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Covering the solar panel will often trick the lights into thinking night time has arrived early and therefore the light will come on. Solar lights typically stay off automatically by day as they are busy converting the light into energy to be stored in the batteries. This energy is then used at night to power the light. If it&#;s well after dusk and your light hasn&#;t come on cover the panel, if it does decide to work you know there&#;s another source of light hitting the solar panel that&#;s tricking the light into thinking it&#;s still daylight. Sometimes a subtle tweaking of the panel location can remedy the situation and have your light behaving as it should do.
Did you know that solar lights often have regular rechargeable batteries inside them? They should always be rechargeable batteries; NiMH or, in more modern products, Li-ion batteries. Because the batteries charge by day and discharge by night, when the light is on, the batteries will lose their charging capability over time. A sign this might be happening to your lights is reduced runtime in the evening, even after a sunny day. Good batteries should last for 1 &#; 2 years or more before they need replacing but this is only a guide. Some customers tell us they&#;ve had lights running for more than 6 years and are still using the original batteries &#; this is the exception rather than the rule though.
Shadows are best avoided, particularly any falling on the solar panel a couple of hours either side of midday when the sun is at its strongest. Every 3 &#; 4 months it&#;s worth taking a quick look at the solar panel around midday to see how shaded the panel might be. Panels installed in the height of summer when the shadows are short are particularly susceptible to shade seeming to come out of nowhere as the sun gets lower in the sky as the seasons change.
Whilst not as important as outright shadows the angle of the panel can have a real effect on light runtime, particularly throughout winter when the sun is very low in the sky. If your solar light features a panel angle that can be easily adjusted then getting up to a 45 degree angle when winter is at its peak will harvest as much sun as possible.
A Solar panel is a lot like a satellite dish &#; it will work most effectively if it&#;s pointing in the right direction. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so a south facing panel will harvest sunlight from dawn until dusk. Solar lights can still work if they&#;re not facing due south; it just means they may not work to their full potential.
Despite the obvious design flaw many solar lights can suffer from issues with water ingress. Well designed and manufactured lights shouldn&#;t suffer from this issue and you can keep an eye out for IP ratings to learn which products offer the best protection.
Whilst water may not always present a problem, as some lights allow water to drain away without it accessing any of the sensitive electronics, if water has caused the light to stop working there are still some things you can try: Remove any cover(s) present holding any moisture in place. Store the light for a couple of days in a hot water cupboard to dry out the light. Reassemble the light, double-checking the batteries are well seated. Give the light a day or two to charge and then turn the light on at night.
It&#;s also worth checking with the manufacturer. A correctly installed light with a warranty should be covered for water ingress, a photo or two and you should find a replacement is with you before long.
Sometimes we get customers sending us interesting pictures where the wildlife have got a bit peckish and helped themselves to some nutritious wire from a string of fairy lights for example. The damage can sometimes be repaired with some electrical tape and plenty of patience. If this isn&#;t possible it&#;s worth checking with the manufacturer to see whether spares are available to save disposing of the whole product.
As we&#;re talking about the wire, with any installation where the wire could be subject to tension, for example a string of fairy lights in a tree, always try to leave plenty of slack between branches. Strong winds can put undue pressure on the cable causing damage that can be hard to find and even harder to fix.
This is a classic that we had to include; we&#;ve even had electrical engineers overlook this one. Not all solar lights have an on/off switch but for those that do make sure it&#;s set to on. If it&#;s hard to tell whether the switch is on or off, cover the panel to simulate night time and it should be easy to find out.
Some more advanced solar security lights have adjustable dials to fine tune motion detection sensitivity, allowing you to stop cats, bird and other wildlife from triggering the light unnecessarily. This is no one size fits all solution here as the height you install the light, the distance of the light from the motion you wish to detect and even whether the motion is moving across the PIR&#;s field of view all effect how this should be set. Simply put if your light isn&#;t activating when you need it too, start with maximum sensitivity and work back from there so the light it only activating as required. A bit of trial and error, preferably with someone to help provide the motion if you&#;re up a ladder, will get the job done quickly.
This is similar to the PIR however in this case the lux sensor determines how dark it has to be before the light will activate. This can be useful if there are other sources of light that could be tricking the lamp into thinking it&#;s still daylight and therefore stopping the lamp from activating. Sometimes it&#;s the reverse, the light could be installed somewhere relatively shady with a remote panel in a good sunny spot. In this scenario setting the lamp to activate when the ambient light is much darker could be useful to save the lamp operating when not required.
