How to Design a Solar Lighting System

Designing and installing a solar lighting system in your home can be a challenging, yet rewarding endeavor. Solar lighting not only cuts down on electricity costs, but also reduces the amount spent on costly high-tech light bulbs and other lighting costs such as lamps, fixtures and switches. Solar lighting can also enable you to better use natural lighting for your home, which can also give you positive benefits mentally and emotionally.Select locations for skylights. Skylights represent one of the cheapest ways to use solar lighting for your home by allowing natural sunlight to penetrate inside the house. Moving skylights have the added benefits of venting hot air out and allowing cooler air from outside to move into the house. Placing skylights throughout the house can help you to drastically cut down on all of your needs for any additional light during the day. Skylights can also help to illuminate the house during full moons.
Lay out a blueprint for installing solar panels. Solar panels should be facing a southerly direction and angled between 20 degrees and 45 degrees based on your latitude. The degree at which the panels are angled should match the same number as your latitude at your location so that you can collect as much sunlight as possible for your solar system. Panels should be connected to deep-cycle batteries, which will direct current through an AC inverter to convert the DC current into usable electricity for household appliances. You may want to consider hiring an electrician to hook up the solar electricity to your circuit breaker box or connect the deep-cycle battery to a small number of wall outlets directly that will feed off the solar power. Place the outlets where you will most need lighting during the evening hours.Select outdoor lighting options. Depending on how much money you want to spend on your solar lighting designs, you can opt for more expensive and nicer looking solar lamps or simply purchase the traditional walkway solar lamps at your local hardware store for $10 to $20, as of March 2010. Consider whether you want to illuminate certain parts of your property or just a walkway leading to your front door.Turn the plastic tray upside down and cut two small holes near the center of the bottom side. Set the panel on the bottom side of the tray and thread the wires through.