How to Make Solar Panel Lights

June 25, 2009 - PRLog -- Solar Panel Lights - In many cases, the place where you want to position a warning light or strobe is totally remote from any source of power. Although we can often run things from batteries, sometimes we want to put a light where changing a battery would be undesirable. Solar energy, as well as producing clean renewable energy, also allows us to power things in remote places that would not be accessible using conventional cables, or where changing a battery could present a problem.

1. Solar-Powered Warning Light

Things You Need:

• Capacitor 0.1 F, 5.5 V
• Capacitor 100 µF
• Capacitor 6.8 µF
• 2 x resistors 100 k
• 2 x resistors 100 ohms
• PNP transistor
• NPN transistor
• 2 x diodes 1N4148
• Super-high brightness red LED
• 100 µH inductor
• 4 x small solar cells
• Soldering iron

If you have been harboring thoughts of using a portable solar power light outside most of the time, you might want to protect the circuit against the ingress of water and solid matter. You can actually improvise with a Tupperware or similar container to produce a satisfactory housing.

2. Solar-Powered Garden Light

Things You Need:

• 4 x 1.5 V Solar Cells
• 1 x AA 600 mAh NiCad battery
• IN5817 Zener diode
• 220 k 1/4 W Carbon film resistor
• 100 k 1/4 W Carbon film resistor
• 91 k 1/4 W Carbon film resistor
• 10 k 1/4 W Carbon film resistor
• 560 R 1/4 W Carbon film resistor
• 2 x 3.3 R 1/4 W Carbon film resistor
• C9013 NPN transistor
• C9014 NPN transistor
• C9015 NPN transistor
• 300 pF ceramic capacitor
• 100nF ceramic capacitor
• 1 nF ceramic capacitor
• 82 µH inductor
• CdS photocell 47 k @ 10 lux
• 2 x LEDs
• Soldering iron

Solar power lights in the garden are becoming ubiquitous in just about ever garden enter nowadays. There are lots of advantages to using solar power rather than a heard-wired system. First of all, as a hard-wired system is exposed to the elements, you need to ensure that you use low-voltage fixtures and fittings, which require a transformer to step down the voltage, or failing that, really expensive mains fixtures and fittings. Then the next thing to consider is that even the safest low-voltage system is still vulnerable to the gardener's spade. In other words, a badly placed spade can mean disconnection of your garden lighting system.

Solar power lights in the garden have none of these disadvantages. They charge their batteries during the day, and then at night as the light fades, they switch on, providing illumination.

Visit us if you are interested to learn more about,
Home solar power systems: http://www.greenearth4energy.com/solar-panel-systems.html
DIY installation guide: http://www.earthenergyguide.com

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Andy O Silliven is an engineer and author in the fields of electrical engineering. He enjoys writing about the topic and keeping up with current events and research in the area of renewable energy sources.
http://www.greenearth4energy.com