Are solar street lights more reliable than grid lighting?
As a leading designer of solar powered street lights, we’re often asked whether solar street lights are reliable.
The short answer is yes.
In fact, if you consider that solar street lights are not susceptible to the blackouts and brownouts occurring more and more often these days as the electricity grid reaches its capacity, you could argue that solar street lights are more reliable than traditional, grid-connected lights.
Think about it. If there’s a fault with the electricity network, we lose whole areas of lights – whole suburbs or regions. But if there’s a problem with a solar street light, you lose only that one light.
Reliable lighting 365 nights a year – without interruption
The reliability of solar street lights was demonstrated almost poetically recently when, at the final inspection and handover of a solar LED street lighting project we’d finished at a Central Coast holiday park, an electrical storm came through and blacked out the entire region.
Which lights were the only ones still working in the dark, do you think? That’s right – the solar street lights we’d just installed.
Why Leadsun solar street lights are always dependable – our battery
Aside from the fact that our solar street lights aren’t susceptible to brownouts or blackouts and that they’re dependent on probably the most reliable source of energy we could have on our planet – the sun – there’s something else.
At the heart of every Leadsun SMART solar lighting system is our ingenious Lithium LiFePO4 battery. These feature Leadsun’s patented advanced battery management system, meaning they have much greater charging efficiency and provide double the lifespan of other solar lighting batteries.
This dependability is why we can guarantee our solar street lights for up to 10 years
We’re so certain of the quality and dependability of our solar street lights and the battery system within them that we provide industry-leading warranties to back that up.
So, rather than offer a limited pro-rata type warranty that only provides partial cost protection, Leadsun can guarantee that our batteries’ performance will maintain at least 80% usable capacity at the end of the warranty period, providing it is used within its operating parameters.
On top of that, while the majority of commercial solar street lighting suppliers and manufacturers can struggle to offer even 3-year warranties, Leadsun is proud to provide a market-leading battery performance warranty of up to 10 years for municipalities that partner with Leadsun for their public lighting projects.
For all other applications, Leadsun is still able to provide a best-in-class 5 year warranty that unconditionally covers the entire solar powered street lighting system’s performance and assures the equipment is free from defects.
Maintenance-free, for ongoing dependability regardless of project or cost fluctuations
While we mentioned being proud to stand behind the dependability of our solar street lights with these industry-leading warranties, the truth is, we also know you’re probably not going to even need them. That’s because solar street lights are essentially maintenance-free.
The only maintenance our solar street lights really need is periodic cleaning of the optics and solar panel. But even then, the solar panels of Leadsun’s lights, for example, have self-cleaning glass, and are positioned at the optimum angle to get the maximum cleaning effect of the rain. Once our solar street lights are installed then, not only are there zero ongoing energy costs to factor in, there are next to no maintenance costs either.
From a business perspective, this lack of required maintenance is actually another aspect of long-term dependability. It means that regardless of any future public infrastructure budgeting or funding fluctuations that might occur over the years, solar street lights, with zero ongoing energy costs and next to no maintenance, can continue to operate – lighting the way for as long as they stand.
Speak to Leadsun today about how we can provide a comprehensive warranty that helps protect municipalities and facility owners that need reliable lighting 365 nights a year – without interruption.
