Properly selected, a book light can reduce eye fatigue 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 secure to your book, book holder, or book stand, and many designs can also function as craft, podium, hobby or other task lighting. Light weight incandescent or LED designs can provide exactly the required amount of light exactly where you need it, without wasting energy or disturbing those around you, like a spouse or partner watching TV.
By lighting your reading materials with the correct quantity and color of light, a book light can save your eyes from strain and assist your reading in darkened venues. Our eyes require more light as we age, and providing the correct amount of light for what we’re reading can be difficult. Obviously, the best light for reading is natural sunlight shining directly over your shoulder, but we often have to read when or where sunlight simply isn’t available. Hence, the correctly selected book light, a light we can use any time and any place we choose, iscan be} an incredible convenience. Then, turning off the overheads and other lighting lighting things other than our reading, we can save considerable energy as well as the money required to pay for it.
When making the choice between incandescent and LED designs, 3 primary concerns include: the different color or temperature of light produced by these two technologies, the cost of acquisition, and the cost of maintenance and operation over the lifetime of the light. Incandescent lights typically create a warm, somewhat golden-tinged light, and incandescent 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, and many designs are now optimized to be the equivalent of the output of light from the sun. Today, most readers find the output of modern LED designs to be more “sun like”, producing greater contrast and making all printing easier to read. While replacement bulbs for many incandescent book light designs are usually available in local stores, and over the Internet, the cost of replacement can really add up over time. Because LEDs provide life expectancies of 10,000 to 50,000 hours, the 10-20% greater initial cost of acquisition quickly becomes irrelevant. Generally, LED lights are now more popular than the older incandescent.
Battery powered clip on lights are the handiest, as your light can be used virtually anywhere. Unfortunately, batteries themselves are also a an item that must be replaced, lasting 20-30 hours of use at best, in either LED or incandescent designs. Optional A/C adapters are available for most book lights, and another option is to make use of rechargeable batteries and a recharger. Most book light designs make use of either AA or AAA batteries, and many excellent models are available from which to choose. Additionally, if your light is typically used near to an electrical outlet, an optional A/C adapter can be a money saving investment.
Finally, the uniformity of light dispersal and the area over which it is dispersed is also a consideration when choosing the right book light for a specific application. If your light will only be used to light a standard size, mass market paperback, a simple LED or incandescent clip on light design will likely be sufficient; however, if you read magazines, most hard cover books or a stand full of music, you’ll need a more powerful design which distributes the light over a much broader area. The best way to determine the most suitable design for your particular application will be to test it in actual use. When shopping, be sure your dealer offers both good information and advice before the sale, and a good return policy, in case your first choice doesn’t quite hit the mark. With diligence, you can find the best book light for any application.
