Tellurex tPOD candle-powered LED light

Greetings,
I haven't visited nor posted on CPF for a couple of years and found it odd nobody has mentioned Tellurex's tPOD Enviro-Light. This "lantern" or "area light" runs on 1 tea candle that gives out more light than just the candle for about 3.5-4 hours. It's built well (I bought one) and it is pretty cool. I can't post pictures, but go to tellurex.com/shop/enviro-light to check it out. I am not affiliated in any way with Tellurex, just a satisfied customer. I was checking out the JOI candle-powered lantern, but the Enviro-Light is smaller and probably brighter. I've been a CPF member since 2001 or so and if this post violates any rules, please delete.
Regards,
Kirk

Looks pretty cool, my first thought when I saw the $49 price was "that's a lot" until I asked myself how many flashlight have I bought for that price or more...
Have you used it during blackout conditions? Thanks for pointing out a new technology I was unaware of...

Crazyeddiethefirst said:

Looks pretty cool, my first thought when I saw the $49 price was "that's a lot" until I asked myself how many flashlight have I bought for that price or more...
Have you used it during blackout conditions? Thanks for pointing out a new technology I was unaware of...

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Crazyeddie,
I've not had to use it in an emergency, but I have used it while trailering and it works very well. I placed it on the stove (the rubber base does get a bit warm) and it lit up the dinette more than enough to see what we were eating. Bring the light closer and reading is easy. The flexible neck came in handy to aim the light where needed. The only downside is after the candle has been lit for awhile the wax is all liquid and will spill if jostled. If you're careful, you can move it without slopping the wax all over the inside of the base. There is little danger of the wax running out of the rubber base, and if you do spill, let the unit cool and the wax peels away when you flex the base. I like the fact that tea candles are $10.00 for 100 of them at Target. That's 100 nights or 350-400 hours of light for $10.00. Not too shabby. This would make a great pack-and-forget emergency light as candles have an indefinite shelf life with nothing to wear out. All batteries wear out and die or won't accept a charge after some years, but candles don't and are readily available almost everywhere.
Kirk

I had never heard of this light before, it's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

Not something that will be on my Buy List, but I do like the concept.

So yeah, Thanks!

-Chuck

Kirk said:

This "lantern" or "area light" runs on 1 tea candle that gives out more light than just the candle for about 3.5-4 hours.

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Gives a new meaning to "Candle Power Forums"

Is the light any good, can you realistically use this for reading?

Nesrad,
One can easily read by this light. I can't measure the lumens, but it's a lot brighter than my Arc (5.5 lumens). If I had to guess, maybe 15 lumens. There are 18 3mm LEDs in the head, but they're not over-driven like most flashlights so each LED is not "blindingly" bright, but in total, a nice amount of light. The instructions say 20 times brighter than a candle and I think that's pretty accurate. Besides, it's just cool.
Kirk

What happens if you burn two candles at once? Any brighter?

The Tellurex company is selling them direct but shipping charges are unreasonable ($80 to Canada... Wtf???). I guess they don't need more customers.

I also saw this other model.

Nesrad,
There is only room for 1 candle, and Tellurex even warns their lamp may be damaged if you use a bigger candle.
Kirk

Can you measure the output voltage (open circuit and under load) and amperage?

Nesrad said:

Can you measure the output voltage (open circuit and under load) and amperage?

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That would be interesting indeed. A rough estimation would give about 20W for a tea candle. The Seeback effect is probably less then 5% efficient. This gives an upper limit of 1 W for driving the LEDs. Assuming 50% inefficiencies you probably end up with somewhere around 50 lumens (0.5* 1W * 100 lm/W).

drmaxx said:

This gives an upper limit of 1 W for driving the LEDs. Assuming 50% inefficiencies you probably end up with somewhere around 50 lumens (0.5* 1W * 100 lm/W).

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Half a watt sounds about right. Although the tea light generates plenty of heat, passive cooling via aluminium heat sinks is the weak link. I bet it would do better with a pot of cold water. Does anyone know the minimum voltage requirement for this type of led? About 3v I assume, which would be enough to drive a pocket radio. A step up transformer would add more loss, and the amperage is already insufficient to charge anything.

Sorry for the delay in answering. After the unit warms up the voltage stabilizes at 3.5 Volts. I do not have a way to measure amperage.
Kirk