Green Lighting: Solar Powered LED Pavers

We came across this project for one of our clients and just had to share it because it’s so cool and easy. The solar LED pavers are powered by the sun during the day and provide light night. They are easy to install, requiring no special wiring or electricity. Since they are self-powered they emit no harmful Co2 to the environment.

The lights can be used as accent landscape and patio lighting, or even for security lighting at walkways and driveways.

Because they are solar powered the energy source is clean and free from the grid. Because LEDs use much less energy than conventional lighting, it does not take much time in the sun to charge them completely. The lights will stay on between 5-12 hours depending on how sunny the day has been. The pavers last 100,000 hours, or 10-20 years depending on the model. No maintenance or professional electricians are required – just take out of the box and place in your patio, walkway or yard! They come in several different colors such as yellow, blue, red, green and white.

There are a number of companies that make solar LED pavers – Maki Solar, Solarpath, Solar Cynergy and Meteor Lighting. We haven’t found prices for the products except for the Meteor Solar LED Pavers: the 4” square is $188 per block; the 6” square is $281.

Images via Meteor Lighting

Comments (4)

what a great idea!

posted by souk1501 on September 12th 2008 at 8:50pm
view souk1501's profile

Min $188 per 4" block you have got to be kidding me. 6 blocks and your over one thousand dollars. Yeah great lets put these in my garden for 2 grand. What a joke. Buy cheap pathway lighting and tie em to the grid. Honestly I don't think there is even a payback comparison on these as it's greater than 20 yrs, then these things die anyway. Is this post serious. Crazy expensive...

posted by sutts on September 14th 2008 at 3:42pm
view sutts's profile

Thanks rachelw for the great article. I'm actually the Director of Solar Cynergy, so please do view my comments with that in mind.

I would normally agree with sutts that the solar LED pavers are probably not the best fit for homeowners who simply wish to accent their pathways (cheaper Chinese imports can surely accomplish that task) but for larger developments both residential and commercial that incorporate a good deal of accent lighting, self contained solar LED fixtures are slowly becoming more popular due to the ease of install.

Operating without conduit and therefore removing the painstaking task of connecting them to an energy grid offers designers a great deal of freedom with the lighting design. Coupled with the fact that there is no monthly electricity bill (which can add up in large accent lighting applications), the positives are starting to justify the high price.

Environmentallights.com carries the Solar Cynergy solar LED pavers and can be viewed via the link below:

http://www.environmentallights.com/categories/1003_2388/led-waterproof-solar-pavers

Needless to say, you definitely get what you pay for, but as Sutts mentioned, not every home project requires a commercial grade product.

We will actually be featured in the upcoming West Coast Green event in their Innovation Pipeline. Should any of you be in the Silicon Valley area, please do come by and say hello. I'd also be happy to answer any questions you may have via email at john@solarcynergy.com.

Sutts, if you're interested, I can send you an efficiency comparison of one of our solar LED fixtures when compared to a traditional wired low voltage accent light that is currently being used in the market.

Cheers everyone and thanks again for the great article.

posted by huanger on September 17th 2008 at 4:43pm
view huanger's profile

Our Solar LED ground and paver lights are construction grade. The pictures above belong to our Meteor outdoors lights. They are drive over lights that are also IP68 Certified (certified to be submerged in water). What holds the charge is an ultra-capacitor which will last from 7 to 10 years, so the units do not have to be replaced for that long. In 10 years when the units do need to be replaced there is no need to disturb your design or structure, since you only need to remove the ant-theft screws and drop in a new unit.

As stated earlier our Meteor lights are architectural grade. The savings are in the front end since they require no wiring and no electrical installation. Please visit our website to learn more about our Solar LED ground and paver lights and our company www.simbiousa.com

posted by SimBioUSA on October 20th 2009 at 3:18pm
view SimBioUSA's profile