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.
Mounted on the power panel.
Illuminating the galley area.
Mounted by the berth.
Illuminating the berth.
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