solar light 27 July 2015 at 5:46PM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 2 replies 595 views

londonTiger

Hi

There seems to be quite a lot of sales on for these cheap solar lights, now I'm aware that they're not going to light anything up, but are just for effect. - which is what I'm after.

B&M bargains have some in stock but their solar panels look almost fake, they're deep navy blue panels with lighter blue lines on them.

The ones I bought from sainsburys are dark grey and more akin to the calculator solar panels that we've been familiar with for the last 10 or soyears.

Is there a difference in the effectiveness of either of these panel types?

Ectophile

I have some solar lights with the "stripy" panels, and they seem to work fine. On a sunny summer day, they will store enough charge to last all night.

The main thing to realize with the cheap solar lights is that it's pot luck how long they will last. They are cheaply made, and not entirely waterproof. Eventually, the wind and rain gets too much for them and they fail. Some fail suddenly, and others just get weaker and weaker.

londonTiger

Ectophile wrote: »

I have some solar lights with the "stripy" panels, and they seem to work fine. On a sunny summer day, they will store enough charge to last all night.

The main thing to realize with the cheap solar lights is that it's pot luck how long they will last. They are cheaply made, and not entirely waterproof. Eventually, the wind and rain gets too much for them and they fail. Some fail suddenly, and others just get weaker and weaker.

I was looking up some diy videos forthem on youtube. The used the cheapest of the cheap batteries, and have a paltry 200-300mah charge. I think a big factor with them is how good the batteries are.

Cheap batteries die quickly and cannot hold charge after a few months. So perhaps changing the AAA batteries out will yeild better results.