The LED kitchen (actually solar powered)

VidPro

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ok i think this pile of led STUFF is barely presentable, so i thought i would show you some pictures.
there is JUST enough light finnally so sombody doesnt complain, and you can see into the cupboards, and stuff like that. but it is far from being comparable to the 160W of florescent that was there.

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all the lights in one picture

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retouched pic with no flash in the kitchen, the leds mess with the camera so i attempted to alter the pic to more like it really looks.

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a motly assortment of 8MM 4x parellel leds in a reject old florescent case, this is supposed to light INTO the cupboards, it does, unless something is WAY back.

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this 40x white 26000 5mm leds PLUS 65 piranna amber leds, a vain attempt to have some "warm light"
this was assembled into a hand made light with a wood base, and clear pyramid type difussion.

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the 10 bar, 10luxIIIs on a aluminum bar, set behind the normal box for the original florescent. see the 2 that lost the lottery :)

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and finnaly a motly assortment of 1W things , the yellow looking one is a LO-Moon , there is one lux, and a bunch of crees.

its in bad need of 20X LUXIIIs so i can toss out the motly assortment that will be short lived. just in case anybody would be willing to donate a few /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

it all runs off a VERY low-voltage solar system , that was hand built from reject solar cells, that charges a bunch of reject li-ion cells in parellel. then it runs off a motion sencor to see you comming.
note: VERY low-voltage systems are a total waste of power, gotta have huge wire, and all kinds of stupid stuff, but it was still a good test.

the whole system is unregulated self balancing. (that means cheap and stupid)
BUT it may not be as stupid as it sounds.

when the batteries are highly charged, because there was enough sun, the light output is very high.
when there is lots less battery to go around, the light output and therefore the total consumption drops by quite a bit.

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(that is about 2'x3' in size 3x6" cells)

same thing on the solar side,
when the batteries are very low, the high voltage differential causes a more rapid charge.
when the batteries are mostly charged , the charge from the solar tapers off.

so that is self regulated :) the more there is , the more you get, the less there is the less you get, and if its cloudly for a long time, then its darker in there, but its still working.
 

VidPro

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
5,441
Location
Lost In Space
the utimate test USE em :) i cant believe the 8mm ones are having the most problems. guess they will be the first to replace with LUXIIIs the package of 4xparelel makes them hottest for the sinking.
 
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