For blackouts people should remember that these AA solar lights can be used to charge their AA batteries, just put the battery in and place in the sun and turn it off at night to save the charging buildup, this will keep your flashlights, AA lanterns, and transistor radios going, and your phones charged if you have AA phone chargers like me.
1 Thank
brad-Thatās a great tip. Thanks very much!!!
Yes, they have suffered a bit in the weather. That type of solar panel seems to be made by embedding the solar cells in some sort of epoxy resin, from my experiences it is the worst type for suffering from sun damage. They do seem to keep on working even with substantial sun damage, but Iād imagine the output suffers.
smurcod- You are absolutely correct. The output has definitely lessened. Thanks very much for your great comments.
Ted
I pulled down two of my PIR solar LED lights down last night. Theyād been malfunctioning and not very bright- I think the solar panels are toasted on both of them. Theyād be over 10 years old, the solar panels on them last well. They are some sort of laminated cell? Out of all the solar lights Iāve tried, that type of panel seems to last the longest.
Iāve got quite a few of that style light. Some the PIR lens has cracked and fallen apart from sun damage- I managed to find replacements on AliExpress. When the solar panel fails itās bin time.
They use 2 x 18650 lithium cells in parallel. I have replaced some of them with protected Panasonic cells. One battery I found had self destructed and had a bit of a meltdownā¦ 
The standard cells, of course, arenāt protected.
