LED LIGHTING

by New England Gardener

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 "New England Gardener," 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.

"New England Gardener"

 

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