Solar LED street lights have increased in popularity in recent years due to their many benefits such as efficiency, economy, and eco-friendliness. The latest innovations in the area of solar power technology are further bringing the cost down and making solar street lights accessible around the world.
Solar street lights are never at risk of running out of power because they’re based on the most abundant and perpetual source of energy in the world – the sun!
They’re designed to be compact and self-sufficient in terms of their power source. The solar panel captures the daylight energy and stores it in the battery unit. This powers the solar street light as required when it gets dark. Solar LED street lights are perfect for commercial use, personal use, in cities, and in rural areas.
We decided to put the Best solar LED street lights to the test and here’s what we found.
Read our related article on the Best Solar Spotlights for protection and illumination!
Our Top Picks
Product | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|
Best Overall: Solar Light Mart ALPHA 1080X Street Light | We love this power-saving solar street light that’s known for its reliability and performance at a reasonable price. It has numerous features that would benefit cities or private properties. | Check Price | |
Runner Up: TENKOO LED Solar Street Lights | This excellent runner-up is an efficient street light that combines the best of Solar Power with LED technology. It’s energy-efficient while ensuring maximum brightness without ever adding to your electricity bills. | Check Price | |
Best Budget-Friendly: ECO-WORTHY LED Solar Street Flood Lights | This power-saving street light is known for its reliability and performance at a reasonable price. | Check Price | |
Best In Brightest Lights: PSG Solar Street Lights Outdoor Lamp | The brightness of this solar street light compares to that of traditional street lights, and the long battery life and light bulb combo save 80% more energy than other street lights. | Check Price | |
Most Customizable: WAGAN 1000-Lumen Solar Street Lamp | An easy-to-install, lightweight, LED solar street floodlight that can be mounted anywhere. This light comes with a remote control so you can control your street light with ease. | Check Price |
How We Chose The Best LED Street Lights
We tested each solar street light by its quality, design, power consumption, durability, ease of installation, and customer satisfaction.
We know that solar street light requirements for household use are quite different from that of businesses and communities. We tested several brands and the best solar LED street lights to help you make the best decision for your needs.
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Best Solar LED Street Lights Reviewed
1. Best Overall: Solar Light ALPHA 1080X Street Light
Product Ratings
Affordability | 5/5 |
Brightness | 4/5 |
Ease Of Installation | 4/5 |
Features | 5/5 |
Range | 4/5 |
Item Weight: 4 Pounds | Product Dimensions: 17.34 x 5.91 x 1.58 Inches | Voltage: 5 Volts
What We Liked
- Adjustable metal mounting bracket
- Three different modes of operation
- Weatherproof design
- Smart PIR motion and light sensor
- Great price with good quality
- Bolt holds angled light into place
What We Didn’t Like
- A bit bulky to install
- Shorter battery life
If you’re worried about your electricity bills, you can switch to ALPHA 1080X and still have street lights in your outdoor space. The PIR technology embedded in ALPHA 1080X makes it a real power saver.
The Alpha solar street light caught our attention because it has many of the features we like and it’s affordable. This street light is known for its reliability and performance at a reasonable price with numerous features.
Features
When we tested the highly sensitive sensors, we noticed they’re designed to detect any motion in the proximity to trigger the brighter light. At other times, the light stayed off or dim, depending on the setting.
We like the 3 different modes that could be set according to our preferences. There’s a red mode, blue mode, and green mode. The red mode is when the light is off and no motion turns it on. The blue mode is when the motion sensors are triggered into bright mode. Finally, the green mode sets the light to a normal floodlight brightness.
We discovered that we can override the PIR function to keep the lights on from dusk to dawn. If we want to save energy, we can switch to dim mode at 165 lumens or go for full brightness mode at 1300 lumens. This is a great option to have and gives us some flexibility for illuminating our outdoor spaces.
Installation
We were able to install the ALPHA 1080X Street Light by ourselves on the pole. It comes with an adjustable tilt mounting bracket, which allowed us to adjust the solar panel position for maximum exposure to direct sunlight during the daytime. This gave us a full charge to last the optimal amount of time through each night.
While installing the LED solar street lights, we discovered that this light has an angle to adjust the light for better sunlight exposure. We appreciate that it came with a bolt that locks the light in place at the angle we chose.
This light is a bit heavier because it’s of such great quality so the bolt helped us to keep the solar light where we wanted it to be.
