In this article, the solar light I mean The INTEGRATED design solar street light, solar garden light and solar wall light
Most of the people want the solar light keep in full light for whole night and no need sensor. But most of the integrated design solar lights in the market are with sensor and turn to full light only when people pass by. And now I would like to explain why the factories do this design.
Firstly, as all of you may know the solar light fixture consist of solar panel, LED Chip, battery and controller……Power of the solar panel, Output of the LED and capacity of the battery need to match well so that the fixture can work in properly. If one of them doesn’t match, then the light fixture will have problem or cannot work well as expected. For example, if we only increase the LED output while keeps the solar panel and battery capacity the same. Then the battery will consume very fast and the light fixture will turn off early at night. Because the (keep same) battery capacity is too low to support such increasing LED output.
Some of you may ask to increase the battery so that it can support the increasing LED output. But if we increase the battery capacity while keep solar panel the same, then the battery cannot fully charged because the solar panel is still small.
Ok, if we increase both the solar panel and the battery, then the light size will enlarge. Enlarged light case means increased labor cost, material cost and shipping cost. You may realize that solar light is always very big but very low lumen compare to traditional light. The big size is because the solar panel needs big space. The solar light fixture can be much smaller and cost reduced a lot if the solar panel can be smaller. That is the conflict.
That is why the Power of the solar panel, Output of the LED and capacity of the battery need to match. You can image how big the solar light is if we make it full light for whole night.
Somebody may ask why not use higher efficiency solar panel so that it can be smaller size and the charge battery fast. Most solar light in market is with Poly-crystalline but not Mono-crystalline. That is because the efficiency between them is not a great different, but the cost is a great different. That is also because of the cost. Poly-crystalline is more cost-effective. Cost increase not balance with efficiency if we use Mono-crystalline.
However, the energy saving and cost saving design light fixture with sensor is humanized. It can meet the requirement for lighting purpose by turn to full light when people come close but back to DIM light for save energy after people go away.
However, solar light for high way always need full light and cannot be sensor-design. That is why solar street light for high way always design with separated solar panel. The separated solar panel size enlarge not lead to light case size enlarge. I know some factories also make INTEGRATED design and without motion sensor, but the light seems very big and cost are much higher.
Consider the cost and application requirement of the solar light, I think INTEGRATED design with sensor is the best design under the current technology. But I believe the technology is keep make progress. To make the solar light can be brighter, smaller, and cheaper.
