How LED Solar Lights Work in Park

We have a high demand on energy, but most energy is nonrenewable. On a global scale, over half of energy is produced by burning fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide and cause climate change. The limited amount of energy resource and rising times of extreme weather urge people to use renewable energy source.

Solar energy is one of the most plentiful and attractive recourse. With advanced technology, solar energy is able to convert to electricity, lighting up the fixtures. The use of solar light is environmental friendly, reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Except for less carbon footprints, the key advantages of solar light is the wireless design. The wire free design is prefect for the places have high requirements of the safety of pedestrians or the place where is no electrical grid, such as parks and gardens. Parks are popular with residents. They enjoy playing, walking and sporting in park. This post would like to talk about the how LED solar light works in park.

What is LED solar light

You may have heard of solar light and seen them along the roads or in the garden. But, what is LED solar light?

Generally, LED solar light is composed of LED lighting units, battery, solar panels and charge controller. Some of LED solar lights are also included inverter. LED solar light is a lighting system powered by electricity from batteries, which are charged with the use of solar panel. In other words, LED solar light utilizes solar energy and convert it to electricity. Battery stores the energy. Solar panels are consisted of crystalline cells and create electricity from sunlight as the photovoltaic effect. Charge controller ensure the safety of the system, avoiding over charge or discharge the battery. Inverter is the part that invert DC current produced by solar panels to AC current, allowing electricity usable for home appliances.

Nowadays, most solar lights are aesthetic with integrated design. They are in the same appearance with normal lights but without wiring. Sensors like PIR and sound are also added to solar light to achieve smart control.

Advantage of LED solar lights

• Using solar energy makes LED solar lights environmental friendly, low carbon dioxide emissions and low electricity bills.
• LED solar lights do not need to be wired, resulting less maintenance. LED solar lights are also capable of plug-and-play.
• The use of LED contributes to lower heat and longer lifespan than conventional lights. Moreover, LED can light up instantly.
• LED solar lights create little hazards, protect residents from being hurt by UV and IR radiation.

Disadvantages of LED solar lights  

LED solar lights also have disadvantages.

• The batteries used for storing electricity are AGL or GEL batteries, having a lifespan of three to five years. It means that batteries need to be changed after years working.
• The capacity of storing electricity is limited. In consequence, LED solar lights can only lasted for three to seven days without solar energy. Though it can meet the common requirements, it will fail to light up the park under extreme weather conditions.

How LED solar lights work

LED solar lights work as a result of photovoltaic effect. Solar panels are full of solar cells, which collect solar energy and convert to DC electricity directly. That is why LED solar lights must be located outdoors. Then the rechargeable batteries store the electricity during daytime. After that, the batteries power the solar light when it comes to dark or at night. But the converting rate are depends on sunlight intensity and the weather condition. If it is cloudy, lack of solar energy will decline charged rate of batteries and cause shorter lighting hours. For home appliance, adding inverter to invert DC  current produced by solar panels to AC current allows electricity usable for home appliances.

 

How LED solar lights work in park

 

When it comes to park lighting, we should pay attention to three questions. Who actives in park? What are their activities in park? When do the activities take place? All the designs are served for the people in park and aimed at meet their needs.

Who actives in park

Park is a place for relaxing and recreation. Regardless of the age, all residents are away from concrete building and enjoy the nature in park.

What are their activities in park

There are various activities in park. Some of them walking in a low speed to relaxed themselves.

Other residents may doing sport, like ruing and riding bicycles, to strengthen themselves.

When do the activities take place

Residents are active in park almost all day long. Early morning and late night are less activities, while most residents active during evening hours. For example, they may go for a walk after dinner.

Ways of LED solar lights work in Park

After knowing the answers of three questions, we can concentrate on the ways of LED solar lights work in park to meet the lighting needs of residents.

Adequate Illuminance

A survey shows that parks are highly related with the health of residents. Walking, running and cycling are the exercises to help residents keep fit. Park lighting should provide a safe and secure environment for residents. Adequate lighting is essential for brightening environment and offering better visibility. But brighter lighting does not inherently better experience. Park lighting has lower requirement than street lighting. Low level of ambient lighting brings clearer overall visibility and safer feeling.

Lighting levels recommended by IESNA (Illuminating Engineering Society of North America) are as followed:

• Trail lighting: 0.6 foot candles average with a 3.0:1 average to minimum ratio.
• Building entrances: 5.0 foot candles minimum.
• A light loss factor of 0.9 shall be utilized for all LED lighting calculations.

Smart lighting control

To ensure appropriate and less energy consumption, solar lights are controlled according to the activities of residents and the environmental conditions.

Adding motion sensor is a way to control lighting on or off automatically through the activities of residents. When residents enter the park, solar lights will turn on automatically and lit up the path. After residents pass the detectors area, solar light dim to less brightness slowly. In this way, electricity use is minimized, residents are provided with clear visibility.

Energy converted rate (from solar energy to electricity) is highly reply on the environmental conditions. Inadequate sunlight conditions such as cloudy, raining or winter cause low converted rate. To solve this problem, built-in energy management system is included in solar lights. The energy management system adjust the lighting intensity dynamically based on environmental conditions. If there is insufficient sunlight, the lighting intensity will be adjusted to lower level and conserved more electricity in batteries.

Another smart lighting control is achieved by dimming the lighting intensity in different period. Tough park is open all day long, there are little resident present in park at dawn and late night. In this way, solar lights operate at full intensity for a period before dawn. Solar lights are turned off during daytime. Then they return to full intensity till dusk and lasted for a period. At last, they are dimmed to about 25% of full intensity during late night. The period of time for different lighting intensity is adjustable due to the location and local climate of parks.

AGC provides solar lighting solution for park. All in one design brings smart and durable solar lights to areas without access to electric gird. 8 hours sunlight charging is able to work continuous up to 3 days. Integrated motion detection allows to set lighting schedule based on your specific preference. Contact us for more info.