Sears Luxeon 1 Watt Into 6 Volt Lantern

I have a 6 volt lantern at home that I would like to drop a 1 Watt Luxeon (PR type) into from a Sear's light. The Sear's light runs on 4 - AA batteries. The 6 volt lantern is one that is powered by a single 6 volt (26,000 mah) battery. It can easily be made to have positive polarity at the bulb tip and does also have a metal reflector.

My guess is that the lantern should run in the neighborhood of 240 hours on high. I do know that Sears also sells a 3 Watt lantern that takes a standard 6 volt lantern battery. However, I have yet to locate run time figures based on a 26,000 mah (26 AH) battery.

My question is:
Will I be pushing too many amperes into the bulb to cause heat issues?

4 AA's = 6v, 6v from the lantern battery will be exactly the same as far as the power through the LED. And more exactly the same if the sears bulb has any regulation in it vs just a resister. Just because the lantern battery has more capacity doesn't mean it will push any more power through.

I think it will be fine as long as you adjust the polarity as you've already mentioned.

My concern was with the internal resistance of the AA batteries vs. the less internal resistance of the 6 volt battery.

Does anyone know what regulation the luxeon actually has?

The internal resistance of the batteries will not be a factor here because of the low current draw. Whether the LED is resistored or regulated it should work fine.

Edit: Thanks for the link. It seems that the resistance of alkaline cells varies more than I thought, and is more of a factor than resistance for some other battery chemistries. I shouldn't comment without more knowledge. Consider me humbled.

Ummm, Flashlightreviews tried the 3AAA bulb in a 3D light, and the lux hit 140 degrees F in a couple of minutes. See here.

The AA version may be a little better prepared, but given that 6V lantern batteries are either 4D cells and empty space, or 4F cells, there's bound to be less internal resistance than 4AA cells.

I measured the resistor in a 4AA bulb, but don't recall the value off the top of my head. It should be simple to add an ohm or so to the circuit, though.

I guess you should just give it a shot and see how the luxeon fares. There's next to no heatsinking in the assembly, so it's got to be running around spec on the AA cells. For long-running, adding a little resistance should increase the runtime, and preserve the luxeon.

BTW, the 4AA bulb is revers-polarity, so keep the tip negative. If your lantern is already like this, you're good to go.

Best,
Jon.

Thanks for the info jmw13. I'll use the "smell test" on the bulb to determine if it starts to cook.