LED Lights At Home

Who can ever forget the invention of the Itty Bitty Booklight! It was a marvel of its time and probably saved countless marriages LED technology is revolutionizing this product category, and the new shapes this type of light are taking show, in a microcosm, the potential for LED lights to change more than just energy consumption.

Just for fun, I lined up all the various booklights we have acquired over many years. This “family picture” shows an interesting evolution of this product:

On the left is the original Itty Bitty Booklight. It took a battery pack with 4 C-cells to run the one little incandescent bulb. But it was a nice product that allowed my wife to read while I went to sleep.

In the middle is a fluorescent bulb version. It only took 4 AA batteries.

The two on the right are LED bulb versions. Both take a couple of button cell batteries.

My favorite is the one on the far right, which I got at Brookstone a couple of years ago. It folds up into a tiny item, only slightly larger than a credit card. Easy to travel with, has 3 LEDs so there is plenty of light, and is totally adjustable to get the right light on the page.

The low energy requirements allow the batteries to be small. This enables new kinds of designs that are both more convenient and provide better light.

I can’t wait to see how home lighting evolves as LEDs enable new kinds of fixtures and even new types of ambient lighting that may not even require a fixture!

PS. Zelco, the maker of the Itty Bitty Booklight has LED versions of it, like this one. It takes 2 AA batteries. Interesting they specifically mention using a Nichia LED assembly, one of the companies I mentioned in this post.