LED sconces

[IndyColtsFan]

Does anyone have experience with battery-powered LED sconces? If so, can you let me know your thoughts? We have an area where it would be really tough to pull electricity and I've seen some of the LED sconces claim they can get 200-250 hours out of the batteries. If that's true, that would be more than adequate for our needs.

Also, if you've used them, any specific recommendations would be great.

 

[edro]

Indoor? For decoration only, or do you actually need illumination?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Indoor? For decoration only, or do you actually need illumination?

Yes, indoor, and while we don't need blinding illumination, some light would be nice. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with them.

Let me describe my situation because maybe some of our handymen here can give me some additional guidance (sorry for the long post). I have a room in my house that was likely a former outdoor patio that was enclosed. There were two sliding glass doors in the room on the outside wall so during the day, there was plenty of light. It was pretty dark at night though and we put a floor lamp in the room for additional lighting but even that probably isn't enough.

Now however, I'm having some major repair work done. There was a slow water leak and after tearing out the wall, one of the sliding doors had significant rot. We really never liked having 2 sliding doors there so we are having the contractor take the good door and put it in the middle and build the wall around it. We'll eventually replace that door with French doors but we needed this fixed now and couldn't find French doors we liked quickly, so that will be a custom job down the road. Anyhow, going from two doors to one door will be a significant reduction of natural light coming into that room.

Currently, there is one electrical outlet in the room and two sconces connected to electricity on the same (brick) wall; this is now an interior wall and opposite from the wall being reconstructed. I am probably going to end up replacing those with some different lights to give us more light in that room. However, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to pull electrical into the new wall being built. It COULD be done because there are two outlets in the room above this enclosed area on an exterior wall, but it would be a little tough and I haven't been able to get a quote from someone to have that done. First priority is getting the wall built and door mounted; I suppose before I paint the new drywall, I could ask an electrician what it would take to pull electricity from the above because if necessary, he could still punch holes in the drywall and I can patch them and paint the room when he roughs in electrical boxes for new hardwired sconces and maybe an additional outlet or two.

 

[skyking]

while things are open, I would prioritize getting that wiring myself. everything else is easily changed later but dragging a wire from above is not so much fun later.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

while things are open, I would prioritize getting that wiring myself. everything else is easily changed later but dragging a wire from above is not so much fun later.

Yeah, I'd love to, but the timing probably won't work out. The degree of damage took us a little by surprise or we would've planned to have all of this done at once. We're also going to be out of the country in about a week so unfortunately, the work really needs to be completely done ASAP.

I'll probably refrain from painting for now because if an electrician tells me it is doable and reasonable to do it from above, he can cut channels in the drywall to pull the wire and I'll just patch it up and paint it afterwards. I'm capable of doing that.

There are 2 locations in this room where adding electrical outlets would be fairly easy (there are existing outlets on the other side of the brick walls), but neither outlet is in a location that is particularly useful IMO. I may just end up installing brighter sconces in the existing sconce location and calling it a day.

 

[edro]

I am thinking anything battery powered is going to be very dim and for decoration only. Verify lumen values compared to sources you are familiar with (60W incandescent is around 800 lm.)

The ones I see use 6x AA batteries. Typical AA batteries are 2.6 watt hours. So 6*2.6=15.6 watt hours.
If they say it lasts 200 hours on 6 AA batteries, it is a .078W fixture, meaning it puts out about 6-10 lumens.

I think your idea of getting higher brightness bulbs for your existing sconces or new brighter sconces in their spot is best. You can also use a floor lamp.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I am thinking anything battery powered is going to be very dim and for decoration only. Verify lumen values compared to sources you are familiar with (60W incandescent is around 800 lm.)

The ones I see use 6x AA batteries. Typical AA batteries are 2.6 watt hours. So 6*2.6=15.6 watt hours.
If they say it lasts 200 hours on 6 AA batteries, it is a .078W fixture, meaning it puts out about 6-10 lumens.

I think your idea of getting higher brightness bulbs for your existing sconces or new brighter sconces in their spot is best. You can also use a floor lamp.

Yeah, we have one floor lamp in the corner connected to our existing outlet but I am thinking that if I get better sconces to replace the existing ones (they use those little candelabra bulbs and aren't terribly bright) that can use 60 W equivalent LED bulbs, the room will be pretty well lit. Also, I believe that it wouldn't be too bad to pull an outlet on the brick wall adjacent to the garage since another outlet is already there, and that could enable us to put a floor lamp in the other corner should we need it.

 

[cbrsurfr]

I don't have any experience with the sconces. I do have a 8 x quad led adjustable battery operated lights under the cabinets in my garage. They take 6 x AAA's each and don't last very long. I stopped replacing the batteries in them all. I just keep a pack around for the main one's I use. I got these because my garage only has 1 wall outlet.

It may be tacky but I would just get an extension cord and another lamp as a temp fix. Then when you have time, do it right and wire something in.

 

[Atecnolar]

Não é o ideal. Elas queimam muito rápido.

---

Welcome to AnandTech Forums. Sorry. Had to remove your link. Allow me to translate your text:

"Not ideal. They burn very fast."

Harvey
Senior AnandTech Moderator/Administrator