You don’t have to light up candles or carry a flashlight around when load-shedding strikes at night.
There is a multitude of affordable battery and solar-powered options available in South Africa to light up your home during power outages.
While electrical appliances like computers, TVs, refrigerators, ovens, and geysers require large backup power solutions to keep running, most modern lights use much less electricity.
LED-powered bulbs, for example, typically require between 3-12 watts (W) of power, compared to a desktop computer that needs around 200W, or a geyser that can demand 3,000W.
This means that for two hours of load-shedding, an LED lamp will need only around 6Wh to 24Wh of power. To put this into perspective, a 4,000mAh smartphone battery offers 48Wh of capacity.
Indoors
One of the most convenient ways to keep the lights on is to replace your normal light bulbs with bulbs that have built-in batteries that can be charged using the electricity connection of your house.
When the power goes off, the bulb automatically switches from grid power to battery power, until the electricity connection is restored.
Among the important features to consider with these bulbs include the socket type, how long the bulb’s battery will last during an outage, its charging time, and its brightness.
On the last point it is important to note that most manufacturers indicate the brightness of these bulbs for when the power is on, but not when it using the battery.
Bulbs with built-in batteries drop their output power during an outage to allow the small battery to keep the bulb running for more than three hours, but it results in less light being produced.
Below are battery-rechargeable LED lightbulbs to provide indoor lighting to your house during load-shedding.
Where applicable, prices for both the screw-in (E27) and bayonet (B22) socket types are shown.
Eurolux G1066 3W LED rechargeable lamp – R60
Eurolux G983 5W Battery Globe Light – R105 / R110
Osram 10W Rechargeable Light Bulb – R115
Aurora Lighting Emergency Lamp – R129 / R129
Light Worx 7W Twin Pack – R249 / R249
Outdoors
Having the lights on — particularly those which are outdoors — can also be a deterrent for burglars who use the cover of darkness during load-shedding to strike their targets.
Aside from the possibility of being spotted while moving in the light, the lights being on creates the impression that the house has power, which could further suggest that alarms might also be on.
Outside your lights will need to be brighter, requiring larger batteries.
Provided you can place the light in an area where it will get copious amounts of sunlight, you can harness solar power to charge batteries that can keep motion-activated or general wall lights powered.
Important attributes to consider here include the number of LEDs in the light, how bright it shines, and the size of its battery.
Below are some of the most highly-rated options available on Takealot.
Solar Interaction 1W Wall Lamp – R99
LEDs – 100
Brightness – 600 lumens
Battery – 1,800mAh
Favorable Impression Outdoor Solar Motion Sensor Wall Light – R260
LEDs – 120
Battery – 4,400mAh
Solar Powered 0.2W LED Wall Light with night sensor (6 pack) – R328
LEDs – 20 x 6
Battery – 1,200mAh
Solar Powered LED Motion Sensor Security Light – R359
LEDs – 60
70W SMD Solar Flood Light – R739
Number of LEDs – Unspecified
Brightness – 1,600 lumens
Battery – 15,000mAh
Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/401641-keep-the-lights-on-during-load-shedding-starting-from-r60.html
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