Another easy thing to check is whether the batteries may have either worked their way loose in transit or as a result of installation. If they&#;re not touching the terminal contacts the batteries won&#;t be getting a charge by day or being able to provide that charge at night. If you do detect a loose battery remember to give it a day or two to charge in the lamp before operating the light as the battery may have been flat to start with.
While you or I can sit behind glass and feel the full effects of the sun it&#;s often not the case with a solar panel. Double and even triple glazed windows are very common these days and will often render many of the sun&#;s rays hitting the panel useless. It&#;s always best to get the panel outside of any glass in a good sunny spot when charging, put simply the fewer obstructions between the sun and your solar panel the more charge will be generated.
Another one you might think we&#;re making up here but it does happen. If you&#;ve got a remote solar panel that&#;s separate from the lamp you need to make sure the solar panel cable is firmly plugged in, with waterproof connectors tightened if present. Sometimes solar lights will have the batteries stored in the solar panel, other times the batteries will be stored in the light head itself but ultimately if the panel can&#;t charge the batteries or the batteries charge can&#;t reach the lamp you&#;re going to be in for a disappointing light show.
As a general rule of thumb it&#;s always worth contacting the company you bought from to discuss the issue prior to firing up the soldering iron. Often companies can look favourably on a situation where a customer has tried to help avoid a light ending up in landfill for the sake of a loose wire but ultimately it is going to invalidate any warranty &#; unless of course you&#;ve had a chat with the company beforehand.
Plugging a mains charger into a light or removing batteries and mains charging them can seem like a good idea but unless you&#;re using a compatible mains charger bought with the light things could go downhill. Solar panels output a specific voltage compatible with circuit componentry and battery voltage. A mains charger might fry circuitry or overcharge batteries, ultimately leading to a purchase of a new light. If the batteries are easily removable, and clearly labelled and you have the appropriate charger then you could guarantee performance for a night or two but you might be better off getting a good solar friendly location to charge your lights in the first place. As always if you&#;re in any doubt follow the instructions or seek clarification from the company you purchased from.
If you live near a busy road or the panel is in a dusty spot you may find your solar panel performance dips off over time as a result of a film of dust and dirt building up on the panel. Giving it a quick wipe over with a damp cloth every so often will keep it working to its full potential.
Thanks for reading this far, we hope you&#;ve either got your lights up and running or at least have some ideas of how to get them back up and running again. Always remember if your lights are covered by a 12 month warranty, and all good solar lights should be, provided you&#;ve followed the instructions you&#;ll have a replacement on its way to you in no time.
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Our garden post lights with power saving mode :
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Can you charge solar powered lights indoors? In the absence of sunlight during winter, how can you make your solar lights work more efficiently? Here&#;re practical ways you can do.
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Outdoor solar lights enhance the beauty of your landscape. They are independent from the grid, making them eco-friendly solutions for reducing our carbon footprint. What&#;s more is you can eliminate electric bills for lighting your patio, lawn, garden, exterior and street with these outdoor solar lights.
Now, it is a challenge to keep solar lights burning during strong winter months when usually the sun stays hidden. Thankfully, decorative solar garden lights are lightweight and easy to handle, so you can easily bring some of them indoors to charge.
In this article, we&#;ll review some strategies for charging solar powered lights indoors and outdoors.
Contents:
How Long Should Solar Lights Be Charged?
Can I Charge Solar Lights Without the Sun?
Can I Charge Solar Lights Indoors?
Will Solar Lights Charge On A Cloudy Day?
How To Charge Solar Lights Without Sunlight
How to Charge Solar Lights in Winter More Effectively
Conclusion
If you want to know how long is enough to charge your solar light with indirect sunlight, you must first know how it works and what it needs.
Here&#;s a video on how solar lights work:
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit outdoor up and down solar lights exporter.
Solar lamps work by photovoltaic energy conversion. They have photovoltaic cells (usually the black panel on top of the lamps) that convert the light from the sun to DC current. The current is then stored in the battery to power up the lamp at night.
For solar lighting devices to work best, they needed to receive direct sunlight for 4 to 10 hours. Take note that the solar panel should be away from shadows to get the most out of the sunlight&#;s rays. When the batteries are fully charged, your outdoor light can stay all night long.
For more robust outdoor solar lights such as solar street lights, charging would only take 6 to 8 hours. A fully charged solar street light battery can usually provide lighting for 5 to 7 sunlight-less days.
Hence, manually charging your solar lights with artificial lighting will definitely take longer time, say 8 to 12 hours.
Yes, you can definitely charge them even without the sun, although it will be less efficient to do so.
Since solar lights are sun-powered, you&#;d think they are only practical for sun-kissed areas like in Mexico. This is a common misconception.
