How Do Solar Powered Lights Work?
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Store the Sun's Light
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For thousands of years, humanity has revolved around the sun, setting schedules to its light patterns on the Earth. The sun would appear in our sky, bringing light, and leave, taking it with it. In the past several years, however, methods have been devised that allow man to store that sunlight and bring it out again, even when the sun is down. Many homes now have solar-powered lighting. Driveways and walkways are lined with them, plants and objects are illuminated by them, and addresses are made visible by them, among other things. A solar-powered light is made up of four basic things: a solar panel, batteries, a light and a switch.
Solar Cells
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This is all made possible with solar panels, or solar cells as they may also be called. Solar cells convert light energy into electrical energy as it makes contact. The larger the space the solar cells take up, the more electricity is produced, and the more powerful the light that can be used. However, this energy needs to be stored for use when it is needed, when there is no longer light from the sun.
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Batteries
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The energy from the solar cells is stored in any number of batteries, depending on how bright the light needs to be and how long it needs to last. The solar cells feed electricity to the batteries while the sun shines all day long.
Light
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Any light can be used. The possibilities are determined by the solar panel's size and the total battery capacity. Most solar lights will use LEDs because they emit relatively high amounts of light for the amount of electricity they use, allowing a good solar light to glow all night long.
Switch
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It doesn't help anyone if the solar cells charge electricity only to have it immediately used up by the light. The power needs to go to the batteries alone in the day time and feed the power from the batteries to the light when it's night. A switch of some variety will ensure that the solar-powered light isn't expending energy before it is needed. The common switch for a solar-powered light is a photocell, or photo resistor circuit (photocell is different from a solar cell). This will make it so power is only given to the light when there is no light shining on the photocell. Other solar-powered lights such as a solar-charged flashlight will not use a photocell as a switch. In this case a simple button switch does the trick.
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