Which battery technology makes more sense for outdoor solar garden lights? Mine came with NiCds that don't seem to be performing very well. They started out pretty well (would get through all but the cloudiest of days) but now they barely make it into the late evening hours.

I've got a bunch of low-discharge Eneloop batteries that I was going to try to use, but I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these. The interwebs have contradictory statements from people in both camps. If it's a toss-up, I'd prefer to use NiMH due to the lower environmental impact.

I can't speak to the specific application, but I REALLY like my Eneloops. I have a bunch of AAs and AAAs around the house, and haven't bought batteries for a long time. Weirdly, they seem to last even longer than my regular batteries did. The batteries in my Tivo Slide remote only had to be changed after around 5-7 months, and that's with VERY heavy use on a remote with bluetooth and backlighting.

Eneloops (and their brethren) rule!

Yeah, I use Eneloops in just about everything indoors, but I wasn't sure how they would do in a solar light situation, where they're slowly charged during the day, and nearly fully-depleted overnight, repeated day after day. I was going to give it a shot, but the Eneloops aren't exactly cheap, so I was wondering if anyone had already tried using NIMH in these lights, which are normally sold with NiCd.

I want to say that NiMH doesn't work all that well in the cold, but I could also be completely wrong about that. Worth looking, though.

Yeah, temperature was another issue I was concerned about.

I'm interested in this as well. We use them quite a bit, but they never seem to last more than a couple months. Could also be the combination of heat, humidity and "salt air."

The best solution would probably be a SuperCap. But then the cost/complexity would also be a bit more prohibitive. SuperCaps are rated to thousands of charge/discharge cycles and can tolerate a higher temperature range.

Is there something wrong with wired low voltage.

Nothing wrong with it, but sometimes it's inconvenient to run wires underground over longish distances. The solar lights are convenient because you can just drop them in the ground and not worry about digging up your yard.