LED's for Home Lighting

[ajayritik]

@ajayritik
u want to battery power LED ?

Yes Bro. I have lots of problem with these emergency lights I need them especially now since there are lot of power cuts here.
Any good suggestions? I was planning to go for the China made LED lights as backup. But I feel they give out very less power.
I think someone in the forum had built something using an UPS.

 

[CyberKID]

If you want something based on a battery, it's one of the easiest things to do.
All you need is a circuit for charging a battery, a battery (or battery pack), either regular Lead Acid Battery which is relatively cheaper or NiMH or NiCD or Li-Ion batteries.
Alternatively, you can get yourself a cheap chinese emergency lamp and convert it into an LED based setup with LED's of your own choice.
Even a 6 Volt Lead Acid Battery rated at 4.5 AH will give you enough power to light up 3-4 rooms/other places for almost more than 2 hours using 3-4 UltraBright 1Watt LED's or more than 6 hours with 6-8 8mm LED's.

For a Lead Acid Battery Charger, I think this link would help you. All you have to do is order this circuit kit, a 12/18 Volt Transformer for a 6/12 volt battery and a battery. I'm suggesting this because, getting components is a very tricky part as most of the times you won't find the all the right components at one place. Though, I feel that the cost is almost 2 times more than you would pay if you get the components yourselves, but, when you're getting everything as a kit, so it's worth it.

 

[avinandan012]

for people at kolkata searching for electronic components try Railtron electronics it's near the masjid at chandni, they have nice stock.

 

[icebags]

Yes Bro. I have lots of problem with these emergency lights I need them especially now since there are lot of power cuts here.
Any good suggestions? I was planning to go for the China made LED lights as backup. But I feel they give out very less power.
I think someone in the forum had built something using an UPS.

get an ups battery @ ~400/- they re 12 volts, right ? (pls confirm, i forgot)

white LEDs are 3.6v ..... so to drive an 1 watt LED u need 1/(12 - 3.6) = 120mA current.

so, add (12 - 3.6)/0.12 = ~ 80 ohm resistance (x watt) to the LED while connecting it to the 12v battery.

or for 6V source (5x NiMH batteries - but dont put much load on these... better not more than 2 watt for 6 volt config), add 40 ohm resistance (X watt).

well, for battery charging ? want to consider these ? (u need a little higher than battery voltage, so u have to add a few of them in serially)
4V SOLAR PANEL Hobby KIT DIY AA AAA rechargable battery charger CELL TOY GIFT | eBay
6V SOLAR PANEL Hobby KIT DIY Mobile & rechargable battery charger CELL TOY GIFT | eBay

 

[CyberKID]

^ sorry to say, you can't get a 12 Volt 7-7.2 AH battery for Rs. 400. Last time I bought one for my UPS about 4 years ago, I had to shell out 580 bucks, and unfortunately, my UPS died soon after that.
As far as driving 1 watt LED's, IMO (most of them are rated at 300-350 mA), so, you need that much current. Alternatively, if you want to use LED's with a 12 Volt source, try connecting 4 LED's in series directly to the battery and if the light is less, remove one of the LED's and you're still good to go. Most of these UltraBright LED's are capable of handling voltages around 4.5 volts, so, IMO, 4 volt won't do any harm.
As far as the battery charger is concerned, you can't rely on this solar panel, you have to get yourself a mains charger.
The solar panel gives 6 volts and 200 mAH current an hour (both at peak power output), so, if you want to charge a 4.5 AH battery, i.e. 4500 mAH, you'll need 4500/200=22.5 Hrs - at peak power output of the solar panel which is not possible at all times in a day. So, even if you consider the panel working at it peak output for even 6 hours a day, you'll need more than 4 days to fully charge a flat battery. Moreover, that panel won't be able to produce the necessary 7.2 volts to charge a 6 volt battery.

 

[Zangetsu]

Nice Info...

How much it will cost to replace all tubelights/CFL bulbs @home with LED?

 

[CyberKID]

*i.imgur.com/r6Zxj.jpg

 

[ajayritik]

Guys any suggestions on the best option for power back up during power cuts. I'm not sure if I can assemble the parts and build up the LED thing.

 

[icebags]

^^ yes, put some 4-5 1w LEDs in ur room ceiling, so that their total spread remains < 2' (imagine a 2' tube) and connect them in parallel (watch their polarities) connection with wire. And also, stretch the wire to a suitable corner of the room. make a 2 pin socket there with 40-50 ohm resistance (non mains type preferred). now when power's out, connect a 6v storage battery to that socket. and enjoy some light.

lt's like :

 ___________________________(Resistance)____
 |     |    |     |    |                   |
LED   LED  LED   LED  LED                 Battery
 |     |    |     |    |                   |
 ------------------------------------------

 

[NIGHTMARE]

Finally I made my totally custom made LED light. I can't find particular driver for my LED because it's different specification form the model selling on ebay or electrical shop. I use fused CFL connector and use phone charger circuit to supply 5V 700mA. This phone charger circuit is very small to fit inside connector. Now looking forward to use 12 V supply with two LED. I saw many LED in shop I can't find match for my LED in term of light mine is Superb. Just on that socket to show you.

