LED LIGHTING
by FARMERIK in
Connecticut
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information, and
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A new
alternative for lighting has appeared on the scene -
LED lights. A
few years ago, LED lights were mere novelties, but now they are extremely
practical, drawing very little energy, and by selecting the correct LED
lights they can be powered directly from a 12 volt RV battery...recharged
from a solar panel. The pioneer in this field is "Farmerik," and his
comments appear below. These comments will be expanded as he writes to me,
and soon there will be photos to go with his comments. Miles
"The reason I am writing, is I think
the LED type lights and bulbs now offered for auto/truck use are becoming
practical for emergency use. I bought an amber stop/running light at a truck
stop and have been using it on my deep cycle batteries, and it draws very
little current. Back-up white LED truck lights are now available, and would
make a better reading light. It wouldn't take more than 10 or 15 watts of
solar panel to maintain a battery for running a LED light and portable short
wave radio all night.
 |
The 1 watt LED lamp from
www.superbrightleds.com with the long black and red wires that come with
it (left). I have attached a Lighter plug, and it makes a bright reading
lamp, or lights the kitchen table for Supper. The LED Amber Tractor
Trailer clearance/turn signal fixture (right) I bought at a truck stop.
I added a toggle switch to select between the bright “turn signal” to
light for our kitchen, and the “parking” lamp section we use as a night
light.
|
The parking light section gives plenty
of light for a night light in our large kitchen. This is important, because
we have a full size wood cook stove there. The brake/turn signal section
lights up the room well enough to eat and do tasks like select fire wood for
the stove and open the damper, set the table etc. It appears to be very
directional, so I point it at an angle toward the ceiling, to spread the
light around the room. The amber light doesn’t spoil my night vision as much
as white, and looks more like it could be from a fireplace or oil lamp, so
it does have some security advantages. I was going to make a bracket for it
with a switch to select between high and low when I found a web site that
sells a wide variety of LED 'bulbs'. They have the white back up lights, and
some of these only draw 40 ma, so that’s less than ˝ watt.
The LED lamp I hung from our kitchen chandelier is also rated at one watt,
and it provides plenty of light to read by. If you want to use
rechargeable batteries, be sure to read the
pages on 12 VDC adapters for
charging with solar chargers.
"FARMERIK"
