Price of Solar Lights, Is it Worthy?
The use of traditional sources of energy has been with us for the longest time now, may it be for industrial purposes or just simply for household use. It has proven its reliability and its use is very much widespread, especially here in the Philippines.
However, due to its by-products, such as waste and chemicals which harm the planet, together with the high energy costs, a lot of people try to shift to the use of more renewable energy resources such as solar energy. Now, people foreign to such innovation might be wondering, is the price of solar lights really worth it?
To answer this question, we can do a quick comparison between the costs of installing traditional electrical light and the costs of installing solar light at homes.
How much does the installation and maintenance of light cost?
For comparison purposes, let us consider the use of street lights (electrical street lights with 60W power vs solar street lights with the same wattage). Electrical street lights normally use incandescent bulbs or halogen bulbs as their light source. These bulbs would roughly cost around 200-500 pesos depending on the brand.
However, some new designs incorporate a more practical approach using LED bulbs which can drastically lower the cost of the bulb to around 100-200 pesos only.
Assuming that the street poles will be the same between our two items, the only additional cost on the traditional one would be on the wires needed to reach the street light.
Meanwhile, the price of solar street lights nowadays range from 500 to as high as 7000 depending again on the brand and the wattage. This might be overwhelming to some but apparently this will only be the cost incurred.
After installation, there will be no more maintenance cost for the next 4-5 years. Solar lighting involves the use of silicon-based solar panels which utilize the process called photovoltaic effect.
This process occurs when the silicon cells cause electrons to be in motion initiating a flow of current. Given these ideal values for the price of solar lights, new users might become doubtful and hesitate on having one, however, this discussion does not end here.
Electricity Bills
Here comes the catch. For traditional street lights, you will be required to pay for your monthly electricity consumption. Depending on the wattage, no. of hours usage and the type of bulb used, you may see your electricity bill for street light alone to range from 100 to 1000 pesos monthly.
Compared to solar street lights, you may not need to worry about electric bills or maintenance costs because it can operate maintenance-free for around 4-5 years. This is where the solar light takes the upper-hand.
This is very efficient if you’ll need to illuminate a very long perimeter fence, a whole backyard or your farm perhaps, which will require quite a number of lights to accomplish.
So, is the price of solar lights worth it?
Since the price of installing solar lights is only one time spending, a consumer could really save a huge amount of money if they were to use solar lights instead. If not through discounts, which could cut off their bill by up to a half, they could actually use electricity for free for the rest of their lives without worrying if they would spend a total of millions just for paying bills several years later.
Or maybe it would be better to take it this way - see the price of solar lights as a good investment rather than an expense. A good investment for your future and for the environment.