See Price on Amazon2. Runner Up: TENKOO LED Solar Street Lights
Product Ratings
Affordability | 4/5 |
Brightness | 3/5 |
Ease Of Installation | 5/5 |
Features | 4/5 |
Range | 3/5 |
Item Weight: 15.4 Pounds | Product Dimensions: 21 x 7.8 x 3.5 inches | Assembled Height: 3.5 Inches | Assembled Length: 21 Inches | Assembled Width: 7.8 Inches | Voltage: 3.2 Volts
What We Liked
- Equipped with powerful lithium-ion batteries
- 28 ultra-bright LEDs
- Compact and elegantly integrated design
- Waterproof and weatherproof
- Powerful motion and light sensors
- Remote control
What We Didn’t Like
- A little difficult to install
- Requires special light post and tools
- Unavailability of spare parts
During our testing, we found that the TENKOO LED Solar Street Light combines the best of solar power with LED technology, making it highly efficient for us in terms of energy consumption while ensuring maximum brightness.
Features
Its 4200 mAh lithium-ion battery is fully charged in less than 10 hours. It gave us full illumination and uniform light for up to at least 5 days, even during harsh weather conditions. It has 28 energy-efficient bright LEDs that can produce up to 2000 lumens of light giving us the brightness we were looking for.
We think this is more than enough bright lighting to illuminate a street corner or rural area.
During testing, we found the remote had a good range to it. The remote holds several features including adjustable brightness giving us the choice of 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% to efficiently light our outdoor space.
We like the adjustable lighting times. Those allow us to choose 2, 3, 5, 8, or 10 hour times and a solid constant light mode.
Installation
Once we installed it, the TENKOO LED solar street light operated on its own for us. This solar light has a smart feature in which it’s equipped with a sensitive motion and light sensor that optimizes its performance to save more energy.
Our street light dimmed itself when there was no motion in the proximity. When its sensor detected motion, the brightness increased. We love intelligent solar street lights!
Its compact and integrated design is just what we like to see in our solar street lights, making it one of the best-engineered solar street lamps we’ve tested.
It does require some extra tools and skills to install correctly, but we were able to install it without too much hassle. You can also install it on several different surfaces. This solar street light came with an adjustable bracket to angle the light for perfect sun exposure during the day, and just where we wanted it at night.
See Price on Amazon3. Best Budget-Friendly: ECO-WORTHY LED Solar Street Flood Lights
Product Ratings
Affordability | 4/5 |
Brightness | 4/5 |
Ease Of Installation | 2/5 |
Features | 4/5 |
Range | 3/5 |
Item Weight: 11.4 Pounds | Product Dimensions: 23 x 16.3 x 7 inches | Voltage: 12 Volts | Wattage: 100 Watts
What We Liked
- Highly energy-efficient and eco-friendly LEDs
- Longer life with low maintenance
- High-capacity and durable battery
- Motion and light sensor
- Waterproof
What We Didn’t Like
- Inadequate instructions
- Requires a firm base for installation
We believe the name says it all and this solar-powered street light lives up to its name. We rated this light as one of the top-rated solar street lights in terms of affordability, durability, and energy efficiency.
This is one of the best solar street lights because the powerful solar panel delivers such a bright light, without the cost of energy bills.
During our testing process, we found that Eco-Worthy LED solar light keeps its carbon footprint to a minimum. The durability works for us because the solar panels and solar light components are designed with a durability of over 50,000 hours.
We found it to live up to the durability test so there’s no worry about replacing this street light anytime soon.
Features
This product did an amazing job for us producing a sufficient amount of brightness. It has up to 2700-lumens with its top-quality LEDs. The LEDs are powered by a high-capacity battery that lasted around 35 hours for us with a full charge.
The best part is that the advanced motion sensor makes it energy efficient by regulating the brightness depending on the ambient conditions. It comes with a remote control so we were able to adjust its functions with the tip of our fingers.
We always have fun testing the features of the remote controls. The remote boasts several features, including an automatic mode, which turns it on at night, and off during the day.
We were able to set timing modes of 3, 5, and 8 hours, along with increasing or decreasing the brightness at any time by 10% up to 9 times per increase or decrease. Some of the best solar LED street lights have a remote control, and this is a good one.
Installation
We were able to install this LED solar street light without too much fuss, although, we would prefer there to be better instructions. We found that the lamp post requires a firm base for installation because it’s a bit heavy. That being said, the installation was simple enough and came with all the necessary parts to install.
See Price on Amazon4. Best In Brightest Lights: PSG Solar Street Lights Outdoor Lamp
Product Ratings
Affordability | 3/5 |
Brightness | 5/5 |
Ease Of Installation | 2/5 |
Features | 4/5 |
Range | 2/5 |
Item Weight: 18 Pounds | Product Dimensions: 28 x 20 x 8 Inches | Voltage: 6.4 Volts | Wattage: 300 Watts
What We Liked
- Ultra bright and high-quality LED bulbs, brighter than most street lights
- Can be installed anywhere with an adjustable metal bracket
- Remote control
- 3 different modes for lighting preferences
- Durable battery is recharged by a powerful solar panel
- Weather-resistant
- Adjustable metal bracket included to place at an angle
What We Didn’t Like
- Complex instruction manual
- Doesn’t have a motion sensor feature
- Shorter range on the remote control
When it came to testing brightness, we found that the PSG Solar Street Lights was the brightest with its superior-quality LED bulbs. It came to us with a powerful 48000 mAh battery which provides continuous illumination for more than 24 hours at full charge.
