battery. Only a sufficient charge can ensure normal lighting at night, while avoiding battery aging due to long-term power loss.
Solar lights need to be installed to avoid trees, high-rise buildings and other shading, even if the trees only partially block the sun, it will reduce the effective light time of the battery panel, resulting in insufficient battery charging. In response to the problem of shading, two solutions can be taken: First, regular pruning of tree branches to remove the shading. The second is to adjust the installation location and choose an open area without shading.
If there are immovable high-rise buildings on both sides of the road, resulting in insufficient time for the panels to receive light, this can be compensated for by increasing the size of the panels. Larger panel can absorb more solar energy in the limited time of receiving light, ensure the battery is fully charged, and maintain the normal service life of the solar street light.
commercial solar street lights
If the solar light needs to be stored for a long period of time before installation, it must be charged regularly. Long-term storage without charging will cause the lithium battery to lose power and damage, and will not be able to restore normal performance. The lithium batteries used in this type of light need to be charged and discharged regularly to maintain their activity. Therefore, during storage, it is recommended to place the light under direct sunlight for 3-5 hours per week to ensure that the batteries are kept at a certain level of charge and to prevent them from losing power and deteriorating.
Extreme high or low temperatures will cause damage to the components of the solar light, especially affecting the performance of the battery, which is an important factor in shortening the life of the light.
High temperature environment will lead to overheating of the battery, accelerate the decomposition of internal chemicals, reduce the capacity and cycle life of lithium batteries, and in serious cases, it may also lead to battery bulging and short-circuiting. Low temperature environment will lead to reduced battery activity, charging efficiency, and may damage the lamps and lanterns internal electronic components, affecting the normal operation of the circuit.
High temperature protection in hot weather in summer can be achieved by adjusting the installation angle appropriately, avoiding direct exposure of outdoor solar lights to afternoon glare, while ensuring that the lamps and lanterns dissipate heat smoothly and are not wrapped in debris. Winter cold areas of low temperature protection, it is recommended to choose solar lights with low-temperature protection features, while avoiding the installation of the lamps in the wind and other extremely low-temperature location, in order to reduce the damage of low-temperature on the components of the lamps.
Continuous cloudy and rainy days with insufficient sunlight, the solar light charging efficiency is extremely low, at this time the forced lighting will excessively consume the battery power and exacerbate the battery depletion.
When the weather forecast shows that there will be prolonged rainfall and the rainfall time exceeds the maximum lighting time of the product design, the switch of the solar lamps should be turned off in time. The operation method is simple, directly through the lamps and lanterns come with the switch can be closed, the core purpose is to avoid cloudy and rainy days under the inefficient charging state of the battery over-discharge, reduce battery loss. When the weather clears up, then turn on the switch to resume normal use.
Today’s solar charge controllers are highly intelligent, and reasonable parameter settings can save energy and reduce consumption, while improper settings can damage the lamps.
solar street lights
In order to save energy, solar lights are usually set up with a timed dimming mode, which needs to be programmed through the remote control. Due to the complexity of the programming process, incorrect parameter settings will lead to abnormal lighting, rapid battery consumption, shortened lighting time, etc., which will seriously affect the life of the batteries and lamps in the long run.
It is recommended to contact solar light suppliers or professional technicians before installing solar lights to select the appropriate working mode and parameters according to the usage scenarios (e.g. lighting hours demand, local sunshine conditions). Avoid programming the settings by yourself to reduce the damage of lamps and lanterns caused by wrong parameters.
Batteries are consumables of solar lights and have a limited service life. Timely replacement of batteries can restore the normal performance of the light fixtures and prolong the overall life cycle.
When the brightness of the solar light is significantly dimmed, the lighting time at night is greatly shortened, or it can only work for a short period of time after being fully charged, etc., it means the battery is aging and needs to be replaced. Replacement operation is relatively simple, most of the bottom of the solar lamp with an open battery compartment, open the battery compartment to replace the lithium battery. It should be noted that you must use special batteries for solar lights, ordinary batteries may not match the size, performance standards and other issues, not only can not work properly, but also may damage the lamp circuit.
Follow the above 7 core maintenance skills, not only can effectively extend the service life of solar lights, but also continue to protect its lighting brightness and stability, so that garden lights, street lights, landscape lights and other types of outdoor solar lighting products for long-term stable operation. Scientific habits and regular maintenance, is the key to tap the long-term value of solar lights, not only can significantly reduce the cost of replacement of lamps and lanterns, but also allows energy-saving, environmentally friendly green lighting program really effective, for the outdoor scene to continue to provide efficient, economical lighting support.
