Cheapest easiest DIY MAINS FLICKER LED candle/bulb?

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Hi all,

I have a pack of LED tealight candles from the £1 shop. Each one runs one a little battery. What would be the easiest and cheapest way (or an alternative product?) to adapt these to work on the mains?


Essentially, I would like four of these little flickering LED lights placed around the fireplace, so that at night they flicker on through the darkness, at almost no electricity cost - but add an ambience to an otherwise dark room.

I've searched and searched, ebay and otherwise, for a mains powered tealight candle - or even, ideally, a bayonet flickering LED bulb. Everything I've found hasn't been simple enough or hasn't flickered.

I did have one idea - I bought from poundworld a 240v "nightlight". A square plastic plug, essentially, which contained a solitary LED bulb. I thought perhaps I could a few metres wire from this to some of the tea lights.

I also bought a pound solar LED light, and thought perhaps I could replace this LED with the flick circuitry one, and have it auto turn on at night, and charge through the day. This would be nice and idea - except that the solar charger seems to be rubbish, of course.

Any thoughts on how I can get several LED flicking bulbs around my fireplace and running off the mains?

Many thanks![/img]
 
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An important thing to remember is if you are using mains then they must be safe, I'd advise you not to start messing around with the circuitry in a nightlight.
You can buy mains "flicker lamps" from a variety of places which are just a candle lamp. As I said above though, you need to ensure if you are using mains they are safe!!
 
cheapest and easiest would be to use the battery ones.
 
please, no batteries fuss! And as small power as possible for the bulb. I'm guessing each battery tealight is maybe 1W from memory.
 
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Or... I've just checked, each tealight runs from a 3V battery. Could I buy a 12 volt adapter to power 4 tealights?
 
Why not get a 3V DC power supply (say a multi-voltage one from Maplin). Wire the lamps in parallel. At least it shouldn't kill anyone. Putting the lamps in series may well not work as they may not take the same current continuously.
 
i have several led "clusters" running off batteries i have 2 x10w[9-12v] leds in series on an 18v dewalt battery gives out around 80w down to 50w off light 12 to 16 hrs later
i also have several other combinations with 1w 3v leds using 12 and 18v batteries

why not go for an xmas light set they are 230v

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Perfect-W...8?pt=UK_WSJL_Wholesale_GL&hash=item3a762aac80

this sort off thing
they pulse twinkle flash randomly ect
 
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add an ambience to an otherwise dark room.
Why would you want that in a room nobody was using?

Because when you walk past the lounge, I would like to see some glowing candles in there to give a slight presence. And I believe they might be 0.1W each LED bulb, so pennies to run hopefully.

Thanks for the xmas lights suggestion, but nothing compared to some well placed imitation candles.

By the way, the nearest I've found to for a solution is actually this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plug-In-L...ps_US&var=&hash=item3f108ca382#ht_1468wt_1029

A USB tealight! But very expensive for what it is. And I need four - but could power it off a usb hub. But that's getting bulky for such a purpose.
 
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3w led bulb in a table lamp will give you 25w off normal light at say 10 hrs a day or around 10-15p a month
 
what is the main aim lowest cost off lighting an empty room
having a constant ambient back ground lighting
or flickering lights regardless off cost
 
really? If so cheap, that might be a much better solution. I didn't realise a brighter actual bulb would cost so little run.
 
really? If so cheap, that might be a much better solution. I didn't realise a brighter actual bulb would cost so little run.

a 1000w is 1 kw at around 12-15p a a "unit" so 1000 divided by 3 =333 hours so over 10 hours a day :cool:
a 9w[around 40w normal] low energy bulb can often be bought for less than £1 and off course cost an extortienate 30 to 40p a month for 10hrs a day lol
 
Very interesting...

[/img]


This evening I had an idea. Outside, I have an old solar-powered set of LED fairy lights in the garden. (£12) The panel when charged powers 100 little lights. (however, 50 of those lights at the end have snapped off due to a break in the cable). So the solar panel is now powering 50 lights (with the capability of 100).

I took the end of the fairy lights cable (which previously joined to the other 50 lights) and stuck it onto the terminals inside an LED tealight inside the battery compartment. (3V cr2032 battery). The result was that the bulb stayed lit continuously. When compared with another equal tealight (battery driven) the brightness was equal - but it no longer flickered. (essential!)

What can I deduce from this? I didn't miss any of the circuitry out - and I also have a feeling the LEDs are self flickering with a mini chip inside the LED itself.

My theory is that since the solar panel was only powering 51 lights, rather than the intended 100, that too much power was going to all the lights, and this overload somehow made the flickering element void.

Any ideas would be appreciated - because this could be quite an ideal solution if I can get it to work... I just use my light-switched solar panel to auto power a set of tea lights - completely automated, light and charging!
 

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