Quick Guide to Help You Make an Educated Decision When Choosing Solar Lights

Most solar lights on the market today are outdoor lights. You may illuminate your gardens, yards, patios, ponds, decks, driveways, pathways, walkways, and camping spots with solar lamp posts, spotlights, ground lights, lanterns, flashlights, path lights, wall-mount lights, stepping stones, and even lights that float in water to name a few - all through solar power. Yet, there are some made for indoor use, such as, garage, shed, greenhouse, and houseboat solar lights as well as different flashlights and lanterns.

As if having to choose from such a great variety is not hard enough, you also find yourself reading the descriptions which include unfamiliar technical specifications. This can make an easy task of finding the right solar powered light more difficult than it should be. To help you make the choice less complicated, below are some simple explanations of common terms associated with solar lights.

A typical solar light is composed of LED or an incandescent lamp, a solar panel, and a rechargeable battery (either built-in or included.)

LED (light-emitting diode) is a tiny two-terminal device that emits light when an electrical current passes through it. LEDs themselves are usually very small in size, but integrated optical elements in lamps help to direct and reflect the light, thus aiding in brightness. Despite being more expensive, LEDs are preferred to incandescent lamps in solar lighting today because of their:

• Efficiency - LEDs generate more light per watt than incandescent bulbs.
• Natural color - LEDs can emit light of an intended color (through different wavelengths) without the use of color filters that are required in incandescent lighting approach.
• Cool light - LEDs radiate very little heat through infrared radiation that might damage sensitive objects or fabrics, unlike heat-driven incandescent lamps.
• Longevity - LEDs can have a relatively long useful life - typical lifetimes quoted are 25,000-100,000 hours (in comparison to 1,000-2,000 hours for incandescent lamps.)
• Gradual failure - LEDs generally fail by growing dimmer over time instead of suddenly burning out like incandescent light bulbs.
• Sturdiness - LEDs are solid state devices and are difficult to damage with external shock in contrast to fragile incandescent bulbs.

The incandescent lamp, in simplified terms, is a source of electric light that works by heat-driven light emissions. Incandescent lamps require no external regulating equipment and have a low manufacturing cost. For that reason you may find incandescent lamps in some less expensive solar lights though the majority of solar lights use LEDs.

Solar panel is an assembly of interconnected photovoltaic cells, more commonly known as solar cells. In simplified terms, a solar cell is a device that converts light into electric current through emitting electrons absorbed from electromagnetic radiation. Solar panels use sunlight energy to generate electricity. The majority of solar panels consist of wafer-looking mono crystalline or polycrystalline cells derived from silicon, a commonly used semi-conductor.

Mono crystalline silicon cell's structure is homogeneous because it is made of a single crystal. In single crystal silicon, the arrangement of crystal atoms is continuous and unbroken. It can be identified by an even external coloring.

Polycrystalline cells consist of a number of smaller silicon crystals. They can be recognized by a visible metal flake-type grain.

Both polycrystalline and mono crystalline silicon cells are widely used as a key component in solar panels. However, you will find that because of its properties mono crystalline silicon is more efficient and therefore higher priced.

Solar lights are able to function at night because of the built in or included rechargeable batteries. These batteries can be used up and then restored to full or partial charge through the application of electrical energy collected during the day through solar panels. Ni-Cd (Nickel-cadmium) and Ni-Mh (Nickel-metal hydride) are most commonly used rechargeable batteries.

A typical unit of measurement for rechargeable batteries is mAh (milliampere per hour) which measures the amount of electric charge per hour or, in plain terms, how much electrical charge a battery will hold. Batteries with higher mAh values will last longer without requiring a recharge.

Hopefully these simplified descriptions can help you make an educated decision when you are browsing through the large selection of solar lights.