One of the more interesting solar energy products I came across recently was a set of solar powered yard lanterns. I was told you needed to leave them on for a full 3 days though, in order to charge them up before they were used for the the first time. After a bit of research I discovered that you don’t actually need the sun for your solar outdoor lights, any type of bright light will do although it’s arguable whether an alternative would be powerful enough and by the time you’ve used the electicity to power the light to charge up your solar ones it would seem to defeat the objecr somewhat!
Then, when I looked more closely I discovered that the lanterns had 2 rechargeable AA cells. I took those out and replaced them with batteries and the lanterns worked. Now I’ve got an alternative for days when the weather’s a bit gloomy.
Tags: solar lights