Frequently Asked Questions

SOLAYE Lighting System

• Can I install this myself?

  Yes! Our SOLAYE Lighting System comes with EASY to follow instructions, all you need is a phillips head screwdriver or drill. To view our install video click here.

• Is it water / weather proof?

  Yes! The SOLAY Lighting system is IP67 waterproof. Our system is very low voltage (12 volts) so it cannot harm the birds or cause a fire. Our engineers have take their years of expertise in commercial poultry farming and put their knowledge into practice for the backyard farming community. We made sure this system was durable enough for the conditions of your chicken coop, dust and all.

• What do you mean by 'Flicker Free'

  Animal scientists have discovered that chickens are highly sensitive to photometric flicker (think strobe light / disco party vibes) up to a threshold of around 140 hertz. This means that chickens can register almost twice as many frames per second than humans. Therefore, a flicker effect may not be evident to the human eye but could be registered by chickens. Flicker can physically stress both humans and animals. The body tries to adapt to the flicker but the rapid adaption stresses both muscle and the brain which can happen subconsciously. The stress can lead to poor welfare in our chickens, pecking, aggression etc.

  
  

  Our team of engineers focused on the design of our LED drivers to mitigate flicker risk by using a more effective noise filter unit at the output end to stabilize the output current at a fixed value, even while stepping through the dimming process for sunrise.

   

  We use a more reasonable driving topology of a two-stage (AC to DC + DC to DC) LED driving scheme to turn the unstable input current into a stable value. That is what our little white box does that will hang on the side of the house you install our lighting in.

  
  

  By adoption of both methods mentioned above, the flicker index of an LED lamp will fall between 0.001 and 0.01, and the percent flicker down to0%-3% at or below 1000 Hz. While the flicker index and percent flicker stay at low values, the flicker frequency will normally be read as 0.0Hz by a professional flicker meter.

   

  For more information on Photometric Flicker and its effect on your poultry visit our blog post here. 

• Can I verify for myself that you are flicker free?

  Sure! If you don't have one of those expensive measurement devices, your smartphone can be used to verify the flicker of any LED lamp. Turn your smartphone camera into slow motion mode, set both resolution and video frame rate at the maximum (like4K at 240fps), and leave the camera as close to the LED lamp as possible. At this time, if the images on your smartphone remain stable in brightness without dark stripes scrolling, congratulations, your LED lamp may be the real flicker-free. Test ours - see for yourself!

Other

• When can I introduce this to my chickens & how long until I see an increase in egg production?

  Please do not introduce artificial lighting until your hens are at least 20 weeks old. Introducing younger hens to artificial light can cause them to start laying before their bodies can support healthy egg production. Depending on the breed of each chicken, an increase back to summer production can take anywhere from 1 week to 1 month.

• Why is the SOLAYE Lighting System SO much better than just doing something myself?

  Well, thats a great question! For starters our system is EASY - easy install, plug and play really - and it is automatic. You don't have to set a reminder to turn your lights on, or change the settings for it to turn on at specific times. The beauty of the SOLAYE Lighting System is that the timer is SIMPLE. It is 100% automatic and requires no programming by you, the farmer! It will 'sense' the time of sunset each day and adjust itself to start the sunrise 9 hours after that.

  
  

  Fifteen hours of daylight provides a critical amount of light to trigger photoperiodic hormones that cause egg-laying and enough time for hens to eat sufficiently to produce eggs. 

  Nine hours of darkness provides enough time for birds to rest. Hens take time to roost at dusk. Your hens will almost always start their roosting process 30 minutes before sunset. They need a natural sunset to maintain a health roosting process.

  
  

  You always need to provide an ‘artificial sunrise’ which stops hens from being plunged into brightness all at once in the morning when the lights come on. This is shocking to their systems and not natural for them. This can cause pecking, molting and will affect their egg laying. The sunrise will be a 30 minute process where our controller will bring the lighting from 0%intensity to 100% intensity slowly over 30 minutes. Your birds will feel like this is a natural sunrise. 

Orders

• What is the status of my order?

  Once you have placed your order, we will send you a confirmation email to track the status of your order.

  Once your order is shipped we will send you another email to confirm you the expected delivery date as well as the link to track your order (when the delivery method allows it).

  Additionally, you can track the status of your order from your "order history" section on your account page on the website.

  If you have any other questions you can contact us directly, please have your order number ready.

• Can I change my order?

  We can only change orders that have not been processed for shipping yet.

  Once your order is under the status "preparing for shipping", "shipping" or "delivered", then we cannot accept any edits to your order.

  To make changes to your order, please reach out to support through the helpdesk.

• Where do you ship?

  We currently ship within the United-States. International coming soon!