LED gear available at Menard's

LED gear available at Menard\'s

Menard's is a chain of hardware/home improvement stores in the midwest, and like most stores of this type, it's fun to wander through once in awhile, since there are usually a few surprises. Tonight I found two: the Feit Electric LED nightlight for $5, and, lo and behold, the good old Dorcy Cool Blue, aka the Dorcy Solid State, for the non-nostalgic price of $9.

The Feit, aka the EternaLite (note the spelling) is actually one of the better LED nightlights I've come across. I have a pair of the Target egg-in-a-frame jobs, and they're too dim to be useful in a bathroom, in my opinion. Target's fluorescent nightlights, usefully bright as they are, chew up 1.6 watts, and that's too much when the obsession is to try to get useful light for practically no power. The Feit is actually labeled as drawing 25ma, surely a typo.

Interestingly, if you order 7 or more of the Feits from walgreens.com, the shipping cost goes to zero. But, as someone once said in relation to the Dorcy Cool Blue, why would anyone want to do that?

Re: LED gear available at Menard\'s

25ma @ 120V = 4 watts RMS, versus 1.6W for the fluorescent. So I take it you mean that the 25ma should be 2.5ma?

Re: LED gear available at Menard\'s

Well, 25ma times 120v = 3W (or 4W Canadian), but yeah, since the Feit bills itself as a 0.3W device, it should be 2.5ma. Maybe I just can't see the decimal point. In any case, it's a useful amount of light for a minimal amount of fuss (and power). I can't and don't want to count the number of blankety-crank @$%#! 4W incandescent nightlight bulbs I've bought.

My only complaint about the Feit is the plug is polarized, so you don't have the option of pointing it up or down.

Re: LED gear available at Menard\'s

Why not Electroluminescent nightlights? Are they still too dim? Sorry for going off topic.

Re: LED gear available at Menard\'s

Thanks for jumping in. Discussion of alt.nightlights is rare enough. I think you're right-- the EL panels I've seen (everything from a dollar store job to one from Target that has an analog clock face) are too dim. Perhaps if they were [much] bigger in area, or were pivoted so you could aim them..

Since we're dealing with an unusual application (which we might nickname micro power / micro lux ), the questions of "bright enough over how much area at what distance to do which task with how little power" are the important ones, and it can be pretty subjective. There are other picky considerations: LEDs tend to be point-sourcey and cast harsh shadows; EL panels, if they're large enough, can mitigate the problem somewhat. Then there's the question of color-- is the EL panel's greenish light a problem, and so on and so on.

So the rule is, any topic, when examined closely enough, turns geeky, which of course is where all the fun is. So you're not off topic at all.