When selected properly, a book light can reduce eye stress by providing excellent lighting 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 attach to your book, book holder, or book stand, and many can also function as hobby, craft, podium or task lights. Light weight incandescent or LED designs can provide exactly the required lighting anywhere you need it, without wasting energy or disturbing those around you, like a spouse or partner watching TV.
By illuminating your reading materials with just the right quantity and color of light, the right book light can help to save your eyes from strain and assist your reading in darkened venues. Our eyes require more light as we age, and providing the right amount of light exactly where we’re reading can be difficult. Obviously, the most perfect light for reading is natural sunlight shining directly from over your shoulder, but we often need to read when or where such lighting isn’t available. Hence, the right book light, one we can use anywhere and anytime 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 conserve considerable energy and the money required to pay for it.
When making the choice between incandescent and LED designs, three primary considerations 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 light sources typically produce a warm, somewhat yellowish light, and bulbs typically will provide light between 15-25 hours of use and then have to be replaced. LED lights put out a whiter, cooler light, with many designs now optimized to approximate the output of lighting from the sun. Hence, most book lovers 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 electronic retail shops, as well as over the Internet, the expense and inconvenience of replacement can really add up over time. Because LEDs provide life expectancies of 10,000 to 50,000 hours, their 10-20% greater initial purchase price quickly becomes irrelevant. For these and other reasons, LED book lights are now the preferred choice over the older incandescent.
Battery powered book light designs are the handiest, since your light can be used virtually anywhere. Unfortunately, batteries themselves are also a an item that must be replaced, typically lasting only 20-30 hours of use at best, in either LED or incandescent designs. Available A/C adapters are available for most book lights, and another option is to use a good battery recharger and rechargeable batteries. Most book light designs make use of either AA or AAA batteries, and many rechargeable options are on offer. In addition, if your light is typically used close to an electrical outlet, an optionally available A/C adapter is usually a worthwhile investment.
Finally, the area of dispersal is also a consideration when choosing the perfect book light for a particular application. If your light is only to be used to illuminate a standard mass market paperback book, a simple LED or incandescent book light design will likely 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 that can distribute the light over a much broader area. The ideal way to determine the best light for any particular application will be to test it in actual use. When shopping, make sure your dealer offers both good pre-sale and return service, just in case your first choice doesn’t work out. With diligence, you can find the perfect portable light for any use.