If ­you have a yard and have ever thought about lighting it at night, then you have probably heard about solar lights. They are no longer expensive as we have been working hard to get your great prices, and their advantage is that you don’t have to run any wiring for them. As long as a location gets direct sunlight, you can put a light there in about 15 seconds.

These lights are extremely interesting because they are almost like mini-satellites. They generate and store their own power during the day and then release it at night. This is just like a satellite that stores solar energy while it is on the sunny side of the planet and then uses that energy when it’s on the dark side. In this article, you will learn exactly how it happens!

The Basics

A solar light consists of the following components:

• A Solar Cell on top
• AA or AAA rechargeable Ni-Cad battery
• A small controller board
• LED light source
• A photoresistor to detect darkness

If you pop off the cover, you will find that all of the working components are mounted as a single unit. On the back side you see this:

Next, we’ll take a closer look at some of these components.

Inside a Solar Light

You can see the battery, LED and controller board. If you cover the light sensor, the LED turns on, like this:

Here are close-ups of the LED and the controller board:

On the other side of this module is a four-cell solar array, measuring 2 inches by 2 inches (5 cm x 5 cm), and the photoresistor:

Here is a closer view of the photoresistor:

Now let’s see how the these solar lights work to light your yard at night.

Producing Light

If you have read the article How Solar Cells Work, you have a basic understanding of solar-cell technology. A solar light uses standard solar cells in a very straightforward application.