Solar powered light reflectors are one of the design features included in many solar lights, in order to maximize the illumination that they give off. The idea here is that the usual device has a set of light bulbs, which are used to give off illumination. Now some of that illumination will end up going where it’s supposed to go and thereby help cast light on the surrounding area. So that’s important right there. But at the same time, given the way that light diffuses from one particular spot, some of the light generated as output won’t necessarily go where it’s most needed. So for instance, instead of all the light shining forward, you might also have some of the light going backward, or upward, or downward. So in a sense, some of the light is being wasted because it isn’t focused on the areas and locations which primarily need to be lit. And the problem here is that when it comes to solar lights, waste is something to be avoided wherever possible, because these devices get al their energy from the sun, so when the solar energy stored in the internal battery runs out, that’s it. There’s usually no backup source of power, no secondary energy source. Again, that’s it.
So this is where solar powered light reflectors come in. Now, these features of the devices don’t provide additional energy. Instead, they help to make sure that whatever amount of energy is being used ends up resulting in as close to the maximum amount of illumination cast as possible. And it does this by capturing the amount of light which is usually wasted because it goes off in less than desirable directions, and it reflects this light back so that it points in the ideal direction. So for example, if some of the light output of a solar light is lost because it goes backward not forward, then a highly reflective surface can be placed behind the light bulb in question, so that instead of being mostly wasted, a majority of the light can be reflected back by a highly reflective surface set at the proper angle. Once enough of these reflective surfaces are set up, then much less light will end up wasted, and the amount of usable light given off by the light bulbs could increase substantially. So that’s one reason solar powered lights benefit from having reflectors as part of the structure of the device.
