Solar- powered street lights at an estate in Nairobi’s Karen. The developer has installed solar street lights to cut the cost of lighting for residents. Each lamp has a full life of 50,000 hours.
Deep inside Nairobi’s leafy Karen estate, one drives into an unfamiliar but charming gated community that has gone green with solar power.
Safeway Hypermarket, the property developer that is behind the estate, has installed solar street lights in the entire village of more than 30 homes aiming at providing a permanent solution to persistent power problems.
It is also a cost cutting measure that will see the developer’s outdoor lighting costs go down drastically as he moves from the traditional thermal energy powered outdoor lamps to the natural.
Investors in solar power say that though it comes with heavy initial costs, it amounts to a near lifetime investment that removes the burden of monthly payment of electricity bills.
Each installment is Sh190,000 including the pole, lamp, battery charger and solar panel.
Batteries
In the more recent times as the world struggles with the challenge of meeting its rising energy needs, solar lighting has proven to be a dependable source that can be used for a wide variety of tasks including cooking, heating water, charging batteries and lighting.
Besides, research has proved that solar bulbs use less energy compared to electric bulbs while serving the same purpose.
At Safeway Karen, the street lights use less 10 per cent less energy than ordinary ones, which means a 40 watt solar bulb illumination equals the brightness offered by a 400 watt electric bulb.
Solar lighting poles are distinctively different from the usual grid-light poles. They have two additional components - a solar panel on the top and a box containing the rechargeable battery just below the bulb.
These savings have led some homeowners into considering shifting from the costly electric power connections that have become unreliable due to regular supply cuts.
Outdoor lighting is a vital component for any neighbourhood, from the home to the streets. More recently, demand for street lighting has been on the rise mainly for security reasons and to reduce night accidents.
It is this demand that is attracting companies such as Davis & Shirtliff, better known for its water solutions, into the street lighting business with their new brand, Dayliff.
The company initially rolled out the solar product at the Tusky’s Mall in Mombasa, in December 2011. Karen’s Safeway estate is their latest customer.
“Our new Dayliff solar street lights are tailor made for freeways, municipal and private estates, where reliable night time lighting is essential for vision and security, and they also offer a meaningful solution to daily power problems in Kenya,” said David Gatende, deputy CEO of Davis & Shirtliff Limited, earlier this month.
Performance
Their signature product is the street lighting package consisting of high performance lamp units with a 40 watt power output, giving home owners a totally new outdoor lighting experience.
Safeway Hypermarket developers plans to install solar lighting in their other development across the country including hyper markets.
The solar street lights have an adjustable lamp that can be mounted on a pole measuring up to 10 meters high. The lamp has an adjustable mounting frame for the solar panel.
The unit comes with a digital micro-controller that allows automatic regulation of battery charging and load control.
The lamp has been automated to switch on when its dusk and off on sun rise. One can also change its timing to suit their preferences.
If used every day for a maximum of seven hours a daily, the lamp can live to its full shell life of 50,000 hours of illumination.
Aside from street lighting solutions there are other outdoor lighting features that one can also consider. They include solar floodlights, solar post lights, solar garden lights, drive way markers and wall mount solar lights.
