Solar lights are an excellent environment-friendly choice of lighting. During the day, when the sun is shining, solar lights absorb its energy for use during the nighttime. Best of all, you won’t have to worry about paying high power bills. 

Solar lights can make your life easier with monthly expenses and ease your consciousness if you are concerned about light pollution.

And here at SolarDorm, you can get information about the benefits of solar power. 

However, the sun is not out every day, and you may wonder how to power solar lights without sun. Let’s find out!

How to Power Solar Lights Without Sun

Some methods that you can use to power your solar lights without the sun include:

• Use incandescent lights;
• LED lights to power solar lights;
• Redirect sunlight with mirrors;
• Static electricity.

Methods to Power Solar Lights

The sun is free, making solar lights incredibly cost-effective. However, while the sun may be free, it is not always shining in the sky, especially during the winter. 

Luckily, there are some methods that you can try out to power your solar lights even without the sun. Let’s see in detail how to power solar lights without sun.

Use incandescent lights 

The ability to collect energy from the sun and store it in the battery is made possible by the receptors built into solar lights. 

Since all you need is light, not necessarily from the sun, combining these sensors with incandescent lights makes solar lights capable of receiving electricity. 

This is so that the receptors can pick up light from a source without being able to distinguish between sunshine and other lights. 

Because incandescent lights’ wavelengths are comparable to the sun’s, you can use them to charge solar lights even when they aren’t shining very much.

LED lights to power solar lights 

If you do not want to use incandescent lights, you can substitute them with LED ones. This method will work similarly to the one with incandescent lights.

This is because LED lights’ infrared and ultraviolet spectrums often resemble those of the sun, making this option useful in circumstances when the sun isn’t available.

Redirect sunlight with mirrors

If your lights are installed indoors or in a dark area of your yard. Mirrors can reflect sunlight so that it strikes the solar panels directly. However, this method requires repositioning the mirrors during the day. 

This is due to the sun changing positions during the daytime, which requires moving mirrors to ensure that they remain in the sun’s rays and create the right angle for the light to reach the solar panels. 

Mirror redirecting is useful during winter when the days are shorter and there is limited sunlight. 

Static electricity 

Use static electricity to power your solar lights if there is no sun outside. The underlying idea of this method is that opposing charges attract electrons, positive and negative. 

The electrons will flow toward the side of the solar panel with fewer electrons if one side has more electrons than the other. Since there is an imbalance in the charges, static electricity is an effective method.

The Importance of Lumens When Charging with Light Bulbs 

If you cannot decide which lights to use to power your solar lights, there is one thing you should consider. 

The most important thing is the number of lumens a light bulb has. For example, look at the table below to see the power difference between incandescent and LED lights. 

Conclusion 

So, I hope you have learned how to power solar lights without sun after carefully reading the article. 

If there are no more sunny days, you can try out the methods I mentioned above. The important thing is to know that you can power your solar lights even on cloudy and winter days. 

Solar lights provide you and your household with renewable and clean energy. They are far better for the environment than regular lights. 

Also, if you want to learn more about solar energy here on SolarDorm, you can find an abundance of info.