Cheap, easy cabin illumination

[CapnK]

Came up with this little idea the other night. Since my electrical generation is purely solar, I am always looking for ways to save on the energy budget. LED's in one sort or another have held my interest for a while because they are so efficient in this regard.

The headlamp pictured below can be bought at WalMart for about US$7.50, has 3 white LED's, uses 3 AAA batteries (which supposedly last 100 hours, although I'd bet the last 50 or so of those hours the light will get dimmer and dimmer), and detaches from its elastic headband, allowing you to clip it to a hat brim, collar, or whatever. I removed the strap from the plastic fitting the lamp clips to, and mounted it. The lamp can be left in place, or unclipped and used elsewhere.

The pictures showing it in use in the dark really don't give a very good idea of how much illumination the lamps actually provide, it is *much* brighter in person, in fact just one lamp is sufficient to light the entire cabin enough to be useable and see everything. The lamps also pivot and bend on their bases, allowing the spot to be pointed in any desired direction, and are plenty bright enough to read by. The dark shots were taken with a 1/8th second exposure.

Convienently, the spacing of the original Ariel light fixture screws are the same as what is needed to mount the lamp to the location where the light fixture used to be.

Just the light, detached from the mount.

http://liquid-epiphany.com/images/photoalbum/17/IMG_2465_web.JPG

Mounted on the power panel.

http://liquid-epiphany.com/images/photoalbum/17/IMG_2464_web.JPG

Illuminating the galley area.

http://liquid-epiphany.com/images/photoalbum/17/IMG_2455_web.JPG

Mounted by the berth.

http://liquid-epiphany.com/images/photoalbum/17/IMG_2462_web.JPG

Illuminating the berth.

http://liquid-epiphany.com/images/photoalbum/17/IMG_2457_web.JPG

[frank durant]

You gotta love something thats simple , cheap and has multiple uses. Would make a great little dingy light for returning to the boat at night too.Keep the neat little "finds" coming !! #50

[ebb]

Cool! Frank,
Price is right and it looks nautical.
In the past there was a great bruhaha about recharging small batteries. It seems to have died down, batteries aren't getting any cheaper. There were special (nicad?) rechargables you had to buy for recharging. Then there appeared chargers that would reload your regular alkalines. Then what happened?

Wonder if anybody's heard of a smart 12v solar charger for these little guys? One that actually works.

[CapnK]

Ebb -

Todays rechargeables are NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride), and they work great. I have a couple Energizer-brand chargers that came with 12V DC power plugs, and I recharge them from the boats system that way. I have about 20 AA's that have given me 2+ years service so far, with only 1 set of off-brand batteries that seem like they might be going bad (not recharging).

WalMart sells rechargeables, batteries and also chargers, tho' many of them are for 120AC. The packaging brags about quick recharge times, but usually to get a sub-1hour charge time, you give up a full charge (getting maybe 80% battery capacity from the quick chargers), and some of them (maybe all) the quick charge ability will only work with their brand of battery.

Frank - Glad you liked the idea. One other possible light source I've heard about is Cold Cathode Ray tubes - much like fluorescent (in looks), I was told they have a low electrical draw also (on the order of 5mA).