Light Up Dark Stairs with the Mr. Beams Ceiling Light

We make a great Stair Light, but sometimes people need to light an entire stairway without wires. Such was the case with Vivian who called me today.

Vivian is the funny aunt that everyone wishes they had. She can make anything sound funny, especially with her classic New York accent. She called because she has a dark staircase leading down to her cellar. She is a big fan of Costco and BJ's Warehouse Clubs, and loves to cook, so when she goes to the warehouse clubs she loads up on canned foods, spices, olive oil and other ingredients. Her husband added storage by installing shelves on the dark stairs down to the basement. But the stairs are too dark for her to see what items are on the shelves. So Vivian called us looking for a solution to light up her dark stairs.

Our solution for dark stairs is the wireless Mr. Beams Anywhere Ceiling Light. The wireless Mr Beams Anywhere Ceiling Light uses a bright LED from Nichia that provides 80 lumens of light. This is significantly brighter than the tap lights from years ago, and so much brighter than the LED puck lights that are sold in places like Bed, Bath & Beyond. Better yet, the Mr Beams Anywhere Ceiling Light has a motion detector, so whenever Vivian opens her cellar door, the bright LED goes on. It also has an auto shut off, so after Vivan closes the basement door, the Ceiling Light counts down 30 seconds and then automatically shuts off. One Mr Beams battery-powered LED Ceiling Light should last more than 3,200 activations on one set of C batteries - which is 3 years of wireless lighting on one set of batteries under normal use.

Vivian had called an electrician, who quoted her $240 to install a basic ceiling light to light her cellar steps. Then he didn't show up. So Vivian called Mr. Beams. We sent her the the wireless Mr. Beams Ceiling Light, the brightest and best wireless light for lighting up stairways, closets, pantries, basements attics and garages. Vivian will be able to install the Ceiling Light by herself in minutes, and whenever she opens her cellar door, the motion sensor LED light will light up the stairs so she can tell her tomato paste from her tomato sauce.

More ideas to light up the dark areas of your home are available at www.mrbeams.com

Southeast Winter Storms Cause Power Outages - Here is a Wireless Lighting Solution

Many people in the Southeast are experiencing power outages today due to the severe winter storm. Our thoughts are with everyone who is in the dark. If you are reading this on your laptop using battery power, we want to show you our battery powered lights. They could be keeping you house lit right now while the power is out.

At Mr. Beams, we have four different types of wireless lights that work during blackouts. Our Wireless Battery Powered Motion Sensor Ceiling Light can light up hallways, closets, porches, bathrooms and large stair cases. Our Wireless Motion Sensor Security Spotlight can light up your garage and all around your house even during power outages. Our MB530 Wireless Motion Sensor Stair Light can light the stairs before you get to them, helping to prevent falls on the stairs and steps. Our MB723 Stick Anywhere Night Lights can light an entire hallway during a power outage and prevent falls and bumps.

More information is available at www.mrbeams.com . All Mr. Beams products have the brightest available LEDs for their solutions. All Mr. Beams wireless LED lights have motion sensors and automatic shut-off. And all Mr. Beams wireless LED lights are weatherproof to light up brightly outside in all types of weather conditions.

Good luck and stay warm!

Reduce Winter Falls on Ice, Steps and Stairs with Wireless Lighting

The need for adequate lighting to prevent falls is a topic we have written about many times. This is especially true in the winter months when it gets dark earlier and there may be ice or snow on the steps outside. The statistics on falls and serious injuries due to inadequate lighting are astounding. So just a reminder, if you notice dark spots on your stairs, steps, deck stairs, stairwells that might be hiding ice, you could possibly reduce the chances of falling with a wireless motion sensor LED light that can provide extra light in those spots.

Mr. Beams offers wireless LED lighting solutions to light your steps and stairs and help show where ice might be waiting to trip someone. The battery powered MB530 Motion Sensing Stair Light is pictured above. It provides more than 20 lumens of light to light up 6 steps and is weather resistant. This wireless LED motion sensor light also has a patented glow feature that will stay lighted all night to show where the steps are, and then it lights the stairs brightly when it detects motion. The MB723 Stick Anywhere Nightlights can attach anywhere without wires. These wireless LED motion sensor lights are weatherproof and can be placed anywhere inside or outside for lighting stairs and steps. More information on the Mr. Beams wireless LED Motion Sensing Stair Light and Stick Anywhere Night Light is available at www.mrbeams.com

How Bright are LED Lights vs. Incandescent Bulbs and CFLs?

