This is after a few battery changes and upgrades.
Stewart
At 12:01 AM 1/17/2010, betty wrote:
Garden lights have cheap, usually poorly made, solar cells. If you
bought them more than a year or two ago, they have NiCad
batteries--cheap ones that are less than 500 milliamps, and low
quality. The NiMH batteries in the new ones are cheaper and low
quality. If you change the batteries in your garden lights to
Duracell/Eveready/Rayovac 2000+ mA your lights will charge better
and last longer, even on cloudy days [but the batteries might cost
more than the lights.
Lithium batteries for heavy use are entirely different from NiCad
and NiMH anyway--no comparison. Aside from cell phones and other
electronics, they're used in cars and for storing power generated by
solar PV shingled roofs.
We've been following the development of PV power and storage for
over 20 years, but only recently has it become more affordable,
thanks in part to the investment by the German government that
encourages homeowners to install the solar shingles. Similar
projects are in progress in Japan. In the US? For now, open your
wallet and pay for it, unless you live in a state that can afford
the tax credit.
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At 12:01 AM 1/17/2010, betty wrote:
Battery alone will never work.
Just tonight I went outside to take my son to work, and my garden
lights were not
working. It has been overcast all day long and raining so they did
not get a charge.
Now I know that the solar panels on them are small and not high
quality but extrapolate
that out and you see that they need almost daily charging to be
totally reliable.
Garden lights have cheap, usually poorly made, solar cells. If you
bought them more than a year or two ago, they have NiCad
batteries--cheap ones that are less than 500 milliamps, and low
quality. The NiMH batteries in the new ones are cheaper and low
quality. If you change the batteries in your garden lights to
Duracell/Eveready/Rayovac 2000+ mA your lights will charge better
and last longer, even on cloudy days [but the batteries might cost
more than the lights.
Lithium batteries for heavy use are entirely different from NiCad
and NiMH anyway--no comparison. Aside from cell phones and other
electronics, they're used in cars and for storing power generated by
solar PV shingled roofs.
We've been following the development of PV power and storage for
over 20 years, but only recently has it become more affordable,
thanks in part to the investment by the German government that
encourages homeowners to install the solar shingles. Similar
projects are in progress in Japan. In the US? For now, open your
wallet and pay for it, unless you live in a state that can afford
the tax credit.
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Rev. Stewart A. Marshall
mailto:popoz...@earthlink.net
Prince of Peace www.princeofpeaceozark.org
Ozark, AL SL 82
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