Reviews for this best LED street lights option were excellent regarding the great quality and brightness and we agree! It easily lit up our entire desired area and gave us more coverage than we expected. In our opinion, this is a great option for those that need a bright and reliable LED street light.
The PSG Solar Street Light automatically came on at dusk and automatically shut off at sunrise. This is a great feature for those of us that tend to forget to turn the lights off in the morning. This feature helps us to save more on energy costs, which we absolutely love, and places it firmly on our list of best solar lights.
Features
We received this LED solar light equipped with a remote control that can be used to switch it between different modes (full bright mode, induction mode, and constant light mode) according to our lighting preferences.
We chose to keep this solar street light on its constant light mode to test out its brightness, charge, and quality. We kept this light on all night beginning at 100, and it was still at 70 in the morning. It gave us several days on one full charge while delivering uniform light.
Installation
This solar street light was easy for us to install. We liked that it came with an adjustable metal bracket to install the lights at an angle. We loved that we could install this light anywhere. We chose to install this on a pole and it was easy enough for two of us to install.
The solar light is a bit heavy, so it was easier to install with a second person. Once we got it up, it worked great. We were able to adjust the angle of the solar panel, change settings with the remote, and we love that it’s brighter than other solar street lights.
See Price on Amazon5. Most Customizable: WAGAN 1000-Lumen Solar Street Lamp
Product Ratings
Affordability | 3/5 |
Brightness | 3/5 |
Ease Of Installation | 4/5 |
Features | 4/5 |
Range | 2/5 |
Item Weight: 6 Pounds | Product Dimensions: 6 x 3.4 x 9.7 Inches | Assembled Height: 9.7 Inches | Assembled Length: 6 Inches | Assembled Width: 3.4 Inches
What We Liked
- Affordable and reliable bright light
- Quick and easy to install
- Remote control with multiple settings
- Motion and light sensor
- Waterproof design
- Angled to move in different directions
- Can be mounted anywhere
What We Didn’t Like
- Limited range of the remote control operation
- Not as bright as we expected
We appreciate a lightweight and reliable solar street light, and WAGAN gives us just that. To top it off, this solar light is waterproof which is a quality we definitely like to see in outdoor street lights.
Throughout our testing, Wagan performed well. It’s powered by a 1200 mAh battery, which can brighten its LEDs up to 1000 lumen for about 3 full nights. The latest upgrade to this product comes with a powerful battery capable of powering the solar LEDs up to 2000-lumen brightness.
Features
This LED solar street light includes some of our favorite features. We liked that this solar street light has a motion-detecting sensor and switches to the high mode when any motion is detected nearby. It automatically switches back to low mode without us having to adjust it.
We love that it comes with a remote control. We were able to switch the light on for continuous lighting or off, set a timer, and change the settings to a low or to a high mode without having to get up to the light. The manufacturers thought of it all with the remote features.
We were able to control this very bright light in our backyard from the comfort of our living room.
Another great feature we found is that we can align this LED light at 0/15/30 degree angles for better coverage in any area. This came in handy during the daytime when it needed to be charged in direct sunlight. We were able to adjust the angle to ensure maximum exposure to sunlight.
Installation
The Wagan solar street light was effortless for us to install. It’s made to be mounted anywhere which is a bonus. We found it easy to be fixed on the wall, pole, fence, and on a tree as long as it’s exposed to full sunlight, its power source.
We didn’t have any problems choosing an angle for our LED light. It rests on a simple-to-install bracket which allows the light to be moved to whichever angle we like best.
See Price on AmazonComparison Chart
Products | Best Overall | Runner Up | Best Budget Friendly | Best In Brightest lights | Most Customizable |
Overall Rating | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Affordability | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
Brightness | 4/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 |
Installation | 4/5 | 5/5 | 2/5 | 4/5 | 2/5 |
The Winner
After testing and comparing the best solar LED street lights we could find, we chose Solar Light Mart ALPHA 1080X Street Light as our favorite. This is one of the best solar street lights, and we recommend it to anyone to use at home, in their communities, or at work.
It has a great design, plenty of useful features, a large amount of brightness, ease of installation, and many hours of use per single charge. It’s affordable and will significantly cut down on energy costs while brightly illuminating outdoor spaces.
Read More: The Best Solar Motion Lights. Give your home extra security with these tested and ranked lights!
How To Choose The Best Solar Street Lamp
Consider Your Needs
We’ve taken the grunt work out of the process of choosing which outdoor solar street lights are the better options. Now you’ll just need to decide which one best fits your needs!