The typical incandescent light – bulb or spotlight – uses between 40W and 100W. We always are asked how our Mr. Beams Wireless LED Lights compare to these incandescent bulbs and spotlights. My first response is that the Mr. Beams Wireless LED Lights don’t use any electricity. These motion sensor LED lights are battery operated, and completely off the grid. And they should make your batteries last at least a year under typical use.

But what people are really asking is this: “How bright are your wireless LED lights?” My old wired outside lights used to have 60W and 75W incandescent bulbs. These lights put out anywhere from 800 lumens to 1100 lumens. What is a lumen? Think of a lumen as a volume of light – similar to paint. If you have 128 ounces of yellow paint, you can cover one side of your house with a light coating of color or a smaller section of the side of your house with a darker coating of color. Light is similar, and lumens is a measure of the total output of light. If that amount of light is concentrated by using a lens (known as optics) then the light will cover less area but be more intense where the light is covering and thus appear brighter. That measurement is lux. What is lux? Lux is the intensity of the light on a surface. Of course, if you start with very little light in the first place, the idea of brightness (in this case light intensity, or lux) will never be achieved, no matter what optics are used to increase brightness.

Light bulbs are high on lumens but lower on lux. The light from a light bulb is emitted in every direction, so the intensity on any one surface (the lux) is never as high as a spotlight. A spotlight takes the same number of lumens (think how much total paint in the can) and concentrates it into an areas about one-third that of a light bulb. Therefore the lux of an incandescent spotlight can be three times greater than the lux of an incandescent light bulb. So how bright does a light need to be for it to be useful to you?

We will focus this blog entry on outdoor lighting. As mentioned before, my house had all 60W and 75W incandescent bulbs and incandescent spotlights to achieve what I thought was the right amount of light. I was wrong because I did not take into account the fact that the human eye adjusts to darkness. Once the human eye is adjusted to darkness, a very low light level is adequate. I’m saying that 100 lumens is more than adequate to light up an area effectively.

In five minutes you can install a battery powered Mr. Beams Motion Sensor Security LED Spotlight and have 140 lumens of light. The photo of our battery operated LED Motion Sensor Security Spotlight shows how much light 140 lumens provides. You can read by 100 lumens if it is concentrated with optics. You can choose clothes in a closet. You can scare someone or something away with the light provided by all Mr. Beams wireless LED lights.

So if you need light right now - for a quick solution for security lighting, as a lighting solution to prevent falls, or as a solution to light a closet - the light provided by Mr. Beams wireless motion sensor LED lights will give you enough lux to provide security lighting, safety lighting and convenience lighting. Mr. Beams battery powered lights will also provide the best wireless lighting for security, safety and convenience. Wireless lighting will save you money because you can install it yourself without an electrician and move the light exactly where you need it. For the best quick, wireless security lighting, look to Mr. Beams wireless LED lights and be confident that the light is bright enough for the security, safety and convenience that you require in your lighting.

LED Lighting is a Better Choice for a Motion Sensor Light than CFL Lighting

LED lighting is a better option for a motion sensor light than a compact fluorescent because the life of a CFL light could be greatly shortened by regular turning on and off. The Mr Beams Motion Sensor LED lights will trigger when motion is detected. When motion is no longer detected, a timer is started inside the light. Depending on the product, the light will turn off automatically within a minute or so.

For example, the Mr Beams MB980 Anywhere Ceiling Light will auto shutoff in 60 seconds after motion is no longer detected. Depending on the application, the light may turn on 10 to 20 times a day if not more. The normal life of a CFL bulb may be 6,000 hours however this can be reduced by up to 85 percent when turned on and off quickly and often. To meet the 6,000 hour life span, a CFL should be on three hours or more. Also, it takes more than three minutes for a CFL to begin working efficiently.

