I was browsing through the new IKEA products (as you do) and I came across this interesting little lamp for just $19.95.
The SUNNAN lamp, designed by Nicolas Cortolezzis, is IKEA’s first solar cell work lamp and it has a built-in rechargeable solar panel embedded in the base. What I want to know though is how do you go about charging a desk lamp via solar power? Do you move your desk over to the window? Do you set the lamp outside on your lunch hour? Maybe you move your whole desk outside (awesome, but not very practical)?
Apparently, the charge time is about 9-12 hours in direct sunlight. When fully charged, the lamp stays lit for about 4 hours, dimming slightly after about 3 hours. This is a cool, novelty item for someone who’s into solar energy and its applications or who wants to spend a few weeks off the grid, but it’s not very practical for everyday use. Twelve hours of charging for 4 hours of use just doesn’t cut it.
It’s really not that bad if you consider the available technology:
1. You have limited space in a desk lamp so a large battery isn’t an option
2. At $20/ea. you can’t expect super-advanced technology
The abilities available to the public in terms of solar cell technology just aren’t impressive enough to get the kinds of numbers you appear to be expecting.
Even then, I can see this lamp still being quite useful, say, at a window-facing desk as task-lighting. It may not be good for a solid 6 or 7 hours of working, but many people do have a space in their house that’s just for short-term jobs (paying bills, looking up something online) that would make use of something like this.
You can remove the solar panel easily from the lamp. Obviously it wouldn’t have been designed to be attached in the lamp because, as you mentioned, it’s not very practical
i really think that the lamps colors are really cute. I feel that looking at different gadgets is really cool could look nice in my house someday
This lamp was designed to give kids reading lamps at night in places that don’t have electricity (as in for every lamp you buy, Ikea will donate …) So up to 12 hours charge time resulting in 4 hours of reading time that you didn’t have before seems like a very good deal for someone who has no electricity. (I bought a couple for our frequent power outages.) I guess for those of us with easy access to electricity and used to almost instant recharges on cell phones and other devices, this isn’t so great. But I love the fact that my $20 buys one for me and my gadget craving and one for someone who really needs it and will use it every day.