Patent Application
20080272278
The field of the invention is solar powered lights. In particular, solar powered lighting units that are used to illuminate outdoor areas including but not limited to walkways, steps, sidewalks, street intersections, and patio areas.
It can be appreciated, that solar powered units or cells have been around for many years. Typically, these solar powered units incorporate the use of solar panels to maintain charge in batteries during daytime and then resulting in the batteries powering a light or lights at night which provides illumination. This is beneficial since the use of solar power eliminates the need that each unit be required to use traditional electrical power which reduces electricity costs and provides more flexibility in the placement of each unit. It is also known for a solar powered unit to incorporate a built-in timer that turns the light ON and OFF within a certain daily time cycle and allow for the solar powered unit to be sensitive to light which allows the unit/cell to automatically turn ON and OFF depending on if it is day or night time. Presently, current solar powered units, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,188 (herein incorporated by reference as the “Voelkner Patent”), are housed in typical “brick” style housing that can be placed in outdoor walkways or footpaths that would benefit from illumination. However, the Voelkner Patent and similar solar powered units suffer from a variety of limitations, including requiring the use of a batteries or rechargeable batteries which require on-going maintenance and replacement of batteries after a short period of use. Additionally, as a result of the past and current solar powered unit's dependency on batteries and rechargeable batteries, the solar powered unit's housing is require to contain a removable cover in order to allow the solar powered unit to be properly maintained. The limitations of incorporating a removable cover or other removable components in a solar powered unit result in an increase of normal wear and tear of outdoor weather conditions and usage upon the solar powered unit. In addition, because of the limitations of using batteries or rechargeable batteries, the past and current solar powered units have only a short life span, typically lasting only a few months or several years.
It is the object of the present invention to overcome or reduce the limitations addressed above. The present invention comprises of a solar powered unit having a fully self contained housing including an un-removable exterior cover lens, outwardly gripping protrusions, a printed circuit board, LED lights, a diffusion lens, and condensers for electrical storage. The contemplated solar powered unit's size and shape can vary to accommodate different situations, such as shapes in the sizes of bricks of small circles to illuminate an outdoor walkway or stairwell. Alternatively, the contemplated solar powered unit may be manufactured in a larger shape to accommodate public walking intersections and commercial drive-ways. Further, the contemplated solar powered unit incorporates condensers because they have a longer life span as compared to typical batteries or rechargeable batteries which result in no maintenance or replacement for the life span of the present invention, typically, between 20-25 years.
Another object of the invention to provide a solar powered unit housing that has no removable parts;
It is another object of the invention to provide an exterior cover that contains gripping protrusions that help reduce or eliminate slippage when the solar powered unit is walked upon;
It is another object of the invention to provide a solar lighting fixture that does not require the use of an ON or OFF switch.
Referring to the drawings, a housing 29, having been made by a hard, durable and resilient poly-carbonate like material, is coupled with an outer cover lens 3 to provide an air tight solar panel unit 1. In the present embodiment, it can be appreciated that the outer cover lens 3 is transparent or clear in nature to maximize the illuminating aspects of the solar lighting unit. The outer cover lens 3 is also made of hard, durable and resilient poly-carbonate resin like material which extends the longevity of the outer lens 3 because it is able to withstand an elongated exposure to weather conditions and normal wear and tear. The present embodiment incorporates a plurality of gripping protrusions 5 which reduce or prevent slippage when the present invention is walked upon. Contained within the housing 29 is at least one condenser battery 27 that is coupled to the solar panel board 15 which comprise of a plurality of solar panels 13. The condenser battery 27 is capable of storing electrical storage when exposed to sunlight for an elongated period of time and which requires no replacement and maintenance. The condenser battery 27 is coupled to a printed control circuit such as a PCM board 23 and comprises of a photoreceptor 25, which is capable of determining whether it is day or night time is coupled to said PCM board 23. At least one light emitting diode or light 11 is coupled to a control frame strip 9 which is coupled to the PCM board 23. The solar panel board 15 contains an opening 17 which allows the photoreceptor 25 to access sunlight to determine when to automatically turn on and off the solar light unit. A divider plate 21 separates the solar panel board 15 and the PCM board 23 and provides an opening in which the solar panel board 15 can be coupled to the PCM board 23. The divider plate 21 also assists in stabilizing and securing the solar panel board in place.
In typical use, during the daytime the solar panels 13 convert sunlight into electrical power which is stored within at least one battery condenser 27. During the daytime, the photoreceptor 25 provides instruction by way of the PCM board 23 which automatically turns off the solar lighting unit. At night time, the photoreceptor 25 provides instruction by way of the PCM board 23 which automatically provides the condenser battery 27 to release its stored electrical power which powers the LED lights, resulting in automatically turning on the solar lighting unit. The light or illumination arising from the LED lights are diffused or dispersed by a diffusion lens 7, which provide an even and uniform distribution of illumination. The illumination thereby is seen through the transparent or clear cover lens 3.
Because of the novelty of using a condenser battery 27 which allows for maintenance free operation and longer life spans, the present invention not only can be used for private use, but may be used in public walkways and streets which often times are difficult to access due to pedestrian and automobile traffic.
Thus, specific embodiments and applications of the Storage System have been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced. Where the specification claims refer to at least one of something selected from the group consisting of A, B, C . . . and N, the text should be interpreted as requiring only one element from the group, not A plus N, or B plus N, etc.
