Solar Lighting 101: Components and Design Considerations

Solar Lighting 101: Components and Design Considerations

Getting Solar Lighting Right Starts with Understanding the System.

As industries continue to move toward sustainable solutions, solar lighting has become a common feature in tenders and infrastructure upgrades. But what’s often misunderstood — or worse, oversold — is what these systems can actually deliver.

At Magnitech, we’ve spent decades designing fit-for-purpose lighting solutions for various environments. And when it comes to solar, that means one thing above all: matching performance expectations to engineering realities.

Core Components That Define Solar Lighting Performance

• A solar lighting system is only as effective as the way its components are balanced:

• Solar Panel: Captures energy from the sun, measured in watts. But wattage alone doesn’t determine output — panel angle, temperature, panel efficiency, and sunlight hours all matter.

• Battery: Stores energy for night-time use. Battery capacity (Ah), type (LiFePO4 vs lead-acid), and discharge rate are critical for autonomy.

• LED Module: Determines the quality and intensity of light. Higher efficiency LEDs deliver better performance at a lower draw.

• Controller: Manages the charging, discharging, and lighting profile — including motion sensing, dimming, and night mode scheduling.

• Fixture Design: Impacts thermal management, optics, and durability.

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Misconceptions We See Every Week

• "It says 200W, so it’s the same as a 200W LED floodlight."

  
  

  Not quite. Unfortunately, there are a lot of unscrupulous sellers in the market, and all too often, when you see a “200W solar light,” that either usually refers to the solar panel or some other arbitrary misnomer — not the LED power. To match a true 100W LED output for 12+ hours, you’d need a massive battery bank and charge input. Most all-in-one systems and even two piece systems simply can’t deliver that.

  
  

• "All-in-one units are better than two-part systems."

  
  

  Not necessarily. While all-in-one units are compact, easier to install, and often more cost-effective upfront, they come with trade-offs — particularly when it comes to panel orientation, thermal management, and battery capacity. The key issue is that in an all-in-one design, the panel is fixed to the luminaire, meaning its angle and direction are dictated by where the light needs to shine — not where the sun is. This can significantly reduce charging efficiency, especially in locations where optimal solar angle and lighting direction do not align. Two-part systems decouple the panel from the light source, allowing for independent orientation and optimisation of solar gain, making them far more effective in high-use zones, cloudy regions, or complex site layouts.

  
  

• "We don’t need to size the system — just pick the highest wattage."

  
  

  Oversizing wastes budget. Undersizing leads to failure. Sizing should always be based on location (sun hours), desired lux levels (not desired wattage), pole height, and runtime expectations.

  
  

What We Recommend at Magnitech

When we consult on a solar project, we:

• Simulate lighting layout and lux distribution based on actual product output

• Size the battery based on geographic sun data and usage hours

• Recommend all-in-one systems for low-demand or directional alignment scenarios, and two-part systems where optimal panel orientation, larger batteries, or thermal performance are critical

• Provide honest runtime expectations — and avoid inflated claims

  
  

Final Thought

When your site needs reliable, off-grid lighting, it’s not about chasing numbers — it’s about engineering the right balance between panel, battery, and output. Anything less is a compromise.

Need help specifying a system?

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