Long Term Solar Lighting Test, Part 3

Previous two threads:
https://permies.com/t/170975/Long-Term-Solar-Lighting-Test
https://permies.com/t/169620/Long-Term-Solar-Lighting-Test#1336129

I'm entering the sixth month of my long term test. Two sets of the lights have been at the tiny home over the winter with temps reaching as low as -15F and many inches of snow and ice. The sets mounted outdoors are working just fine. No moisture has infiltrated into the cases of the lights and the solar panels and connections have no corrosion. How the lithium batteries have endured the super cold weather will be tested later in the spring.

They work via remote control with various functions, manual on/off, 2, 4, 6 hour timer, dimming and automatic on/off.

At our off grid tiny home, I use these lights for all nighttime indoor lighting needs. Two in the living room, one in the kitchen and one in the western power room.

I now have 6 of the 42 LED light heads with the manufacturer sending me updated parts to test for them. Currently, I'm using 4 of the lights indoors and charging them via USB - these lights can be charged via USB or solar. They're sending me a super sized solar panel to field test for them. I have also designed and built a 30 watt solar USB charger that I'm testing myself. No plans as yet until I know it works as well as I think it will.

The one aspect that I can find fault with is that the supplied solar panels are undersized for the batteries in the lights. Oh, they work fine in the summer when the days are long but in the winter when sunlight hours are shorter, a full charge is harder to come by. A lot of it has to do with the length of the cables they supply which reduces the charge amps due to resistance of the wires. I'm planning on modding the cables so they are shorter thus increasing the charge amperage to the lights.

What the manufacturer has done is two things. First for new customers, they are increasing the size of the panels. For existing customers, they're modifying the remotes so that in automatic mode, the lights can be set dimmer to allow for the lower charge in the winter or on a cloudy day.

Interesting stuff, thanks

John C Daley wrote:Interesting stuff, thanks

Out of all the solar lights that get left unattended most of the time, these Richarm lights are the highest quality examples I have found. Do they have some flaws? Yes, of course they do, no product is perfect. I would like to talk them into increasing the AWG of the cables which for me is the biggest flaw. Charge is 1.89 amps with the short USB cable and .89 with the 10 foot cables.  

I'm going to make my own with 12 awg instead of the 18 they're using. Some years ago I ran 10 gauge solid copper for solar panels so I may use the existing wire. That stuff is like trying to bend railroad ties.

The manufacturer has sent me an updated set of remote controls for the lights. Apparently, there are a significant number of abilities that the lights have that aren't being used.

The new remotes allow for the dimming of the automatic on/off feature which after I pointed out that the solar panels are undersized and don't fully charge the lights on cloudy days. The unlocking of the dimming feature will allow the lights to be on longer on a partial charge.