Another application where CFLs are not effective is in a car garage. Garages experience extremes in temperature and tend to go on and off frequently. CFLs will wear out quickly in a garage due to the constant on and off and high heat and low temperatures. We recommend a Mr. Beams Motion Sensor LED Spotlight to light a garage. Mr. Beams wireless lights install in minutes. The Mr. Beams Motion Sensor LED Spotlight is designed with a motion sensor to go on and off frequently. The durable LED holds up to all temperature extremes, is vibration resistant and can go on and off up to 3,200 times on one set of batteries.

CFLs are good for certain applications but when it comes to motion sensor lights similar to Mr Beams LED lights, it is best to look for a light source that is well made for the application. LEDs do not have the same limitations as CFLs and it makes them better suited to be controlled by a motion sensor. The best solution for a motion sensor light are LED lights. The best wireless LED lights are made by Mr. Beams and are far more durable than CFLs.

Lighting During Power Outages in the Holiday Blizzard of 2010

My brother just emailed me a photo of his car buried in snow in Maplewood, NJ. His house got about 20 inches of snow. He was dreading having to dig out his car, which would take more than an hour. But at least he did not have a power outage caused by the blizzard. More than 2 million people lost power at some point during the blizzard. What did they have prepared for the power outage? Here is our estimate of how unprepared people were for a power outage:

Candles Only – 14%
Flashlights Without Working Batteries – 17%
Flashlights / Lanterns Only – 21%
Nothing – 22%
Flashlights / Lanterns and Candles – 26%

Having flashlights without batteries is a big mistake – by our estimates around 350,000 homes found themselves without working flashlights during the blizzard. More than 450,000 people had no emergency light source ready. Remember the sinking feeling you get when the power goes out and you realize that you are not prepared with any emergency lights? The people living in these 800,000 homes all had that feeling during this recent blizzard.

The solution to lighting your home during a power outage is wireless lighting. We recommend that every home has at least one flashlight for these power outages, but an even better solution is wireless lighting like the LED lights from Mr. Beams. Wireless lighting is a category of lights that use batteries instead of direct wiring to electricity. Mr. Beams has perfected this type of lighting by using the brightest LEDs, the best motion sensors, the most efficient components to extend battery life, and simple ways to attach the wireless lights to any surface.

The leading solution to light your home during a power outage is the Mr. Beams LED Ceiling Light. The Mr. Beams LED Ceiling Light can attach to any wall, ceiling, closet or porch in minutes. This wireless light will only activate when it is dark (it has a light sensor) and only activate when it detects motion (motion sensor). It is so bright that it can light up an entire hallway, yet so efficient that it gets more than 2,400 activations on one set of batteries.

A complete line of lighting solutions for power outages and blackouts are available from Mr. Beams at www.mrbeams.com.

Coupon for Lighting Up Your Stairs with Wireless LED Lights

One of the main reasons we started the Mr. Beams LED Lighting company in the first place was to light dark stairs. Stairs are notoriously dark. There are no electrical sockets on lights. The best solution to light dark stairs would provide a wireless light that is battery powered. The best solution to light stairs would be off when you were not walking down the stairs in the dark, and light up immediately when you needed to walk on the stairs. For this a motion sensor would be the best solution.

Dark stairs are often dangerous. The chances of missing a step that is not well lit are too high for anyone to accept dark stairs. When you are tired because a child is calling out to you in the middle of the night, or when you are coming to the aid of an elderly parent or guest, or when you hear a strange noise, you are in a state of sleepiness that also increases your chances of missing a step and falling down some stairs.

We feel so strongly about helping people light up their stairs that we are offering a big discount to encourage people to light up their dark stairs using the Mr. Beams wireless motion sensor LED lights. Use the coupon code HNDY30 and get 30% off your order at www.mrbeams.com. We recommend the Mr. Beams MB530 Wireless LED Stair Light. This light packs a lot of light in a small package. It installs easily with two screws. The Mr. Beams MB530 Wireless LED Stair Light has a motion sensor, so when it detects motion it lights up brightly. One Mr. Beams MB530 Wireless LED Stair Light can light up 6 steps. For additional safety, the Mr. Beams MB530 Wireless LED Stair Light has a patented "glow" feature. As soon as it gets dark, the Mr. Beams MB530 Wireless LED Stair Light emits a very low light that shows you where the stairs are. As soon as you walk toward the Stair Light, it lights up to full brightness. The Mr. Beams MB530 Wireless LED Stair Light is also the perfect solution to light up dark hallways.