*i.imgur.com/W5Znp.jpg
*i.imgur.com/PCbn0.jpg
*i.imgur.com/ItpWo.jpg

 

[CyberKID]

Congos! For your first DIY LED Lamp. I use the same CFL circuit enclosure for mounting the LED's. I hope that's not Aluminium Foil you've used as a reflector. As you've noticed by now that LED's are directional, they don't need any reflectors as no light is being emitted at the back.
I'll post pics of my LED lamps today. We've made lamps from 8 mm LED's as well as the UltraBright 1Watt LED's as well. For 8 mm LED's we've used a circuit design I've posted earlier in this thread. For the 1Watt LED's I've used the 3x1watt Driver Circuit purchased from Ebay.

 

[NIGHTMARE]

Thanks, yes that a normal paper sheet but at back there is aluminium to tight the LED on this connector. I'm eager to wait to see yours ideas.

 

[CyberKID]

Sorry guys, didn't get the time to post the pics.
Here I am with the pics:

The lamp with 3, 1watt ultrabright LED's and 3x1 LED Driver

*i.imgur.com/5EXt2l.jpg

*i.imgur.com/Vajrql.jpg

*i.imgur.com/cQHKDl.jpg

The other one with 6, 8mm LED's and the circuit based on the design, I posted previously in this thread.

*i.imgur.com/LtigDl.jpg

the white portion is a depressed part of a white styrofoam plate.

One of the earliest lights we prepared with 12, 5 mm LED's.
*i.imgur.com/1b6x5l.jpg

Right now, at my home, I'm having 2 lamps made out of 3x1 watt LED's and the LED Driver. 2 lamps made out of 6, 8 mm LED's and 2 lamps or rather I should say lights made out of 12 and 16, 5 mm LED's.

 

[NIGHTMARE]

giving me whole room look so i can see how much light is spreading

 

[Ronnie11]

hey guys,been reading this thread for a while & want to try out too..but not able to find LED's easily in mumbai..where do i look for it?Esp the 1 watt ultrabright LED'S..also how much does it cost?

 

[CyberKID]

@ Ronnie11: Thanks for your interest in LED's lighting.

I think this link (post) would help. I bought the LED's and the drivers from Ebay. You could expect to spend between Rs. 16 to Rs. 21 for each 1 watt UltraBright LED's.

@ Nightmare: What would you expect from 3, 1 watt LED's? The light's not too much to impress anyone considering the cost, moreover, my room being a relatively large one with the dimensions being 15x12 feet, it's rather hard to light up the whole room. One thing I'm pretty sure, that if I hook up 9 or 10 of these 1 watt ultrabright LED's, it'll probably replace my 23 watt CFL. Anyways, I'm posting one pic wall opposite wall, with my phone's flash turned off, to show the actual capability of the light.

*i.imgur.com/wphtt.jpg

I posted this pic because I thought it was the part of the room best lit by the light, moreover, since it was 11 in the night, my brother had already put up the mosquito net, and had went to sleep, so I had to leave that part.

 

[NIGHTMARE]

Just wanted to see how much area it can be covered by yours LED, So I can get rough idea for further use. Thanks for mentioning the dimensions of room.

 

[Ronnie11]

so i told my mom to buy some led's from the market...turned out to be a bit of a disaster.. ..got this instead
*imageshack.us/f/803/dsc05166l.jpg/
*imageshack.us/f/502/dsc05169t.jpg/


forgot to get resistors

can i do anything out of these??
It cost me 400 bucks...

 

[CyberKID]

If you're gonna tell your mom to get yourself such stuffs, it'll be like this only!!!
Just kidding. She's got you pretty decent stuff, if I go n say my mother to get such stuff, she'll yell out on me.
Though, the driver's pretty ok, what about that LED? It isn't one meant for DIY's. If you want those 1 watt Ultrabright ones, you can have simply go to ebay.in and search for 1Watt LED and hundreds of results will be up there for you to choose from. You can actually use three of those ultra bright LED's (1 watt ones) to directly connect to the driver circuits your mom got. No resistance required.

 

[Ronnie11]

If you're gonna tell your mom to get yourself such stuffs, it'll be like this only!!!
Just kidding. She's got you pretty decent stuff, if I go n say my mother to get such stuff, she'll yell out on me.
Though, the driver's pretty ok, what about that LED? It isn't one meant for DIY's. If you want those 1 watt Ultrabright ones, you can have simply go to ebay.in and search for 1Watt LED and hundreds of results will be up there for you to choose from. You can actually use three of those ultra bright LED's (1 watt ones) to directly connect to the driver circuits your mom got. No resistance required.

LOL..i have exams coming up..so i asked her to pick up ultrabright 1 watt led's from the market...she didn't quite get it...
oh ok..the thing is i don't have a credit card to buy off ebay..so was hoping to buy them from local stores...will see if i can buy off ebay..btw what is DIY??

BTW is there a step down trasformer & rectifier inside the unit?

will post the pic again since imageshack is not posting it properly...