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The article describes a very simple homemade emergency light circuit that can be used during power failures and outdoors where any other source of power might be unavailable.
The circuit uses LEDs instead of incandescent lamp, thus making the unit very power efficient and brighter with its light output. Moreover, the circuit employs a very innovative concept especially devised by me which further enhances the economical feature of the unit.
Let’s learn the concept and the circuit more closely:
The concept:
We know that LEDs require a certain fixed forward voltagedrop to become illuminated and it is at this rating when the LED is at it’s best, that is voltages which is around its forward voltage drop facilitates the device to operate in the most efficient way.
As this voltage is increased, the LED starts drawing more current, rather dissipating extra current by getting heated up itself and also through the resistor which also gets heated up in the process of limiting the extra current.
If we could maintain a voltage around an LED near to its rated forward voltage, we could use it more efficiently. That’s exactly what I have tried to fix in the circuit.
Since the battery used here is a 6 volt battery, means this source is a bit higher than the forward voltage of the LEDs used here, which amounts to 3.5 volts. The extra 2.5 volts rise can cause considerable dissipation and loss of power through heat generation.
Therefore I employed a few diodes in series with the supply and made sure that initially when the battery is fully charged; three diodes are effectively switched so as to drop the excess 2.5 volts across the white LEDs (because each diode drop 0.6 volts across itself).
Now as the voltage of the battery drops, the diodes series are reduced to two and subsequently to one making sure only the desired amount of voltage reaches the LED bank.
In this way the proposed simple emergency lamp circuit is made highly efficient with its current consumption, and it provides backup for a much longer period of time than what it would do with ordinary connections.
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