Failures and Solutions of Solar Street Light, Solar Streetlight Common Fault

Table of Content

The common faults are mainly as follows
The structure and composition of solar street lights
The working principle of solar street lights
Problems&Reasons&Solutions
Still have questions?

Solar-powered street light is a typical case of new energy application. Its green environmental protection, energy-saving, money-saving, and wiring-free characteristics make it widely used in roads, courtyards, squares, and other outdoor places all over the world, especially in regions and countries with abundant solar energy. Like other outdoor LED street lights and Solar Floodlights, solar street lights will inevitably have some failures due to long-term exposure to wind and sun during use. By this article, We will introduce the common failures of solar street lights and the troubleshooting methods.

The Common Faults Are Mainly As Follows

Solar led street light is not working at all.
The lighting time is too short.
The solar street light always stay on during daytime
Some led chips of led street light fixture is not working
Solar led street lamp flicker
Induction function failure
The above faults and problems are often inseparable from the components of the entire solar street light system. To clearly know the cause of the failure and the solution, we must first understand the structure and working principle of the solar street light system.

The Structure And Composition Of Solar Street Lights

Solar street lights can basically be divided into traditional split solar street lights and integrated solar street lights. They all combine components such as high-efficiency solar panels, long-life lithium batteries or lead-acid batteries, high-efficiency LED street lights, and smart controllers into an independent system (integrated solar street lights often also include PIR human body induction Module, anti-theft mounting bracket).

Solar panels: The main function of solar panels is to convert light energy into electrical energy. It is one of the core components in the entire solar street light system. It mainly includes monocrystalline silicon solar panels and polycrystalline silicon solar panels.

The photoelectric conversion efficiency of monocrystalline silicon is about 15%, and the highest is 24%. This is the highest photoelectric conversion efficiency of all types of solar panels, and the life span can reach more than 15 years.
Polysilicon solar panels have great advantages in cost. The life span is more than 10 years.

Structure And Composition Of Solar Street Light

Solar battery: The battery is mainly used to store electricity. Currently, the market mainly includes lead-acid batteries (AGM and GEL batteries) and lithium batteries (ternary lithium batteries and LiFePo4 Batteries). For the choice of batteries, you can refer to here.

Solar controller: The solar controller is a device used to control the photovoltaic PNS.

Solar street light fixture: the light-emitting part of the solar street light system. Composed of the LED light source.

Radar/PIR Sensor: This is mostly used in all-in-one solar street lights. It can better help solar street lights achieve energy-saving effects.

What types of battery is the best for solar street lights?

The Working Principle Of Solar Street Lights

Solar street lights use solar panels to receive solar energy during the day and convert them into electrical energy, which is stored in the battery through the discharge controller. The illumination gradually decreases at night. The charge and discharge controller detects this value and works, and the battery discharges to the lamp holder. After the battery is discharged for 10 hours, the charge-discharge controller starts, and the battery discharge ends. The main function of the charge and discharge controller is to control the lighting and correlation of street lights while protecting the battery and prolonging the service life of the battery.

After understanding the composition and working principle of the above solar street lights. We can better analyze common faults and corresponding solutions.

Problems&Reasons&Solutions

In summary, the failure of solar street lights is closely related to the components in the entire system. According to the specific failure performance to determine its cause and related solutions.
Solar street light is not working at all

Reasons	Analysis	Solutions & Maintenance
Switch not turned on	Checking if the switch is on	Turn on the light fixture
Switch failure	Short-circuit the wire of the switch, if the light can be on, it is judged that the switch is faulty	Replace the switch
The battery is exhausted	Long-term rainy days or inappropriate installation location of the lamps. Disassemble the lamp, unplug the battery, and use a multimeter to test whether the battery has voltage output. If the output voltage is less than 11V, it can be determined that the battery power is exhausted or the power is insufficient, which causes the light to not light up	Use solar panels to charge the battery during the day, and turn off the light switch at night to stop the discharge of the light. Fully charge the battery in 2-3 days
Battery is damaged	The service life of the battery has expired, and it is damaged and cannot be charged and discharged	Changing the new batteries.
Led street light failure	The led street light is short-circuited or struck by lightning.	Replacement of led street light fixture
Solar controller burned	Check whether the working indicator of the controller is normal	Using a new solar controller.

The lighting time is too short

Reasons	Analysis	Solutions & Maintenance
Low battery	The installation position of the lamp is not suitable or the solar panel is covered with dust and leaves, which leads to insufficient charging of the battery by the solar panel. 1. Observe whether the solar panel is covered by dust and leaves; 2. Disassemble the lamp and use a multimeter to test whether the battery has voltage output. If the output voltage is less than 11V, it can be determined that the battery is insufficient or exhausted	1. clean up the solar panel. 2. Use solar panels to charge the battery during the day, and turn off the light switch at night to stop the discharge of the light. Fully charge the battery in 2-3 days
Setup problem	The lighting time set in the factory is too short	Using the remote controller to re-setup
Solar panels cannot be charged efficiently and quickly	the solar panel is covered with dust and leaves, which leads to insufficient charging of the battery by the solar panel.	Clean up the solar panel. And adjust the beam angle of the solar panel.

Solar street lights always stay on during daytime

Reasons	Analysis	Solutions & Maintenance
The wiring of solar panels is not good	The wiring of the solar panel is bad, forming an open circuit positive and negative poles of the solar panel are reversed	Rewiring
Photocell failure	The built-in photocell is not working,	Changing the solar controller

Some led chips of the led street light fixture are not working.

Reasons	Analysis	Solutions & Maintenance
LED chips burned	Open street light, use a multimeter to test if the led chips is valid voltage. If not, then led chips burned	Replacement of led chips or whole led street lights.

Solar street lights flicker

Reasons	Analysis	Solutions & Maintenance
Poor line contact,	The battery of the lamp is not connected properly, and the electricity generated by the solar panel is directly supplied to the light source, so there will be flashes and flashes.	Rewiring
Battery failure	Checking whether the battery is under-voltage and out of power, the controller will show it, the 12V system, the under-voltage protection value is about 11.1V. If it is really under-voltage, you can only use solar panels or DC chargers to charge the battery voltage The lamp holder can light up only when it is above 12V.	Change to new battery.

Induction function failure (mainly for Integrated solar street lights, or all in two)

Reasons	Analysis	Solutions & Maintenance
Damaged sensor device	When a person or any moving object approaches the solar street lamp, there is no change in the brightness of the lamp	Changing the sensor devices