What Kind of Battery Should You Use With Your Solar Christmas Lights
If you were paying attention to an earlier post on what to look for when buying Solar Christmas lights you may have noticed that I recomended NiMH batteries for best results with your Holliday lighting. Now you might ask “what does NiMH stand for and why are they better?”
Well to start with NiMH stands for nickel-metal hydride. These keep your lights going about 40% longer than NiCd batteries and they have no toxic cadmium and are therefor easier to dispose of and better for the environment. Some sources claim that they work better if you fully charge them first before installing them into your lighting system. This has worked for some. The system you purchase should have a timer or some method of preventing the batteries from over charging since ths is one of the potential problems with NiMH batteries.
Now if you decide you want to make your own system you should use a 12 volt car battery- mainly because they are common and because you won’t have to overcome all of the technical problems like over charging and care that would be involved in designing your own NiCd or NiMH system.
Of course, you would need to purchase a Solar Panel but that would be the most expensive part because you can buy strings of 12 Volt LED Christmas lights for under $20 on the Internet.
Solar Christmas Lights will save you a great deal of money on your utility bill at a time of year when cash can be tight.
Posted in LED Christmas Lights, LED Lights, Solar Powered Christmas Lights
