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Floodlights are a great way to power your home, but are solar powered models truly viable?

Floodlights are the best way to keep the outside of your home well lit, acting as a deterrent to intruders and a helpful guide to navigate at night. However, their high-power requirements mean they can be cripplingly expensive to run, leaving your home unprotected.

Solar powered lights are a great way to get around this. Here’s why…

1)     No Hardwiring Required

It’s a lot easier to get a solar powered floodlight up and running with minimal DIY work required. With most models you won’t need to hire an electrician connect up wires, you’ll just need to mount it correctly.

This is because solar powered floodlights typically have their solar panels already integrated into the unit in some capacity, whether that’s as a separate object connected by a wire or built into the frame. That means right out of the box it can start generating its own power supply, with no need to be plugged into the mains.

This also means you can illuminate areas it might be a bit tricky to otherwise, such as outbuildings which don’t feature wiring.

2)     They’re Still Super Bright

Solar power creates less energy than traditional non-renewable energy sources. They’re also not as consistent. A solar panel can still create energy on a cloudy day, but not as much as on a sunny day. That means that any devices that draw on solar energy need to use as little energy as possible.

Energy-saving lights are typically associated with dim brightness levels, which is a massive concern with floodlights. These lights in particular need to be as bright as possible in order to serve as effective deterrents to burglars.

But LEDs are so effective that they use a fraction of the energy of older light sources while producing just as many lumens. For context a 12W LED floodlight can produce 800 lumens of light, meaning it’s easy for the floodlight to gather the energy it needs during the day ready for nightfall. You’d need a 100W halogen floodlight to achieve similar results.

Most solar powered floodlights make use of PIR or Dusk/Dawn sensors, so they’ll only be using the exact amount of power that they need to function.

3)     They’ll Lower Your Bills

LEDs are great for lowering your bills by virtue of the fact that they use less power. Typically, a domestic 15W LED floodlight will cost only around £4 a year to run annually (although there’s plenty of variance for different wattage levels).

Combined with solar panels, you’ll have a light fitting that costs you nothing to run after it’s installed, all without compromising on the security of your property.

We have several models of solar powered LED floodlights in stock, including the Lutec Sunshine 7W-11W Solar Powered LED Floodlight With PIR Motion Sensor, which is perfect for domestic properties. For something a little more powerful that could be used in sports clubs and other areas that have higher lux requirements, the UltraSlim Solar Powered 30W-50W LED Floodlight 6500K might be a better option.

Want even more tips for getting started with solar lighting? Feel free to give us a call on 0116 321 4120 or send us an email to cs@wled.co.uk, and our team will be more than happy help you out.

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