POSTED BY

Joel Johnson

AT 10:26 AM
Monday March 9, 2009

Furniture and Lighting • Green

ikea • lamp • rechargeable • solar • sunnan

IKEA Sunnan: Cheap, colorful rechargeable solar lamps

ikealamp.jpg

Tony Tarle likes his new lamps:

My kids found these at IKEA this weekend when charged with "Go find yourself a bedside reading light, and PRICE IS A FACTOR!"

They came back to my wife and I with these (the "SUNNAN" lamp). Pretty nifty. Not the cheapest lamps in the store, but reasonable, given the batteries (included), panel and and LED. Packaging was minimal... which I like to see as well.

Rechargeable batteries and solar panel can be removed as a single unit to charge on the window sill as needed.

Hats off to IKEA for taking steps in the right direction finally with household lighting.

They're $20, but are only available in-store. I bought a little desk lamp at IKEA just last weekend, but didn't see these. They must have just been in the kids' section. Or maybe they're really new.

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12 Comments

aj

#1 – 11:26 AM March 9, 2009

WANT.

KurtMac

#2 – 11:33 AM March 9, 2009

When you turn them on do they charge themselves?

Camillo Miller

#3 – 12:55 PM March 9, 2009

Don't miss the SOLIG series of solar lamps for the garden too. They're cheap and hackable as hell, too...

wrybread

#4 – 1:34 PM March 9, 2009

Agreed about the hackability of those garden lamps. One super easy hack: replace the crappy NiCAD batteries with NMH.

And of course replace the hideous white LEDs with a string of blue LEDs, wired in parallel... Yes I know the voltage might not be quite right, but it works just fine.

Tony Tarle

#5 – 1:39 PM March 9, 2009

KURTMAC: My son asked the exact same question... (do they charge themselves) he's currently running tests to see what the score is here.

Anonymous Anonymous

#6 – 2:40 PM March 9, 2009

there not that new, been around for a while (i like ikea so frequent it quite alot...) not seen one that works yet, all the ones in store dont seem to.

Anonymous Anonymous

#7 – 7:17 PM March 9, 2009

NOTCOT has a look at the whole solar line up close!
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2009/03/ikea_solar_ligh.php

Anonymous Anonymous

#8 – 7:41 PM March 9, 2009

A$35 in Australia, only available in stores as well.

Philbert

#9 – 7:42 AM March 10, 2009

Of course in the Netherlands they are 20 EUROS.
http://www.ikea.com/nl/nl/catalog/products/90154371

flytch

#10 – 4:07 PM March 10, 2009

do they recharge themselves???
Not really a dumb question... like all perpetual motion machines you can easily see the results...
Yes, they do recharge themselves a little... directly proportional to the amount of light that is converted back into charge... this is the direct percentage of light from the LED that hits the solar panel minus the efficiency of the LED, Photocell, and total power loss of everything else in the circuitry (wires, connections etc...)
so I'd venture an untested guess of 1 to 5 %...

would be easy to prove... just use a photographers light meter and a pice of card stock to test... once with the photocell exposed and once with the photocell covered... the difference in time it takes to drop down to half it's brightness (times two) would be the total amount that it recharges itself...

looks like a good science project to me...

Anonymous Anonymous

#11 – 10:29 AM March 23, 2009

I was really impressed by the good light colour of the LED inside Sunnan, so I bought a second one.
This one I took apart to inspect the LED more closely. For my convenience, as a desk light, this one is powered now by a 350mA currentsource from the 220V mains. For the original one I have now 2 powerpacks, so I can swap one when the light dims too much.

Victor, NL

Anonymous Anonymous

#12 – 11:42 AM September 24, 2009

For everyone you buy, IKEA donates another
to children who are without electricity in refugee camps and villages in remote areas
http://www.inhabitots.com/2009/07/14/ikeas-solar-powered-lamp-gives-gift-of-light-to-kids-without-electricity/

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