How to extend solar flood light battery lifespan?

soalr flood light battery

Solar powered flood lights are powered entirely on battery chemical energy that was created during the day from those solar panels. But as we all know batteries won’t last forever so they will eventually die and you will need to replace them. In proper solar flood lights this is the only maintenance you need to do every year or two years but i bet you that you are already thinking how can you increase that batteries lifespan to last longer than 1 or two years?
Basically any rechargeable battery has a somewhat limited charge and recharge cycle count that depends on how much you will drain that battery but can decrease and increase in good or bad environments or if that battery is stored improperly. Here are some tips you can use to extent your solar flood lights battery lifespan

Tip1– Don’t fully drain your battery

Rechargeable batteries have a flaw that when you drain them completely empty their lifespan is greatly reduced so keeping this in mind we can set our floodlights to only work for a couple of seconds on each motion trigger or work for 50 to 80 percent of their total battery capacity. Basically it is best to drain your battery as little as possible and if you could drain just 10 to 50 % every time then you can almost double the lifespan, but if you must run it longer it would be best to not drain it past the 10% mark that often!

Tip2 – Don’t store your battery fully charged

If you take your solar flood light off for the winter months or just want to take it off for some reason then you need to properly store the battery to maximize that lifespan. It is best to keep rechargeable batteries from 40% to 50% charged for a prolonged storing and it is not advised to keep them completely full or completely empty!

Tip3 – Fully discharge the battery every few months

It is a good practice to once in a while discharge your battery fully if in day to day usage you only drain a couple of percent from the total charge. If this is not done then a symptom called “digital memory” occurs and that means the meter that measures the battery capacity is partially stuck at some higher level so even if there is still electricity your lamp won’t be able to use it. This occurs rarely but to avoid it just every other month turn your solar flood light on for the whole night and let it fully discharge.

Tip4 – Don’t fully recharge your battery all the time

This can sound awkward but rechargable battery lifespan can be decreased if you charge them completely full all the time and it is best to charge and discharge them between those 40% and 80% but for solar flood light this is hard to influence and how much the sun shines that much energy you get. What you can do is to sometimes cover the solar panel in mid-day or unplug it from your battery to not fully charge it but that can be awkward if you have set up your solar panel on a rooftop and your light is also high up!

Tip5 – Don’t overheat your battery

Rechargeable batteries are prone to greatly decrease their lifespan if they get overheated and knowing this we can apply it to our solar flood lights. Basically if you have a fixture that has a standalone battery pack with wires to light and to the solar panel you can place it in an environment where it will be as cool as possible. I have put my battery beneath the roofs edge where there is constant shade!

Hope these tips will help you extend your solar flood lights working time but even applying all these best practises those batteries will eventually dies so be prepared for that!

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