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BoilerButtSlut t1_j5kc5q3 wrote

You won't find one, at least unless you have it really really dim.

A single dim LED takes about 5mA to light. A single li-ion cell is about 3600mAh. Do the math and that's 720 hours before the battery needs to be charged. At 8 hours a day that's about 90 days.

You would have to get a large battery pack for it to last years, especially with multiple LEDs and high brightness. Or you could light it with like 1mA but it will be so dim that you would only see it if looking straight into it.

One avenue you could try is having a small solar panel with battery. That lets you get away with a smaller battery pack since you'd be recharging it almost daily. That depends on the location and setup though.

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Dakens2021 OP t1_j5kd0qv wrote

I didn't think about it like that, thanks. Disappointing, but I guess I should have realized.

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strangr_legnd_martyr t1_j5kd0ti wrote

Just to add to your point, typical operating range for white LEDs is about 10-20mA, and most lights I've seen take at least 3.

3600mAh (whether Li-ion or three typical AAA batteries) only gets you about 60-120 hours powering 3 white LEDs. Over a year, that's like 10-20 minutes of light a day.

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Lentamentalisk t1_j5lg2og wrote

This is why it might work in a closet, set to motion activated, where you only need it for a few minutes at a time. But not gonna cut it for extended use.

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