How To Charge Solar Lights Without Sun?

How To Charge Solar Lights Without Sun?
  • Author: Amanda Arnold
  • Posted On: November 2, 2021
  • Updated On: August 21, 2023

The beauty of your landscape is enhanced with outdoor solar lights. They are grid-independent, making them environmentally friendly options for lowering our carbon impact. Furthermore, you may reduce electric expenditures for illuminating your patio, lawn, garden, exterior, and street with these outdoor solar lights.

Keeping solar lights lit throughout the harsh winter months, when the sun is usually obscured, is difficult. Because decorative solar garden lights are lightweight and easy to handle, you can quickly change some of them indoors. Solar lights require direct sunshine to charge correctly, as you can see.

The more sunlight that hits the solar panels, the more efficiently they charge. So, what do you do when the sun isn’t shining as brightly as it is in the winter? What happens if it’s cloudy and the sun can’t get through to the solar panels?

The Working Process Of Solar Lights

A photovoltaic or solar cell is the most critical component of your solar light. Using a chemical mechanism known as the photovoltaic effect, this device turns light energy into electrical energy. Semiconductors are used in solar cells to do this. A semiconductor is a substance that, under specific conditions, becomes a good conductor of electricity.

Silicon is the most common semiconductor material used in solar cells. Doping two pieces of silicon involve applying opposing positive and negative charges to them. When photons of light energy strike these differently charged silicon layers, a reaction happens, releasing electrically charged particles known as electrons.

Solar cells generate electricity when they come into contact with light energy of the appropriate wavelength. This means that when the sun isn’t shining, we can charge solar batteries with artificial light. On the other hand, solar lights employ a photosensitive component known as a photocell to turn lights on when it’s dark and turn them off when the sun rises in the morning.

How To Charge The Solar Lights In A Cloudy Weather?

It’s a foggy and gloomy day; surely, no sunshine will reach your solar panels. Actually, no. Regardless of the weather, sunlight may reach the Earth’s surface in significant quantities. Even if it’s cloudy outside, you can still obtain a reasonable or complete charge depending on the size of your solar lights.

It’s recommended that you dry your solar panels with a soft towel frequently when in terrible weather. Precipitation can reduce the amount of light reaching your panels and damage them if they aren’t completely sealed. It’s also a good idea to point your solar lights squarely at the sun to get the most out of your charging capacity.

Methods To Charge The Solar Lights Without Sun

We’ve demonstrated that solar lights require direct sunshine to charge appropriately. You can charge them in a variety of ways, however! If you live somewhere with little sunlight or a lot of cloudy days, don’t worry. We’ve included best options for charging solar lights without the sun below:

Use LED Lights

When there is little or no sunlight, LED lights can be used to charge solar lights. LED lights come in various shapes and sizes, including light bulbs, headlights, and torches.

These sorts of artificial light can be beneficial for charging without the use of sunlight. Place the solar lamp a few inches from the LED light source and make sure it is turned on to charge utilizing LED lights.

It should take many hours to charge after that completely. Using these lights instead of incandescent lights has various advantages. LEDs, for starters, are more energy efficient. As a result, you’ll need less energy to charge your solar lights.

Second, LEDs will charge your solar light far more quickly than incandescent bulbs. As a result, LEDs are the ideal alternative for charging your solar lighting.

Set The Angle Of Your Light

If you point your solar lights directly at the sun or an artificial light source, you might be able to get a little extra charge. While you may not always be able to move a fixed solar light set on a wall or a fence post, you should strive to be as inventive as possible.

It’s worth noting that the sun is at its brightest during the midday hours. When relocating your solar panels, keep this in mind because it can significantly impact how much your battery charges. Don’t forget to rearrange your panels in the afternoon and evening if you set them out in the morning.

Increase The Amount Of Diffused Light

Diffuse sunlight reflects onto our solar cells from clouds and other surfaces, as we already know. By adequately positioning neighboring mirrors to reflect sunlight onto the solar cell, we may artificially enhance the quantity of diffuse sunlight our solar light receives.

To accomplish so, observe the sun’s location in the sky and place mirrors so that direct sunlight is reflected onto the solar. There’s a case to be made that moving the light is more accessible, but if your light needs to be in a location where it won’t be exposed to sunlight, mirrors are an excellent solution.

Go For An Alternative Charging Method

Secondary charging techniques are available in many modern solar light solutions. Today’s models, for example, include a USB charging connector.

As a result, you could take the light inside, detach it, and charge it with a typical USB wire and plug. Alternatively, a rechargeable battery pack may be possible depending on the type of batteries inside the light. This method is a quick and straightforward way to charge solar lights without waiting for the sun to shine.

Final Thoughts

So that’s all from our side. There are a variety of ways to charge your solar lights that do not require direct sunshine. By choosing the suitable alternative, you can charge the solar lights indoors and also outdoors. We hope that discussed easy hacks would help you fix your solar light charging problem.

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Author: Amanda Arnold

Amanda has been working with ConstructionHow since 2021. Her experience spans over 5 years in the creative niche such as home decor and trends, landscaping, renovations, and custom architectural values. As a home designer expert, she has a keen eye for the latest home improvement trends with accurate facts that readers find impossible to ignore. Being invested in home-building trends is how she has gained her lucrative expertise exploring more to bring a positive ambiance for all homeowners (and even tenants!). Currently, she lives in a beautiful beach home, a source of fascination for her.

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