As one of the primary components in Carmanah's MicroSource™ suite of integration technologies, Automatic Light Control (ALC) is a critical innovation in solar-powered lighting. This patented technology allows Carmanah's lighting products to automatically adapt to the solar environment where they are installed, thereby greatly extending performance and reliability while reducing component size and associated cost.
The Historical Problem with Solar-Powered Lighting
The single greatest inefficiency of outdoor solar-powered lighting products is that they must be optimized for the worst solar conditions that they are likely to encounter. In practical terms, this means that each unit must be designed to operate reliably during the worst of the winter months, when the availability of ambient light for recharging is at its lowest. The result is that during summer months the unit is "overbuilt" and operating inefficiently, as it is unable to use much of the energy available for capture by its solar panels.
Similarly, unless each unit is customized individually, there is no means of adjusting the performance level of a unit to correlate with the solar energy available at the installation location. For example, a unit installed in Egypt, where there are six hours of sunlight on average every day, will have to be set to the same performance level as a unit installed in Patagonia, where there is only one hour of sunlight available on average. The unit in Egypt therefore operates very inefficiently, as most of its incoming solar energy is wasted.
Carmanah's Ingenious Solution
Using advanced electronics and software developed by Carmanah, ALC enables Carmanah's products to automatically adjust their light output in response to prevailing solar conditions.
ALC uses a control scheme to monitor the charge received by its batteries over the course of the day via the solar panel(s). Through a sophisticated algorithm, ALC recognizes any trend in its battery voltage levels to develop an approximate understanding of its installation location and/or prevailing weather conditions. It then determines if solar conditions are suitable to maintain its current light output, or if it should dynamically adjust its output level to ensure its battery levels will remain optimal for continuous, reliable operation. This self-configuring capability enables Carmanah's products to operate reliably at nearly any location on earth. Carmanah currently has more than 90,000 units operating in 110 countries with some units operating year round as far as 70°N latitude (ie. Norway).
The resulting benefits of ALC are significant for Carmanah's customers:
- Major improvements in reliability;
- Better performance; and
- Reduced product size and cost.
Carmanah has developed significant intellectual property around the core concept of solar-powered LED lighting and illumination. ALC is the latest patent in the company's IP portfolio and represents one of five technologies which have been patented or have patents pending in various countries around the world.
