But we think that those small advantages are outweighed by the environmental disadvantages and you should avoid these batteries if possible.Ĭan I replace Nickel Cadmium with Nickel Metal Hydride? This is the rate at which they lose charge simply by being left. Secondly, they have a lower ‘self-discharge’ rate. They still have a couple of advantages for manufacturers in that they have a higher maximum discharge rate and so can provide more power when needed. So if not disposed of correctly these can have big implications for the environment.Ĭadmium-based batteries do still appear though. Cadmium is a highly toxic element, toxic to all forms of life. There are a few reasons for this, they have a higher capacity, are now more cost-effective, and (most importantly for this blog) are much better for the environment. Nickel Cadmium batteries are becoming less common these days and have been replaced by Nickel Metal Hydride batteries in most cases, so the later is what you are probably going to find in your solar garden lights. The first Nickel Cadmium battery being created way back in 1899! This type of rechargeable battery has been around for a long time. This could be either Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) or Nickel Metal Hydride (NmH).
In cheaper solar garden lights the batteries are most likely to be Nickel based. This saves a lot of space which is a bonus in solar lights where you don’t want to have lots of small batteries packed in next to each other. The other advantage they have over the older battery models is that you can get a 3.6volt battery pack as just a single cell rather than having to have a number of smaller cells (typically 1.2 volts) joined in a series. They are used as they can have an energy density over twice that of older style nickel-based batteries (which I will talk about later). These are the same as those found within your smartphone or laptop. Many larger, modern solar lights now contain lithium-based batteries.
These electrons are what pass back and forth between two sides of the battery to store and release a charge and to produce electricity. The battery has to contain an element that loses electrons easily. So a higher end solar light may have a more expensive type of battery than a cheaper solar garden light, which will have a cheaper model. These vary as technology has improved and also in cost to manufacture. There are a number of different types of rechargeable battery available now. What are the different types of rechargeable battery? Rechargeable batteries are everywhere these days, in pretty much all our electronics from smartphones to cameras. Solar lights therefore come fitted with a rechargeable battery, which can store energy from the sun in the day time and then hold on to it until night time when it is used to power the lights. We need a way to store this energy so it can be used when we really do need it, when it’s dark. But you may have noticed the problem here, solar lights aren’t much use to us if they are only on in the day time, we already have the suns light doing that job for us. So if you only needed your lights to work in the day time you wouldn’t need a battery because the energy could be converted instantly. Well, the problem is that the sun is only providing energy for the small solar panel on your lights to generate electricity in the day time. You may be thinking, why do my solar lights even need batteries? I thought the whole point was that they used the suns energy rather than that for a battery? The short answer is that in most solar garden lights you can simply remove the battery cover, take out the old batteries which came fitted with the device, and replace the battery with a new rechargeable battery of the same specification.īut which type of battery do you need? Are there any other special steps you must take? Well in this article I will explain this in depth. But that environmental benefit would soon disappear if you bought new lights every time the batteries ran out, so, for this reason, you may ask how do you replace the batteries in solar lights? The great thing about them is they use energy from the sun, so not only does that mean you don’t have to have wires all over your garden, stretching to the nearest plug socket, but they are better for the environment too. Solar lights are a popular way of adding lighting to a garden or other area around the home to help guide people or to act as a security feature.
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