All Mr. Beams Wireless LED Lights use the best available LEDs. LEDs are so durable that they never need to be replaced, so efficient that they can last for years on a single set of batteries, and bright enough to light up stairs, hallways and outdoor areas. All Mr. Beams Wireless LED Lights also use the latest motion sensors and light sensors, so these lights go on only when it is dark and these lights go on as soon as they detect motion.

More information about the best solution to lighting dark stairs is available at www.mrbeams.com.

Mr. Beams Also Makes Great Wireless LED Lights with Remote Control

Did you know that you can keep a remote control next to your bed that turns on a light when you hear a noise? Whether the noise is outside or inside, simply press the remote control and a light shines brightly to scare something away or help you see what caused the noise.

The products are made by Mr. Beams and are called Remote Controlled Wireless Lights. There two types of LED lights that can be controlled by a single remote control. Both LED lights are completely wireless – this means that you can place these lights anywhere without wiring and without having to call an electrician. These wireless LED lights are so easy to install that anyone can attach them in minutes.

Let’s look at some practical applications of remote controlled wireless LED lights:
1. The outside corners of your house are dark. You hear noises at night and they keep you up. Simply install one or two Mr. Beams Wireless LED Security Spotlights using just one screw (included). Attach the Mr. Beams Wireless LED Security Spotlights to your house, to a tree, or anywhere else that will make you feel more secure. If you hear a noise at night, press the remote control and turn on 140 lumens of light to let everyone and everything know that you heard them.
2. Your dog disappears into the darkness when you let her out at night. Simply install one or two Mr. Beams Wireless LED Security Spotlights using just one screw (included). Attach the Mr. Beams Wireless LED Security Spotlights to a tree and turn the Wireless Spotlight on with your remote control from inside your house. One remote control can turn on dozens of Mr. Beams LED Spotlights. Never worry about your dog again when you let her out at night.
3. You wake up in the middle of the night and need to go to the bathroom, or need to help a child or elderly adult in the house. You don’t want to turn on the overhead lights because it will disturb your sleep and wake up others. The solution is to install the Mr. Beams Wireless LED Path Lights to your walls. When you wake up, press the remote control that you keep on your night table and all of the Mr. Beams Wireless LED Path Lights will illuminate. As soon as you return to bed, press the remote control again and all of the Wireless LED Path Lights will turn off.
4. You learn about how many people fall in their homes and decide that better lighting will lower the probability of someone falling. Mr. Beams has motion sensor wireless lights as well as remote control wireless lights. You install the Mr. Beams Wireles LED Stair Lights and Remote Control Wireless LED Path Lights throughout your hallways, stairs and bathrooms. One remote control can activate multiple Mr. Beams lights. This lights up your floors and stairs and reduces falls caused by improper lighting.
5. You know that your house needs better outside lighting. You have a budget. The solution for low-cost outside lighting is wireless LED lighting from Mr. Beams. Unlike solar lighting - which cannot provide bright light and must be in direct contact with sunlight – Mr. Beams lights are bright and work anywhere. They are 5-12 times brighter than the typical solar light, and provide bright lighting for path lighting, driveway lighting, doorway lighting, yard lighting, shed lighting, garage lighting and gazebo lighting. You can install 6 Mr. Beams wireless LED lights with remote control on / off in under 1 hour for less than $200! If you called an electrician, it would take 3 weeks and cost you more than $1,500!

