Nail polish LED light

Solar LED garden lights tend to be every-where today, by ‘everywhere’ after all ‘in our yard.’ We’ve had some for some years today, and through experience of the current weather, the plastic that addresses the solar cells becomes therefore opaque that just a tiny bit of light extends to all of them anymore. Aided by the solar cells deprived of even that meager light that we be in Massachusetts into the winter, the solar panels don’t recharge battery pack, battery pack doesn’t run the Light-emitting Diode, the Light-emitting Diode does not illuminate, and our lawn has actually a significant bling deficiency. Eleanor and I took our solar power yard lights inside to see whenever we could make them brilliant again in some way.

My first idea when confronting the frosted-over plastic would be to try to ‘polish’ it with a fine-grit sandpaper. I had 400-grit handy and tried it on one cell, underneath one in this picture. The most truly effective reveals how weathered the cells were to start out.

The sanding assisted somewhat. I quickly rinsed the sanded plastic pull out with liquid in the sink, and even though it was damp it seemed great, but because it dried it became frosted and opaque again. Thinking that perhaps we're able to use a mild synthetic solvent to ‘polish’ the harsh surface, we dabbed the solar panels with acetone, but once again, as soon as it dried, the area went from obvious to cloudy again. “We need a way to help keep it ‘looking damp’ even when it's dry, ” we mused. Eleanor got a wide-eyed LIGHTBULB! try her eyes, and grabbed a bottle of obvious nail enamel! She used several test swatches.

The nail polish made the weathered old solar cells superior once more! I held the lights while Eleanor applied a straight coating of nail enamel to any or all the solar cells. It truly didn’t matter whether the cells was sanded or perhaps not, so we performedn’t bother.

A few momemts later, the polish had been dry, and we planted the lights outside again. You can see exactly how completely obvious the solar panels are. Our only concern was that nail polish might prevent the Ultraviolet light that provides a good percentage of the solar technology on cells.

We waited for twilight to-fall, so when we examined the lights: success!

Though it ended up being mid-February the solar panels were today getting enough light to help make the LEDs shine brightly! The solar cell rejuvenation project had been a complete success, as soon as we figured out making the cells ‘clear’ once more, it had been a fast and simple.

So what performed we find out? We discovered that ‘frosted’ synthetic reflects precious light out of the solar cells; clean, obvious solar cells can capture a great deal more light. Obvious nail polish is good for rejuvenating plastic-covered solar cells which have become weathered and lifeless. Some of the solar yard lights they offer have glass covers, so we speculated that they probably (1) are a lot more resistant to weathering, and (2) probably must certanly be ‘cleaned’ differently from the plastic ones. Sometimes you'll want to take to the one thing to learn what you ought to try after that. Often restating the situation out loud to somebody else can provide all of them brand new tips. Through the dim, dark Massachusetts winter, having bright, cheery little lights when you look at the yard is great.