Battery powered flourescent lighting - experiences

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IMO, they give off a nice glow compared to the oil lamps. The bulbs last over 1,000 hours and the batteries last around 25 hours before they have to be recharged.

If you're going to recharge via solar, it will take a while...

I have the oil lamps standing by, but man, as long as I have bulbs and charged Nicads, I think these lamps are really kewl!

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), May 12, 1999

Answers

Perchance you could share some pertinate details with us, like manufacturer, price, where available??? Many thanks :-)

-- Y2Dave (NoSpam@not.now), May 12, 1999.

Sure. The ones that I have are Rayovac's Workhorse lanterns, available for about $25.00. It comes with 8 non-rechargeable D batteries. It gives off a 360 degree light. It comes with 2 flourescent tubes. It has two levels of brightness, one for maximum brightness (which does a good job of lighting a small room) and battery conservation mode, where only one tube is lit.

In battery conservation mode, the lantern operates an average of up to 26 hours. I found that I could read sitting next to it without a problem.

There's fold-down handle for carrying; the unit and high-impacts lens are made of durable plastic. I like the design, which resembles a high-tech latern when you have the handle pulled out; with it pushed down, it looks like a block with plastic on both ends with the lens in the middle.

Batteries are replaced by turning it upside down and removing the base. Once you do that, pull out the old ones, replace, and snap on the base.

The nicads are rechargeable, using a solar recharger. They cost considerably more than the non-rechargeables. I've been stocking up on both in case the charger gets busted.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), May 12, 1999.


If you need more info about nicad rechargeables and their pricing, here's a good thread posted here a while back:

Pricing for Nicads

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), May 12, 1999.


Oops. One more thing: I got mine at Home Depot, but have seen them in other camping and hardware stores.

I should've included all of this in one post. Guess means it's time to get some shut-eye :-)

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), May 12, 1999.


We have a Coleman table lamp with a krypton bulb, takes 4 x D batteries. $12-14. Gives light good enough to read by, lasts a long time. This is not the one with the square base, this is the one with the dark green rounded base and a white translucent lamp shade. Also has a thingie to hang it up with.

Thanks for info re neon type, will get one of those too.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), May 13, 1999.



Tim:

I don't have to plan for Y2K; what ever happens [and I have no idea what will happen]. We've been living this way for a very long time. Always have 6 mo to a year of food [raise our own], wood stove, generator, source of water, our own wood, etc. We just decided to try it to see if we could. We found that we could but it has been a steep learning curve with a lot of fixes on failure. We haven't had to buy anything recently. I have some Aladins and they work well. Recently [a relative term as you get older], I've purchased flourescents [as I mentioned in a previous thread; I don't like anymore fire in the house than necessary during service disruptions]. I got Colemans at WalMart [8 D cells] and can recharge them. They work well. Will I have to go back to the Aladins? Don't know. The power company [rural] here is so reliable I've never been able to test it. My word is that they are ready for Y2K, also. So I may need an ice storm to kno

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), May 13, 1999.


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