According to Wikipedia, solar energy is “radiant light and heat from the sun.” This energy is harnessed and can be applied to a wide range of uses; some examples being heat, light and photosynthesis.
In this article, we have gathered information to help you create a solar circuit that can be used as a light source in different applications. Solar lights, ranging from garden lights to night lights, including motion sensor lights and party lights, are sold for all areas of your household. Here we have compiled a list of 18 easy processes on how to make budget-friendly DIY Solar Light Circuits
1. Solar Garden Light Circuit w/ Automatic Cut Off
This basic circuit uses LEDs, a solar panel and a rechargeable battery along with a PNP transistor and resistors. No battery voltage reaches the LEDs during the daytime because the transistor acts as a switch. The solar panel absorbs enough of the sun’s energy, providing the rechargeable battery with power to illuminate the attached LEDs.
2. DIY Solar Light Circuit – Street Light
Two solar panels are connected to a circuit board, which is then connected to two rechargeable batteries. He places the batteries in a plastic box and secures the unit to a wooden plank to ensure the entire unit stays upright as a street light.
3. Simple DIY Solar Light Circuit
If you are looking for a very simple way to create an led lamp that is solar-powered, this is a basic guide that offers just that. This blogger uses a 12 V solar panel that charges the battery during the daytime. And then, during the evening, the solar panel stops providing current. The battery becomes the power source to light the 1W LED bulb.
Click here for more information.
4. DIY Solar Garden Light Circuit
An easy-to-follow video that showcases how you can make a homemade solar light circuit for your garden. This vlogger suggests using a 5V solar panel but the same guide can be applied to a 12V circuit as well. Since this unit is going into the garden and could get rain and plant water on it, it is advised to put all of the parts, except the panel and the light, into a waterproof box.
5. Solar Light Circuit with White LED
If you’re making a DIY Solar Light Circuit, it’s important to make sure to use a light source that’s going to be bright enough to be seen. For areas like gardens, this guide recommends using white LEDs because they are highly luminescent and offer light efficiency.
It’s also important to calculate the correct size and voltage of the battery to make sure it will hold enough power.
6. Solar Night Light Circuit – DIY
Learn how to make a solar night light circuit by using a TP4056 board. The advantage of this type of board is that it is portable. Also, this board comes either with or without battery protection. This vlogger suggests using the one with the protection. Based on 5 hours of maximum sun exposure, the solar panel suggested in this video will harness about 2.9Ah of energy.
7. DIY Solar Lights Circuit for house exterior
This is a great project to build with your kids as this blogger shows us in his pictures. He uses a 12V battery, LED lamps and a solar cell. By building an outdoor solar light, he was able to make the outside of his house safer and also reduce electricity costs. He also describes how he created a second, larger LED solar light to provide more illumination.
Click here to follow this process.
8. DIY Solar Security Light Circuit
This video introduces the viewer to a more advanced DIY. It involves using a PIR Motion Sensor. PIR stands for passive infrared, which refers to the use of a sensor to detect human presence in the room. This is a great one to make if you want to include additional security features in and around your home or apartment.
9. DIY Solar Night Light
If you want to transform an existing night light into a solar-powered one, this video will be very helpful for you. This man shows you how to take the original plastic housing and create a circuit board using 18650 and TP4056. The costs are very minimal for this project because you use what you already have at home and you can easily transform this light into a green energy option.
10. DIY Solar Light Circuit for Porch
A great process for someone who wants more control over when your porch lights come on and how long they stay on. This DIY circuit offers a programmable timer and even allows a delay for turning on or off. How this works is very technical but it is very well explained by the author of this post.
Click for the process details.
11. Basic Solar Decorative DIY Light Circuit
A basic video showcasing a basic solar light circuit. But the information is very detailed. This man explains how to create a light circuit using a transistor, two resistors, a battery pack, a diode and a fairly small solar panel. He explains that the parts can be swapped out based on what your needs are. He is providing a base model of how to build a DIY solar light circuit.
12. DIY Solar Light Circuit using 6V Solar panel
A 6V solar panel is used to build this simple night lamp powered by solar energy. It gets charged during the day and is built to turn on automatically at sunset. The LED is then powered by the battery and stays on until the morning. This person also suggests putting the bulb in front of a mirror or reflective item so it increases the light.
For more on how to build it, click here.
13. DIY Solar Light Circuit using Lithium Battery
Here we can see a build using a solar panel, lithium battery and LED lights. This garden light is meant to charge during the day and light up at night. To make it budget-friendly and keep costs at a minimum, this person does not use a sensor or microcontroller. Leaving this out also helps keep the circuit board simple.
14. Motion Activated DIY Solar Light Circuit
A motion-activated solar light is important to have for your home’s security and safety. This post shows you how to put one together using a PIR Sensor module, PNP transistor, NPN transistor, LED bulb, resistors, lead-acid battery and a solar panel.
The motion detector activates the light when a human or animal comes within its range and will then turn off when there is no more movement in the area. It’s a good idea to have this in multiple areas of the house.
Click here to learn how to make it.
15. DIY Solar Light Circuit for School Project
A very basic tutorial on how to make a DIY solar light circuit. This can be used for a school project or as just an introduction to making light circuits before moving on to more advanced projects. The items used are very inexpensive and the battery and jar used can probably already be found in the house.
16. Hanging Solar Light Circuit DIY
What a unique idea, to add a hanging option to your DIY Solar light circuit. The advantage is that you can move it to whatever location you want to have light and also during the day, it can be angled towards the sun to retain maximum charging of the solar panel.
A plastic container and a wire hanger are the extra items that this person used to make this one-of-a-kind style of solar light.
Read more on how to make it by clicking here.
17. DIY Solar Light Circuit for String Lights
An outdoor party needs to have festive lighting. Here’s a great way to create homemade solar string lights using a solar-powered circuit. Although you can use white LEDs for this project, it would make for a more beautiful setting if you used colored ones, as the author suggests. Additionally, to protect the LED string, it’s important to use some form of protective covering or hose.
Read more for a step-by-step guide.
18. DIY Solar Light Circuit using Joule Thief model
“Joule Thief” is used to describe a minimalist style of voltage booster. The term refers to a type of circuit that is small, has low costs and is typically easy to build. That is what you will find in this simple diagram and video of this solar light circuit. The sun falls on the solar cell and charges the battery.
This specific model uses a small solar panel, a 1 or 2 V battery and diodes along with the circuit panel.
