Finding the Perfect Battery and/or A/C Powered Book Light Designs that Light Up Your Books, Hobbies & Crafts

Properly selected, a book light can reduce eye fatigue by assuring ample light while reading, even in the darkest places, and can help to conserve both energy and money. A sturdy clip on book light design can make your light easy to securely attach to your book, book holder, or book stand, and many designs can also function as craft, podium, hobby or other task lighting. Light weight incandescent or LED designs can put just the right lighting exactly where you need it, without wasting energy or disturbing those around you, like a spouse or partner watching TV.

By lighting your reading materials with the correct amount and temperature of light, the right book light can save your eyes from strain and help you read even when the lights are low. Our eyes require more light as we age, and providing the correct amount of light for what we’re reading can be difficult. Obviously, the best light for reading is natural sunlight shining directly over your shoulder, but we often have to read when or where sunlight simply isn’t available. Hence, the right book light, a light we can use any time and any place we choose, iscan be} an incredible convenience. By then turning off the overheads and other lighting illuminating so much more than our reading materials, we save considerable energy and the money required to pay for it.

When making the choice between incandescent and LED designs, 3 primary concerns include: the different color or temperature of light produced by these two distinct technologies, the cost of original purchase, and the cost of operation over the lifetime of the light. Incandescent lights typically produce a warm, somewhat golden-tinged light, and incandescent bulbs typically have service lives of between 15-25 hours of use and then must be replaced. LED lights produce a whiter, cooler light, with many designs now optimized to approximate the output of light from the sun. Hence, many readers find the light of modern LEDs to be more “sun like”, producing greater contrast and making most printing easier to read. While replacement bulbs for many incandescent book light designs are usually available in local stores, as well as over the Internet, the expense and inconvenience of replacement can really add up over time. Since LEDs offer life expectancies of 10,000 to 50,000 hours, their 10-20% greater initial cost of acquisition quickly becomes irrelevant. For these and other reasons, LED book lights are now more popular than the older incandescent.

Battery powered clip on lights are the handiest, since they can be used almost anywhere. Unfortunately, batteries too are a an item that must be replaced, lasting 20-30 hours of use at best, in LED or incandescent designs. Optional A/C adapters are available for most book lights, but another option is to use rechargeable batteries and a recharger. Most book light designs make use of either AA or AAA batteries, and many excellent models are available from which to choose. In addition, if your light is to be used near to an electrical outlet, an optionally available A/C adapter can be a money saving investment.

Finally, the uniformity of light dispersal and the area over which it is dispersed is also a consideration when choosing the best book light for a specific application. If your light will only be used to illuminate a standard size, mass market paperback, a single LED or incandescent book light design will probably be sufficient; but, if you read magazines, most hard cover books or a stand full of music, you’ll need a much more powerful light which distributes the light over a much broader area. The best way to determine the most suitable design for your particular application will be to test it in actual use. When shopping, make sure your dealer provides both good pre-sale and return service, just in case your first choice doesn’t work out. With a bit of application, you can find the best portable light for any application.