Even with hydro power nearby, the costs of installing underground wiring often makes solar light a lower cost option. GES builds outdoor lighting products for floodlighting, marking hazards, sign illumination or for flashing lights at a crosswalk .Solar also makes a great choice for decorative lighting, with self-contained units to light a dark path or the end of a driveway. The applications for solar powered outdoor lighting systems are endless.In addition to a wide range of lighting packages, GES can also custom design and manufacture packages for any application. Contact us or an Authorized GES Dealer for a solar lighting system for your application.

How do they work?

Solar lighting systems can be installed anywhere that receives direct sun in order to charge batteries during the day. Systems have one or more solar panels, depending on the energy required by the light. At dusk, a lighting controller senses darkness and turns the light on. It runs until dawn or for a preset number of hours if desired. The next morning the light turns off and charging begins again.

Designing outdoor lighting systems...

To design a solar powered light, we apply the basic rule of “what goes out must come in.” Multiply the electrical draw of the light, (say 60 watts), by the number of run hours we want, (say 10 hours), to get the total daily load,(600watt hours). Choose a solar panel that will provide more power on average than the light uses, and a battery with 7-14 days of storage, and we have complete system!

A large portion of the cost of lighting systems is associated with the solar modules. Any step taken to reduce the electrical load reduces the cost of the solar array.

Consider:

Energy saving lighting

In many remote home power systems, lighting loads often account for a large portion of the total power budget .However, by replacing standard incandescent lights with energy saving fluorescents, quartz halogen bulbs or light-emitting diodes (LED's) the total lighting load can be reduced by between 50 to 90% without sacrificing illumination.We recommend the use of fluorescent lighting, due to their efficiency. An incandescent bulb can be replaced with fluorescent using one quarter of the power and the tubes last longer than bulbs. PL style compact fluorescentsoffer a pleasing warm colour light and can be incorporated into smaller fixtures.In comparison, LED's consume one tenth the power of an incandescent, and offer 100,000 hour operating life - over10 years. Their brightness is a function of the number of LEDs. Because of their low power draw they are ideal for all solar systems.

Lighting Technologies

Incandescent: Inexpensive but not energy efficient. Will need more solar to compensate.

Fluorescent: 4 times more efficient than incandescent, but may not work in extremely cold temperatures. Good for sign lighting.

Quartz Halogen: 2 times more efficient than incandescent, good in all temperatures. Ideal for sign lighting in cold temperatures

Low Pressure Sodium: High efficiency, good colour for ground lighting.

Cluster LED's: The latest low power lights offer high intensity and long life. Ideal for flashing lights and solar powered outdoor lighting.