Nightlight with reasonable longevity

[rider]

A while back I decided to replace all of my incan nightlights with LEDs to make the house more night-time friendly.

What I've found is that every single brand of nightlight I've tried, purchased from almost every major retailer around, has had emitters so insanely overdriven that they've decreased in brightness by probably 90% over 30-90 days. I finally decided to buy them at Walmart and return the defective ones a bit before the return period is up, and buy more. Now, I don't feel bad about this because they advertise them as having a 10,000 hour lifetime, which even at 12 hours a day would be several years, and even the very best of them are putting out only a few hundredths of a lumen after two months (they're approaching level 0 on an HDS EDC .

Typically these lights are bright enough to light up an entire room when new, and after 60-90 days, they're so dim they won't even illuminate a tiny patch of the floor.

What I'm looking for is something that'll at least last a couple of years- and I'm willing to pay a reasonable price for them.

Has anybody verified that such a thing exists?

 

[carrot]

How about the electroluminescent ones?

 

[jtr1962]

These two threads might be of interest:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=260956

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=262294

In a word, I've found nothing commercial which is even remotely close to the claimed longevity. However, modifying commercial night lights with proven long life Osrams as mentioned in the first thread have given me viable night lights. I recently checked a freshly modded 3 LED Target night light against one I modded nearly 9 months ago running 24/7. The older one was actually slightly brighter! I finally found LEDs which last!

If you're reasonably handy then you can do something like this. If not, maybe someone local to you who is good at soldering can. It's not terrible hard. The end results are worth it. Now I have a bunch of night lights I can depend on for at least the next decade!

 

[csa]

Agreed. Modding the existing ones or creating your own is the only good way to get long life. Manufacturers are so set on being the "brightest thing ever" any time they put a 5mm LED in a product that they lose sight of the end goal, which often includes longevity.

 

[LEDninja]

How many nightlights do you need?
Can you use less nightlights if located strategically?
Would you mind using spare regular lamps instead of things that plug into receptacles?

I used to have electroluminescent ones all over the place. They are only good enough to prevent me from walking into them.
I tried the early 1 LED variety. Very dim but still lasts only about 6 months.

I gave up on plug in the wall things when I came across some 1W Luxeon regular E26 screw base bulbs. (most hardware stores have 1W or 2W LED globe bulbs now - look under accent lighting) These bulbs ran for 2 years 24/7 before I gave them away. I suspect they will last the rated 50,000 hours. 25 lumens.
Then 2W and 3W Cree bulbs showed up. 80-100 lumens.
Note these bulbs are available in warm white which may work better as nightlights than the cool white plug in the wall types.

I had the 1W in the kitchen and bedroom.

They are replaced by a 2W Cree in the hallway. The other light is a 3 LED nightlight for comparison.

 

[Light Sabre]

How about the electroluminescent ones?

I had all electroluminescent night lights. 2 years later I bought some more and the originals were down to ~50 to 60% of the brightness of the new ones. I replaced them all with LED and will never go back to the EL type. If i hadn't purchased some new ones I never would have noticed the decrease in the first ones I bought.

I now use AmerTac Model# 71381 LED ones which have a switch on the right side. Switch positions are green, off, blue. I prefer the green, they're brighter and closer to the peak human eye response. Haven't noticed any decrease in brightness. Can't remember exactly which B&M store I bought them at, but it was probably Walmart or Home Depot I think.

 

[lonesouth]

I've had great results from glueing a Cree P4, or whatever you have laying around, to a piece of aluminum square tubing, tape the tubing to an old cell phone charge(350ma-800ma typical) and direct drive from the charger.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=3224346&postcount=25

from this thread:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=253612

Still running strong without issue.

 

[sithjedi333]

I've had great results with these:
http://www.maxximastyle.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=MN

particularly the MLN-50 and -51 models.

 

[rider]

I've had great results with these:
http://www.maxximastyle.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=MN

particularly the MLN-50 and -51 models.

I'll take a look. I'll note that the MLN-09A and MLN-11 units came in an FEIT Electric branded pack from Costco and they lasted about 4 months before dimming to an unusable state. The -11 has 2 LEDs and was still moderately usable, but the single LED 09A was worthless. I guess at least the multi-LED models have a higher vf and are somewhat less overdriven...

 

[sithjedi333]

Now that you mention it, you're right, the MLN-51 is dimmer than it was when new. It's usable but doesn't light up the whole room like it used to.

I haven't been using the -50 as much, so can't say.