As you can see, remote controlled lights from Mr. Beams solve many lighting problems. They are the solutions to the following:
How do I put security lights on my house?
Answer: Mr. Beams Remote Controlled Security Spotlight attached to the house
How do I light up the yard for my dog?
Answer: Mr. Beams Remote Controlled Security Spotlight attached to a tree
How do I light a path to the bathroom?
Answer: Mr. Beams Remote Controlled Path Lights attached to the wall
How can I help prevent falls in my home?
Answer: Mr. Beams Remote Controlled Path Lights attached to the stairway wall
How can I light up outside my house without an electrician?
Answer: A combination of the Mr. Beams Remote Controlled Security Spotlights and Remote Controlled Path Lights
Where can I buy Mr. Beams LED lights? Go to www.mrbeams.com

Light Up Your Garage with Wireless Lights from Mr. Beams

We have 6 light bulbs in our garage. 2 each on the garage door openers and two exposed bulbs in the ceiling. When these light bulbs are working we have a brightly lit garage. However, they are never working. The vibration of the garage opening combined with the cold winter in Northeast Ohio and our tendency to forget to turn the garage light off at night limits the life of these bulbs to less than 3 months. I got tired of moving the cars out, getting the ladders, cleaning off the dead bugs and stretching to reach the bulbs.

My solution to lighting up my garage is wireless LED lighting. Specifically the battery powered lights from Mr. Beams. In less time than it takes to change a light bulb, I easily installed the MB360 LED Security Spotlight on the wall. Once the large garage door opens, this battery operated LED motion sensor Spotlight turns on and lights up the entire garage. Even better, this wireless LED light also lights up when I open the garage door to take out the trash. And because it has auto shut-off, I never have to open the door to check if I left the light on.

My second solution to lighting up my garage is to install the MB980 Battery Operated Anywhere LED Ceiling Light from Mr. Beams. Again, this wireless LED light installs in minutes. The Mr. Beams Wireless LED Ceiling Light gives off bright LED light as soon as it detects motion. So when I open the door to go into my dark garage, the Wireless LED Ceiling Light detects my motion and turns on. The bright light is as useful as light from light bulbs. But it is more efficient, does not use energy (off the grid), and can last more than 2 years on one set of batteries. Once I leave the garage, this wireless auto shut-off LED light turns off and stays off.

More wireless LED lighting solutions are available at www.mrbeams.com

Cold Weather Operation of Mr Beams Wireless LED Lights

Every winter, we get a few questions about how well Mr Beams Wireless LED Lights will work in very cold environments. One attribute of LEDs that makes them ideal for outdoor applications is their extended temperature range. LED lights can be very durable in cold environments however every component that makes up the LED battery powered light needs to have an extended temperature range.

Taking this into consideration, Mr Beams Wireless LED lights have an operating temperature range of -4 degrees F to 140 degrees F at a relative humidity of 90% (-20 degrees C to 60 degrees C at a relative humidity of 90%). We do this by selecting every component in our products to meet or exceed this temperature range.

To make sure a product can operate over the extreme temperature range, only batteries with an extended temperature range can be used. Energizer, Duracell, Panasonic and other battery manufacturers offer an industrial temperature range battery. Let's take the example of an Energizer Industrial D Size Alkaline battery. The datasheet for this battery on the Energizer website is http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/EN95.pdf. It has a temperature range of 0 degrees F to 130 degrees F (-18 degrees C to 55 degrees C). The specification for the battery sets the operating temperature of the Mr Beams MB360 Battery Powered LED Security Spotlight with this battery installed. That is still a pretty good operating temperature.

One important point though is that light output will decrease at the very low temperatures. Why? The efficiency of the LED actually improves at colder temperatures (ie more light is generated for the amount of power consumed from the battery) so that cannot be the reason. It turns out that the battery performance is considerably reduced at the lower temperatures. Looking at this technical bulletin on the Energizer website at http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/BatteryIR.pdf, you can see in Figure 2 that the internal resistance of the battery increases at the lower temperature. The higher internal resistance of the battery hurts the battery performance. It impacts the performance of the light to more than offset the increase in LED performance therefore overall the light output is decreased. We estimate that the lumen output of any wireless LED light at lower temperatures may drop as much as 20% based on the degradation in performance of the battery in cold weather.

The bottom line is that Mr Beams Wireless LED lights have been installed and working at low temperatures for years. They are a great solution for outdoor lighting in cold weather environments. If you have a cold weather lighting application, we hope you will consider the Mr Beams LED lights. For more information on why Mr Beams Wireless LED lights are well designed for outdoor lighting applications, please visit our blog entry "How to Choose the Best Outdoor Lighting" or visit our website at www.mrbeams.com.

