A long time ago I made a reading lamp using compact fluorescent bulbs.
This is the old one. It still works fine, but it has two issues. It only has one brightness and the Fluorescent bulbs take a few minutes to “warm up” and come to full brightness. This lamp is made with three 75 watt equivalent Compact Florescent bulbs. That may seem light a lot of light, but it’s directed at the ceiling, not directly at the book.
The design is very simple – a panel about 1 by 2 feet held at 45 degrees with the wall and direct the light to the ceiling. This creates enough light to read a book in bed with no glare or harsh light as you read.
Here’s the new version:
This new version is made with LED Halogen replacements from Ranpo Lighting and sockets from MyLampParts.
The lamps are found here.
Since no dimmable LED lamps are available in this form factor, the design allows using 1, 2 or 3 bulbs for three levels of brightness. Two switches are used to turn on 1 and the other 2 of the three lamps.
Also, hot glue works very well for insulation for the soldered connections in the lamp cord. It’s good to use lots of the glue so that it won’t loosen and fall off over time.
:ww
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