Before you choose which solar street light is best for you, it’s helpful to consider its quality, features, design, power consumption, and durability. These factors will help you pick the best solar light for you.
When testing each light, we kept the many different types of places they may be used, the purposes of their applications, and their uses in mind.
You’ll want to keep in mind what area you will be putting the solar flood street lights in, how easy of an install you need, how much coverage and brightness you want, and which features best suit the street lights you’re looking for.
We found for rural living, solar lights with great range, coverage, and motion sensors worked best for us. Although, for city living, we think a not-so-bright light without motion sensors is best so it doesn’t bother us or neighbors throughout the night.
Urban street lights usually light sidewalks and driveways sufficiently without the need for additional solar street lights.
With solar LED lights having so many benefits, they’re a must-have alternative to electric street lights.
Type Of Installation And Placement
We found installation to be a large deciding factor in choosing the best solar street light. We looked at if we would need more than one person, if placement would be an issue, and if we would need additional tools. You’ll want to keep this in mind, as well.
Knowing where you’ll be placing your solar street lamp will help factor in your installment choices. You’ll want to know if you’ll need a solar light that can fit on walls, ceilings, posts, poles, or any other area.
It’s important to decide if you’ll want your solar flood lights to have a bracket that allows you to angle your light for adjustment or custom placement. Most solar street lights have a pole included, but some can be mounted like a solar flood light or security light on a wall, fence, or pre-existing light pole.
Features You May Need
We found features to be one of the most important categories in our testing. We personally think this is the most fun part. When you’re looking for your solar light, think about whether you’d like a remote control to access options for the light, motion sensors to pick up movement and automatically brighten specific timing settings, and so on.
We like the ones that come on automatically at dusk and turn off to solar charge automatically at sunrise. Narrowing these options down will make your decision much easier.
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Reviews
We had tons of fun testing each product. Hopefully, the results of our testing and reviews were thorough and informative enough for you to make a decision, but it’s always great to see what other people think of the product you’re considering. So always remember to check reviews.
You’ll find people that were looking for similar purposes and uses as you. This can give you a great idea of which product will work best for you.
Honorable Mentions
Here’s a brief look at the options that didn’t make our best solar LED street lights list. Before you go, be sure to stop by our Best Outdoor Hanging Solar Lights review!
1. RuggedGrade 24W LED Solar Street Light – Considered For Efficiency
We thought this street light would be hard to install because it comes in two parts, one being a solar panel and the other being the main body with the light. It turned out to be quite easy to install and mounted well on a pole.
This unit did well for us and has a remote control with 3 different modes (bright, dim, and recharge). We were impressed with the motion sensor feature and brightness of the light overall. As far as affordability, this one is a bit more expensive than others on the list of our top picks.
2. GBGS Commercial Solar Street Light – Considered For Commercial Use
We like to have a well-lit environment at night, and GBGS Commercial Solar Street Light is a great product that delivers. This was a highly efficient and durable light that emits powerful natural white light.
We like that it has 40 LED bulbs blazing at 3000-lumens. We discovered its body is made of aluminum alloy and glass, which provides maximum protection to the internal components and can withstand extreme weather conditions and damage.
We were able to choose which lighting mode we wanted to use with the remote control and could adjust the brightness at different levels from as dim as 10% to the brightest 100% illumination. We were able to set the timer for the light.
Furthermore, we found its intelligent PIR motion sensor to be precise and reliable. It can sense the movement up to 8 meters with a 120-degree sensor angle so it provides better coverage.
Unfortunately, it didn’t make our list because you may need professional help to install this light on specific types of poles or walls.
3. Lovus 6000-Lumen Solar Street Light – Considered For Simplicity
For us, one of the best features of this product is its integrated design. We love that all the components are integrated into a single case as a standalone unit. It was very easy to install as it doesn’t require any hard-wire links. We easily mounted the light on a wall and a pole.
We were able to rely on its advanced PIR and light sensor to regulate the function on its own. Its simple, yet smart, system detected ambient conditions and automatically triggered the switch to turn the lights on when it was dark. This feature was extremely useful for our security if we needed to be away for a while.
We do need to mention that the dim mode seemed too dim for us, which wasn’t best for security purposes.
4. YMSG 150W Solar Street Lights Outdoor Lamp – Considered For Extreme Weather
We were really impressed by this powerful solar-powered street light. It withstood testing in various weather conditions.
It’s a split solar light model in which the solar panel is separated from the LED and other electrical components. This design made the solar light more efficient for us because the solar panels can be adjusted independently at different angles to allow maximum sunlight exposure.
It has an automatic feature to regulate its function and did its job well for us. It came with a powerful remote control mechanism that we used to control the lights from long distances within the range. The adjustable metal bracket included with the product made the installation process a piece of cake.