Street Light Installation Checklist
A generic checklist for site teams installing solar street lights. Adapt it to your local rules and your confirmed configuration, and close each item before the next begins.
| Stage | Check |
|---|---|
| Foundations | Confirm foundation position, depth and curing against the pole plan and local soil conditions. |
| Pole work | Confirm pole verticality, bolt torque and cable entries before the head is lifted. |
| Panel orientation | Confirm the panel faces the equator side of the sky and is tilted as planned, with no structure or tree between it and the open sky. |
| Shading pass | Walk each position in morning and afternoon and confirm no new shading from signs, roofs or growth. |
| Wiring and sealing | Confirm connections are tight, polarity is correct and entries are sealed against driven rain and insects. |
| Settings | Confirm lighting hours and dimming stages match the confirmed configuration for this route. |
| Commissioning | Confirm each light charges by day and lights at dusk for several nights before handover. |
Common installation mistakes
Three mistakes repeat across sites. The first is orienting the panel by the road instead of by the sun, which the integrated versus split comparison discusses for the two layouts. The second is planting poles before checking shade in the season when trees are in leaf. The third is skipping the multi-night commissioning watch, so a wrong setting is discovered by the public instead of the site team. The family page for the solar LED street light system gives the configuration context for this checklist, and the maintenance checklist continues from handover.
Photograph the work as it closes
Add one habit to every stage in the table: photograph the finished item before it is covered, lifted or closed. Foundation photographs settle later arguments about depth and position. Photographs of terminations and seals settle arguments about water entry. A photograph of the panel's sky view from its own position is the cheapest shade record a route can have. These images join the route file, and when a light misbehaves in its second year, the maintenance team starts from pictures of how it was built rather than from guesses about it.
Close the installation with a signed walk of the route at night, not only a daytime inspection. Daylight checks verify construction; the night walk verifies the product, which is light where people walk and travel. Note the units that look dim, flicker or start late while the installation team is still mobilised, because returning for one pole later costs more than the entire night walk.
Leave the route better documented than you found it
Before the crew stands down, walk the route once more with the route file and mark every deviation actually built: the pole moved for a drain, the position shifted for a tree, the setting changed for a late request. As-built truth is what maintenance will work from, and small undocumented deviations are the seeds of large later confusion, because the next team will troubleshoot the route on the plan rather than the route on the ground. Ten minutes with a pen at the end of the job is the cheapest accuracy the project will ever buy.
Brief the crew on the why
Crews follow checklists better when they know what each item protects: orientation protects income, sealing protects the battery's home, the commissioning watch protects the route's reputation. A two-minute explanation per stage turns compliance into craft, and craft is what survives a long route on a hot day.