If you live somewhere that rarely sees the sun, you can still install these solar lighting systems. Solar lights can even work better in winter. However, some of them may need to be charged with indirect sunlight when they don&#;t get enough solar energy to last for many days.
Note that this applies to smaller solar lighting system units that are usually used for lawns, patios, and pathways.
But if you have an AC Hybrid or a Wind Solar Lighting Solution, these solar systems can alternatively get energy from the grid or from the wind power during extreme emergencies when the sun is not available.
For the context of this article, we&#;ll assume that you are using small-sized solar landscape lights that are topped with a solar panel and have simple design configuration.
For lightweight solar lights, you can definitely bring them indoors to charge. You can use regular light bulbs, or by placing them near windows. You can even charge them using your laptop or solar power banks if they are built with a USB charger. We&#;ll discuss these methods below.
When solar powered lights don&#;t get enough sunlight to fully charge, this doesn&#;t mean they are rendered useless on cloudy or winter days.
Take note that solar panels are designed to optimize energy harness during the day, so you need not to worry each time the sun doesn&#;t show up. The only downside you would face is there would be less energy stored in the battery. This means you can only use them for less than 6 days.
Hence, if you&#;re looking forward to running a grand garden event, and your solar string lights would deem you failure on these shadowy, cloudy days, perhaps you need to charge them first.
Here are some of the easiest ways you can effectively and practically charge your solar lights without the sun.
You might think it uncanny to charge grid-free solar lights during gloomy, grey weathers, but did you know that solar panels charge more effectively in cold temperatures?
Although winters, rainy seasons and cloudy days may seem bad timing to charge solar powered lights because there&#;s no direct sunlight available, this is just a myth.
During these days, there&#;s still a small beam of light hitting the receptors of the PV cells of your solar lights.
These receptors receive, store and convert energy regardless of the distance and amount of heat generated in the environment.
Couple this with the good, cold temperature, the electrons inside the solar panels won&#;t have excessive electron movements.
And thus, it will render higher voltage difference giving more energy production.
Hence, even when the sun stays hidden behind the clouds, your solar panel lights will still get charged.
You can use incandescent bulbs to charge your solar panel lights. We know it&#;s kind of absurd to use energy from a hard-wired light to charge a supposed-to-be energy saving light.
But the point here is, some people do use outdoor solar lights as emergency equipment indoors in preparation for power outages. It&#;s like using rechargeable flashlights when power is going to be out.
Hence, if you need a substitute for direct sunlight, strong artificial lighting can do the job. This is because solar cells respond to both types of light as they run at similar wavelengths and spectrum.
This means that incandescent bulbs can charge any solar powered object you have such as solar watches, calculator or solar flashlights, the same way they charge through sunlight.
However, note that it takes longer to charge when you use artificial lighting, about 2 to 5 hours more.
To do this, just position the incandescent a few inches away from the face of the panel. The solar light can be charged for about 6 to 12 hours, depending on the wattage of the bulb. You can use a 40W to 100W to yield the best results.
You can also use an LED light to charge your solar lights. Doing so may render the same result, but because LED light covers a larger range of spectrum, it can be more beneficial than incandescent.
Some solar LED lights can have an alternative charging method through a USB charger, allowing you to plug it to wall sockets or power banks. Although this option might cost you more than the previous options, you can use this opportunity if it&#;s more convenient for you.
Here are some tips you can follow so that your solar lights can work more effectively during those chilly snow storms in the winter.
Snow accumulates on the surface of the panels, making it difficult for it to harness energy from the sun. To help it charge more efficiently during winter, remove the snow on the surface as much as you can.
For best results,
Here&#;s how to properly clean solar pathway lights:
Make sure that the angle of the solar panels face the direction of the sun, especially during winter months as there&#;s less sunlight on these days. You may also want to reposition them somewhere that can receive more sunlight.
For best results,
Using mirrors to reflect more sunlight to your solar lights is also an efficient way to get the most out of the sun rays during winter.
This is a labor-intensive method as you need to keep repositioning the mirrors throughout the day.
But at least you wouldn&#;t need artificial light to energize your solar lights.
Tips on using mirrors:
This is called deep charging the battery and you can do this once or twice a month so as to keep your solar batteries running more efficiently.
There you go! You see, there are many alternatives to charging your solar lights without direct sunlight. You can charge them indoors or outdoors.
We hope these simple hacks can solve your issue of charging solar lights. You can even apply these for other solar equipment and devices that have solar panels.
Want more solar lighting ideas and hacks? We have tons of solar energy articles, buying guides, and reviews at HeiSolar.com.
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