What to look for in Solar Lights – solar cells

Solar lights work by charging rechargeable battery cells to power the light during the night. The main two types are NiCad (nickel cadmium) and Ni-MH (nickel metal hydride). The old chemistry for battery cells is Nicad which suffers from ‘memory effect’ and is bad news for any solar application. With Nicad technology the cell must be run flat before recharging, if it is only partially drained it remembers the last point of charge. Subsequent charges will only charge that point and gradually reduce the capacity of the cell. If you remember the old mobile phones with batteries that would die after just 10 minutes, well they used Nicad!! The solar light must have Ni-MH charger built in to charge the upgraded Ni-MH technology. In solar application you need a straight 12 hours charging time, bad news for Nicad cells but no problem with Ni-MH. For the optimum use Ni-MH technology will work 100% better, it will recharge over 1,000 times without the problem of memory effect.

For more information visit http://www.urbanlights.co.uk

Harry

Over 20 years experiance in marketing and developing high quality products.

Solar Cells