Everything You Need To Know About The Lifespan Of Solar Powered Street Lights

As a LED application product using renewable energy,solar street light has the characteristics of zero emissions and no pollution, which is in line with the global demand for energy conservation and emission reduction.Therefore, many countries and regions regard solar street lamps as a nice choice for outdoor lighting.

But with the widespread use of solar powered street lights, we have gradually found that some solar street lamps can still lighting normally after 3 or 5 years of use, but some solar street lamps can not lighting normally after one or two years of use, which makes us doubt about the lifespan of solar powered street lights.Here, solar street light manufacturer --- EXC street light will take you to scientifically analyse the related problems of the service life of solar street lamps.

I How long do solar street lights Last?

EXC will analyze the service life of solar street lamps from 5 aspects below:

1.Solar panel

Solar panels are the generating equipment of whole system.It is made of silicon wafers and has a long lifespan of about 20 years.

2.LED light source

LED light source is composed of at least dozens of lamp beads containing LED chip, the theoretical life can reach up to 50000 hours, more than 10 years.

3.Street light lamp pole

Street lamp pole is made of Q235 steel, the whole hot-dip galvanized treatment, hot-dip galvanized rust prevention and corrosion ability is strong, so at least it can guarantee no rust about 14 or 15 years.

4.Storage battery

At present in China, the main storage battery using by solar street lamps is colloid maintenance-free battery and lithium battery.Colloidal batteries have a normal service life of about 5-8 years, and lithium batteries have a normal service life of about 3-5 years.In normal use, the storage battery need to be replaced after 3-5 years, because the actual capacity of storage battery after 3-5 years of use is much lower than the initial capacity, affecting the lighting effect.The cost of replacing storage battery is not too high, just buy from the solar street lamp manufacturer.

5.Controller

Generally,the controller with higher waterproof sealing grade can normally use for about 5 years.

II Why do my solar lights not last long?

Some lighting of solar lamp can not last long, generally what is the cause of such a problem?Here, solar street light factory will tell you what causes the short time of solar street lamp.Below are the main 4 causes summarized by EXC expert:

1.Too long cloudy and rainy days

When the solar street lamp work under the weather of cloudy and rainy days, due to the weak light ray, the solar cell module can not be converted or the conversion is low, resulting the charging is less than discharge, so that the power of storage battery is low for a long time, resulting in short lighting time.

2.The decreases of storage battery capacity

The decline of battery storage is the first factor to be considered when the night lighting time of solar street lamps becomes shorter.Solar street lamp energy supply and storage are completed by the battery, the battery has a certain life.Now commonly used storage battery of solar powered street lamps are colloidal lead-acid batteries and lithium batteries.The service life of colloidal lead-acid battery is generally 3-5 years, and the service life of lithium battery is 5-8 or more than 8 years.If the lifespan of solar lights reach to the deadline, it can basically consider replacing the battery.

3.Solar photovoltaic panels are dirty or damaged

The main role of solar photovoltaic panels is to convert light into electricity.Solar cells exposed to the outside for a long term, especially in dusty places, tend to accumulate dust. Excessive accumulation of dust will lead to the decline in conversion efficiency, also cause lower charging capacity than discharge capacity, so as to shorten lighting time.In this case, it is necessary to clean the photovoltaic panel and recharge it with electricity for two days to restore the original lighting time.If the lighting time is still short after cleaning, it indicates that the solar photovoltaic panel may be damaged and needs to be replaced with a new photovoltaic panel.

4.Product quality problem

Due to the increasing market demand for solar street lamps, it can not be excluded that some middlemen in order to earn more interests, regardless of the product quality.Here to remind our customers, when choosing solar street lamps, choose regular street lamp manufacturers to cooperate, so as to ensure product quality and after-sales service will also be guaranteed.

III 5 factors affecting the service life of solar street lamps

Firstly,if the controller is affected by moisture or water, it will affect the use effect of controller, and the street lamp will lose its lighting effect.If the battery is in the state of excessive discharge and the maintenance is not timely,then the battery will always be in the under voltage state, which will have a great negative impact on the battery re-use and life.

Secondly,If solar components are partially covered or damaged, the efficiency of solar components will be greatly affected.If only 10% of the solar panels are covered, the power generation efficiency of the solar modules will drop by 50%, the system working current will not reach the rated working current, and the battery is often in a state of deficit, which has a huge impact on the service life of storage battery.

Thirdly,lighting source has effect on the lifespan of solar lamp.Different light source has the different lifespan, the light source that can be selected are low pressure sodium lamp, low pressure electroless lamp, LED lamp, low pressure fluorescent lamp and so on.Now commonly used are sodium lamp and LED lamp.Sodium lamps are cheaper but the life is short.High-quality LED lights,the service life can reach up to 50,000 hours, theoretically 10 hours a day, and can be used for more than 10 years.So choosing the light source with good quality is very important.

Fourthly,solar controller.In the solar street lamp system, the controller not only controls, monitors and protects the working state of the photocell components, batteries and loads.While effectively controlling the working state of storage battery, it also indirectly protects the load (solar street lamp), providing an effective and relatively stable working environment,especially work in the critical state of battery power shortage or under voltage.The controller with high precision, stable performance will play a key role.For example, solar street lamps sometimes work under bling state. The fault of controller is one of the effects on service life.

Lastly,the influence of storage battery on the lifespan of solar powered street lights.Choose more stable performance of the battery. And the construction should be strict, strictly prevent water and other accident factors. Otherwise, it will indirectly affect the life of street lamps.

IV How to extend the life of a solar powered street light?

Overall, the key affecting service life of solar street lamp lies in the storage battery.When purchasing solar street lamps, you can choose to configure larger storage batteries.If the capacity of storage battery is only enough for daily discharge, it will be easily damaged.But if the capacity of storage battery is several times the amount of electricity discharged every day, which means that only a few days can there be a cycle, which greatly increases battery life, and can also ensure the longer lighting hours under the weather of continuous cloudy and rainy days.

The service life of solar street lamp also depends on the necessary maintenance at ordinary times.In the early stage of installation, we should strictly follow the construction standards to install, and try to make reasonable collocation in the configuration, increase the capacity of storage battery, so as to extend the lifespan of solar powered street lights.

Summary:The lifespan of solar street lamp is mainly determined by the solar panel, storage battery and LED light source of the solar lamp.After all, these parts are working all day, and electricity is flowing through them.The normal life of solar panels can reach about 25 years.The battery has a decline period, the normal service life is in 5-8 years.If the quality of LED light source is qualified, the installation and wiring is correct, there is no problem to service for 10 years.The solar street lamp storage battery can be replaced when the lifespan reached,and the replace cost is low.