Review of the Best Wireless Night Light from Mr. Beams

We made the claim that Mr. Beams makes the very best wireless LED night light available. HEre are just some of the reviews that we have received from customers who used the Mr. Beams Stick Anywhere Night Light as the solution for dark hallways, solution for dark stairs and the solution for dark outdoor steps. Customers have installed the Mr. Beams wireless LED night light in minutes and have helped to prevent falls and make their homes safer.

Greg, New York, NY
The motion sensor has a wide angle, and as i walk down my hall, the lights light up when i get within four feet (like an 80-degree angle) away, which is great. They light up at night, at dusk, at dawn, and when it's grey & cloudy like today. Yesterday was sunny, even (sort of) in my hallway, and they detected that and didn't light up.

So for about $50 (forty for the lights, ten for the batteries) i now have illumination in my hallway, my kids aren't scared of walking down it, my parents & in-laws need not worry about tripping

Sarah, Plymouth, MN
These little LED motion lights are perfect for what I bought them for: to light up the small room/area where I keep the cats' little box and as a night light for the bathroom. The motion detection is super sensitive and the light detection is also pretty sensitive.

Annie, California
I have the night lights going up my stairs. Since there are no plugs, these were perfect. They work awesome after turning off the tv and trying to walk upstairs in total darkness.

Katherine, New Paltz, NY
These are the Best lights. I have them on my stairs, and near the master bathroom. No more turning on a big light in the middle of the night, or fumbling for the light switch. Our stair light is thirty feet up and we can’t replace it. These work perfectly.

Richard, Charlotte, NC
Purchased this to put in a stairway which is very dark at night. It is fantastic. It took 5 minutes to install. We should have done this long ago.

Marcia, Piscataway, NJ
An excellent product, just what I needed. They solve the problem of no outlet where a motion sensor is needed, and if I don't mount them I can shift them around to get the light just right.

Thomas, Katy, TX
Nobody notices that the lights are there during the day (we used them to iluminate the stairs), but at night they are a nice safety feature to have for anyone that needs to use the stairs. I recommend this product to anyone that wants to enhance the safety within the house (stairs, walkway, passageway or any other area) and still maintain a nice balanced "look" inside your home.

Mr. Beams Wireless Battery LED Lights for Porch Light

Mr Beams has taken a lot of pictures of our wireless LED lighting products as they provide important lighting solutions. We have found that pictures of the lighting applications that show the best solutions solved by our wireless lights is very helpful when looking to light different spots: Garages; Sheds; Doorways; Bathrooms; Showers; and many others. How better to show the best uses of our wireless battery powered lights than to take a lot of pictures? We have hired a photographer or two but have taken a lot of amateur photographs too (really amateur in my case).

One of my favorite pictures is of our MB980 Anywhere Ceiling Light used as a porch light. An LED porch light with motion sensor is a great application for the MB980. You can use it to add light to a dim porch or garage and the fact that it is battery powered and has a motion sensor eliminates the need for a light switch. When motion is detected, the battery powered light turns on and stays illuminated until no motion is detected for 30 seconds. During daytime, a photo cell detects that it is light out and prevents the light from activating. The MB980 is weatherproof and wireless - all the mounting hardware needed for easy installation comes with the unit.

We have also seen people use the MB360 Security Light as a porch light. This is a great LED porch light for larger porches because you can mount it at one end of the porch pointed towards the entry way, stairs and door. It operates exactly like the MB980 but is designed to be more of a flood light or spotlight. It is small enough to be unobtrusive in the corner of a porch. The other thing we have seen people do is to use the MB371 Remote Control Spotlight as a porch light. This is a unique product because it operates exactly as the MB360 in that it has a motion sensor and turns on when it detects motion however it also comes with a remote control such that if you are inside your house and you want to turn the light on for someone coming home or coming to visit, you can turn the light on with a remote. This is the only bright porch light available with a remote control for turning the light on and off.

So maybe our photography isn't always the best but in the case of a battery powered LED porch light like the one shown in this picture, I think we got it right. The Mr Beams LED lighting products are great as a porch light, garage light or for a number of other outdoor lighting applications where a completely wireless light is the best light to solve the problem.