# Interest group forums > Energy and Resource Conservation Forum >  lem lights

## murdock

anyone heard of these little beuties?

i found a system today which i will be installing into my house in the next couple of days...

the system consists of a solar panel or transfomer/charger or both if you want...4 lights contructed out of stainless steel...including 2 x 5 metre and 2 x 10 metre cables...a day/night switch...a control panel which holds the battery and invertor for the solar panel...and you have a choice of either a solar panel which makes it completly independant from the electricity mains...but heres the bonus the lights stay on for 10 hours on a 7 amp/hr battery (same size as your alarm or gate motor battery)...this sytem is brilliant..the entire sytem uses 6 watts of power and costs less than R2000  :EEK!:  and it is fully DIY.

for camping this sytem is probably the best thing i have ever seen...you could connect to a big battery and have lights for more than a week without switching them off.

you can also get individual lights...which plug into a cigarette lighter or it comes with croc clips to go onto a battery...for around R150...also made of stainless steel...you can use it as a lead light...i have a 12 volt power pack which i have it plugged into at the moment...to test it to see how bright the lights are.


what i like about it is i dont want a solar panel now...so i can use a small transfomer/charger to charge the battery for now and when the load shedding starts next year i can get a solar panel and install it...

i will postion the 4 lights in such a way that there will be no need to switch on and off lights to see where i am going at night...and if the power goes off the lights will continue to work for an additional 10 hours....once i fit the solar panel i will just leave the lights to switch on and off with the day/night switch.


the lights are resin filled so they have something like an IP65 rating...when we were doing tests we dipped them in a bucket of water to see what would happen...and it still worked while in the water...considering the lights are only 12volts and fed from the batery there is no danger.

once i receive my pack i will post pics of the system.

this system was designed for areas which dont have electricity...but i believe there is a market for it everywhere...i think these people are sitting on a gold mine and they dont even know it...they are building them in a garge at home.

it could even be used as emergency lighting in offices...parking areas...stairways...the lights are bright enough for these type of applications...as a backup...for power failures.


i havent got the details but i think the lights use about 120 mA of power each

i did some tests with a lux metre and at 1 metre the light is 20 lux...@ 500 mm 100 lux...and goes up to almost 1000 lux when the meter was close.

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## murdock

i looked at all the possibilities for the location of the lights last night and also put some thought  into what i am trying to achieve...

one light will go into the kitchen
the passage where the DB is located...handy when the light go off to find the trip switch 
the lounge and the main bathroom/toilet

i am just gona hook the lights onto a hilti pin so i can just unhook them and move them around.

i am also wondering if using the solar panel is not a better idea...then it is totally independant of the house electricity...and can come on everynight with the daynight/switch supplied and go off in the morning...the running cost will be a new battery every 1 - 2 years...

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## Martinco

Where have you seen these lights ?
What is LEM ?

I already have all the other stuff, panel, batteries even an inverter but not required for this exercise.

I would dearly like to find a light running of 12 v that can simply be inserted into the present downlight socket.
I did find some LEDs but running of 220 v

Also how are you going to connect a daylight switch to this ? They run of 220 v.

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## murdock

light emmiting module..

there are 12 volt...3 watt  led downlights  which i am also looking at because they work on AC or DC and are not connection sensitve in other words you can connect either wire to live or neutral on the battery or AC power.

we have 12 dc day.night switches as part of the kit...the best part about it is it is a completely DIY kit

i collected the kit today and will be looking at it tonight.

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## Martinco

> light emmiting module..
> 
> there are 12 volt...3 watt  led downlights  which i am also looking at because they work on AC or DC and are not connection sensitve in other words you can connect either wire to live or neutral on the battery or AC power.
> 
> we have 12 dc day.night switches as part of the kit...the best part about it is it is a completely DIY kit
> 
> i collected the kit today and will be looking at it tonight.


I want, I want , I want.   :Clap: 

Please let me have some more info as to what one gets for how much.

I would need only the daylight switch and the lem's in the downlight format.

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## murdock

i went around yesterday asking lots of technical questions and realised that these lights are changing so fast that it is becoming extremely difficult to get the correct answer even from the lighting suppliers...like generators it sounds like ever man and his dog is trying to import and dump led/lem energy saving lamps onto the south african market...when i start asking technical questions...ooops we have to get back to you...they say you can dim these lights what sort of backup do you get....none...and if they do its not protected against surges voltage  fluctuations...so you dont have a leg to stand on...when the light pops at 2 months and you take it back you will be told that it must have been a surge in the electricity...everyone who sells electronic equipment uses this excuse...my question would be...then why is there no surge protection and why dont they allow for voltage fluctuation and have it built in before you sell it to a market which you know has unreliable power...isnt that fraud?
so you as the consumer just replaces it and pays the money...the supplier smiles because more money in his pocket because his sales are up 50 % on a product in the first 3 months of sales which he thought he was only gona turn over 1 million because the lamps are rated to last 50 000 hours on the box....mmmm doesnt it make you think...you can do what i do and write the date you install the lamp on the side with a balck koki...and see how long these 50 000 hr lights last....according to the spec sheet should outlast the time you live in your house...but do they? what is even more scary is how we are being ripped off...led light strips R150...cost to manufacture...about R5 if that...there must be lots of middle men on the way to south africa...maybe it gets resold all the way thru europe and down thru africa instead of direct form china...where the drop shipping guys...cant you bypass europe and africa and sell us these lights at a direct from china cost?

it looks like lighting is gona become a very specilised market and you will need to be careful of who you source your lights from...like every market there is cheap junk and there is expensive junk...the trick is gona be to filter thru the rubbish and find someone who knows what they are talking about and supplying a product which can do what they say it can.

when i showed a person the product i had just purchased for my house...he told me he could get it a much cheaper one from china for me...my response no thanks...the one i purchased has stainless steel backing...and the entire unit is bullt in sout hafrica so i can get spares at anytime...i did my homework and found the suppliers has been around for many years and has other product on the market which are backed by documentation and sold in the USA with a guarentee...

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## murdock

> I want, I want , I want.  
> 
> Please let me have some more info as to what one gets for how much.
> 
> I would need only the daylight switch and the lem's in the downlight format.


i will find out if they sell components seperately...(day/night switch)

the lem lights which i have dont come in a downlight version...the system i have was built for a specific application which didnt materialise...when i saw this product i took one for myself because i was impressed with the standard they are manufactured and because the lights are stainless steel...so hopefully they will not rust...i have also sugested they make a garden light...becaus ethe lem has a high IP rating

only the 3 watt led lights come in a 12 or 240 volt version...which these people dont supply...i saw this product somewhere else...

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## adrianh

I have a friend who has a company that manufactures led lighting. They use a little trick - They import the lights broken bown into component form from China (Which is cheaper for them because the tax man sees it as parts as opposed to completed products). They then assemble the units in South Africa and then - lo and behold - The lights are sold as being manufactured in South Africa.

99% of led electronics & optics are manufactured in China even though they are sold under various brand names all over the world.

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