Submitted by Dakens2021 t3_10jgsbh in BuyItForLife
I've tried so many different kinds of these and never found one which lasts. I'd like to put a stick up light in a bay window at my house, but don't want to go through wiring and drywall and everything to hardwire one. It seems like with LED technology you should be able to power an LED light for a long time on a battery, but I haven't found one like that. Can anyone recommend a stick up LED light which just lasts years on one battery?
I didn't think about it like that, thanks. Disappointing, but I guess I should have realized.
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.
Solar?
There's thousands of them.
That's so cool, I did a little poking around on Amazon and there are so many new solar light products around now. Is there anything I should look for for a long lasting solar light product?
We use lots of them. The only helpful hint I can think of is that if they aren't working well try cleaning up the solar panel.
Dust or grease can block the power source. We just wipe them with a damp cloth now and then.
If the light is inside, where does the solar panel go?
Have you asked an electrician about feeding a wire there? It’s amazing what can be done with minimal disruption to finishing (sometimes).
In the window. Ours is lying on a shelf. We have one on a windowsill.
We used to have one hanging on a curtain rod, but replaced it.
Anywhere sun is daily.
My favorite joke is to place the solar panels near your cats. They have always been solar powered. 🤗
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.
My cats will definitely find a patch of sunlight wherever they can.
This was my first thought. There’s a decent chance this is going to be way more simple to wire than OP imagines. Could also be way, way more complicated too. But a can light is your only possible true BIFL option
I'd love to hear what you use them for. I saw lots of ideas on Amazon, but would love to see how someone else is actually incorporating them.
We recently had tremendous storms and power was out for more than a day. We used a string of solar lights on the coffee table to make the room feel better.
They lasted for hours, and then we just went to bed.
We use them on the stairs and porch outside. They last for years.
I have a set that comes with a remote. I bet that the remote function eats battery charge because it probably uses some power for the receiving component. Does yours have a remote control? I'd also like to have puck lights that don't eat batteries.
I recently bought this to light up my back driveway. The advantage might be solar panel is separate from the light, comes connectorized so easy to feed through a window sill, and light and solar cell can be in two locations up to ~16 feet apart.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NM4HJRF?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
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.