Before buying your solar lights it might be a good idea to do a little research online so that you will have a better idea about the things that will be important to you such as the designs and the requirements for them to work properly in your setting. Well to start outwith you might be asking how do they work.

A solar light takes sunshine and converts it to electrical energy through the use of a solar cell. The electricity is then stored in a battery until it is needed to light a light. They also contain a controller circuit which controls the charging of the battery and turns the light off and on. Pretty simple stuff you are probably thinking.

The first solar lights were not very reliable, and not very durable. They had to be placed in a spot where they would receive a lot of direct sunlight during the day and then they were still only good for a few hours of light at night before the batteries would start to run down and the lights would dim.

Today’s version of solar lighting is much improved and built in a more durable manner. With improved solar cells the same amount of  sunlight can produce more electrical energy to be used to charge the batteries, and with advances in battery technology modern batteries can produce more electricity and hold a charge for a longer period of time with out wearing out. The controller has also been improved along with most modern electrical circuits, to be smaller and use less electricity so that it is less of a drain on the battery.

The largest improvement has probably been the move to led lights instead of the older incandescent bulbs. Not only has this been a big reduction in the amount of electricity used but modern led’s have been developed that produce a lot more light than earlier units. By the time that you use multiple led bulbs in one light you have as much light output with
less drain on the batteries than with one regular bulb. And the led bulbs are longer lasting so that you hardly ever have to change one.

All in all the purchase of a solar light would be an environmentally friendly and economical way of obtaining lights for those areas around your home where it would be inconvenient or economically prohibitive to run conventional wiring.