Colorful new solar-powered lamp at Ikea

Fans of inexpensive and stylish home accouterments will be delighted to learn that Ikea offers its new Solvinden solar-powered lamps in black, white, lime green, and, of course, teal. [IKEA]

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They look like landfill already.

No matter what color they are, please do not fool yourself that these are “green”. Most of them will be broken long before they ever pay back their own embedded energy.*

*Note that my comment is NOT applicable to a good photovoltaic system, which should last for 20+ years and which will produce 4X-12X its own embedded energy in its lifetime.

Putting solar cells on devices only has a net positive environmental impact if those cells are highly utilized and if they offset less clean generation.
- phisrow
  
  But without solar cells, what excuse would we have to embed nickel-cadmium batteries in things?
  - wrybread
    
    You beat me to the nickel-cadmium rant. So strange that all these solar powered gizmos always (in my experience) come with NiCad batteries. Talk about ungreen. And also inefficient. The first thing I do with those little solar powered lawn lights is swap the batteries for NMH and swap the boring white LED for a super bright blue or somesuch.
- hungryjoe
  
  A regular lamp is likely to have similar levels of embodied energy, although I can’t speak to the Nickel Cadmium issue.
  
  Your criticism seems to be that this is not the ideal energy efficient light source, and so it has no value. Isn’t this still better than a lamp burning an incandescent bulb, or even a compact fluorescent?
  
  I’m not advocating Ikea. This is more of a big picture question.
- Michael Smith
  
  Putting solar cells on devices only has a net positive environmental impact if those cells are highly utilized and if they offset less clean generation.
  
  What makes you think these are made with energy from “less clean generation”?
YarbroughFair

None of you take BB seriously, I expect most BB readers to be more critical than most!

“BUILT-IN LED LIGHT BULB” MEANS “IRREPLACEABLE LED LIGHT BULB”!

THE WHOLE FUCKING THING IS DISPOSABLE! I’M SICK AND TIRED OF ALMOST EVERY PRODUCT AD BEING CRYPTIC AND REQUIRE CODE BREAKING SKILLS!
surrealestate

NiMH is very finicky about its charge cycle, too much steady current and the cells will overheat during charging. NiMH chargers have to cycle the current in order to compensate, which requires much more intelligent circuitry than a NiCd cell. NiCd cells are better suited to solar for that purpose, and because they have somewhat fallen out of favor, are considerably cheaper as well.

The NiCd cells actually seem to be ideal for LED-based systems, the current draw is much more steady, and many LED types will continue to light at very low current and decreased voltage. They also seem to endure a lot more charge/discharge cycles than other rechargeable battery applications, no doubt because the LEDs are much more forgiving about the battery deterioration over time. I’ve got solar patio lamps that have probably had over 2000 charge/discharge cycles now, and they are still going strong.
Tony Tarle

I sure hope they’re better than their last solar powered lamps!

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/03/09/ikea-sunnan-cheap-co.html
GreenJello

Your link is broken, it goes to candle holders and candles.
Anonymous

Here is the good link

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40200950
knoxblox

Ugh. Teal, one of the ugliest and most prolific colors of the 80′s.
jennybean42

Well played, Rob. Well played.
cjp

Anybody know how many lumens these things produce?
tedrock

We’ve had one of these for the last year or so (bought ours in the Ikea in Emoryville, CA in April 2010). It works really well, has a photo sensitive on/off switch (so you cant drain batteries in daylight) and is designed to tilt toward the sun. We love it!
SidFudd

And should I be shopping there anyway? Bloody tax cheats. I just wish that walking their entire store in Burbank wasn’t something like a consumerist religious experience. Sigh. Maybe extreme lateral thinking is required now. “Hi, I know the receipt says I owe $978 plus CA sales tax for this loveseat / chaise lounge, but you’re evil, so I’m ONLY going to pay the California sales tax. Cheers. Now help me load it in the car.”
Dave Faris

In other words, they’ve re-purposed the same shitty solar lights I’ve got running up my driveway. The same ones that barely give off any glow? Great.
Ipo

/É™ËˆkoÍžotÉ™rmÉ™nt/ , funny, I even pronounce it accouterments, it irks people.
dculberson

Rob, you make me smile.
Anonymous

NiCd gets no respect these days. They’re actually pretty good, except for the pesky disposal issue.

The big advantage NiCd cells have over NiMH is that they can be charged forever at a few ma with no overcharging damage. That means the manufacturer can build the gadget with no charge controller and not worry about it (cheaper that way).

Put in NiMH cells, and they probably won’t last for as many charge-discharge cycles as the NiCd would have. Thus you have more waste, not less.

You also get to deal with the NiCd cells you took out. You can’t chuck them in the trash, thanks to their cadmium content. They have to go to a household hazardous waste collection point.