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.

The Best Night Light is from Mr. Beams

When we set out to design the world’s best night light, two things drove us:
1. The world’s best night light must be attachable anywhere, regardless of electrical outlets
2. The world’s best night light needs to be off when you want to sleep and on when you need it
3. The world’s best night light must not be so bright that it disturbs your sleep, but bright enough to prevent falls
4. The world’s best night light must work anywhere, so you can use it outside and in any country that you may travel to

Our final design meets all of these design objectives.

1. The Mr. Beams MB723 Stick Anywhere Night Light can attach to any surface and stand on any table, nightstand or counter. As a wireless LED light (it is battery powered), the Stick Anywhere Night Light does not need an electrical outlet, and is the perfect solution to light up stairs, hallways and bathrooms where electrical outlets are rare.

2. The Mr. Beams MB723 Stick Anywhere Night Light stays off when it is not needed so it doesn’t waste electricity or disturb your sleep. When you move it has a sensitive motion sensor that activates a bright LED to light up your path. It is the best solution to light up your path at night between your bed and the bathroom. As soon as you get up to go to the bathroom this wireless night light illuminates the path, but should not wake up anyone else. The Stick Anywhere Night Light has an auto shut-off after 30 seconds of no motion, so this battery-powered night light is off automatically.

3. The Mr. Beams wireless Stick Anywhere Night Light is brighter than you would expect for a battery-powered LED light. And the light is focused on the floor, so it does not blind you when you get up to go to the bathroom at night or check on the kids. It will light up your path wirelessly with its motion sensor and provide the perfect amount of light at night.

4. John Osher is the best product development guy in the world. Among his many inventions are the Crest SpinBrush toothbrush and the ShaveMan battery-powered shaver. Professor Bill Sahlman of Harvard Business School writes about John as the penultimate entrepreneur. John Osher travels with the Mr. Beams Stick Anywhere Night Light. “I love your light” he recently told me. “It’s the first thing I pack when I travel. I also love waking up in a strange hotel room and having the perfect amount of light go on to help me find my way to the bathroom.” I also travel with our wireless night light and love having it in a hotel room in China, when I am disorientated from the time change.

So can we call the Mr. Beams Stick Anywhere Night Light the world’s best night light? Have we created the best solution to prevent falls at night and the best solution for a night light? In my next blog I will list what our customers say about our Stick Anywhere Night Light and how it solves their night lighting problems.

Probably the Best Playground Lights Available

High-end playgrounds and trampolines are everywhere in the backyards of our neighborhood. I am amazed how much use these outdoor items get. While I never see kids playing football or hockey in the street anymore, these playgrounds and trampolines seem to be constantly in use.

Until it gets dark, that is. Once darkness sets in, the playgrounds and trampolines are quiet. Except at the house of Ned and Andrea Montague. Ned and Andrea installed wireless lighting for their playground and trampoline and it allows the kids to play well into dark. And they did it at a cost under $120.

Ned and Andrea installed two Mr. Beams LED Wireless Motion Sensor Spotlights on the top of their playground. The first Mr Beams LED Spotlight lights up their swings. The second lights up the stairs leading up to the fort. It also lights up the slide because the Mr. Beams LED Spotlight can be adjusted to light in any direction and is battery powered so it can be installed anywhere.

“We looked around for lighting solutions for our playground and trampoline. The kids wanted to stay out later and we wanted to encourage the outdoor activities.” Andrea told me. “Wiring lights to the playground was going to cost more than $1,800. Other battery-operated lights were not weatherproof. Once we found the Mr. Beams line of wireless LED lights we thought this could be the best solution to light our playground. And it is a great solution.”

With a third Mr. Beams Wireless LED Spotlight lighting up their trampoline, the Montags now have a well-lit playground and trampoline that the neighborhood kids can play on well after dark. For a cost of under $120 they provided lighting for their playground and trampoline by installing three Mr. Beams Wireless LED Spotlights available at www.mrbeams.com .

Light Up Your Basketball Court with Mr. Beams Wireless Spotlights

December is basketball season. I am reminded of shoveling the snow and chipping the ice off my driveway in Longmeadow, Massachusetts so we could play 2-on-2 in the winter. Unfortunately, the games were always cut short by 4:30 pm darkness. That is if they were not already cut short by a fight after Sam Radner called a foul after barely being touched.

At Mr. Beams, we have a product that is the perfect solution to light up outdoor basketball courts. The Mr. Beams Wireless LED Spotlight should be renamed the “wireless outdoor basketball court light.” The Mr. Beams Wireless LED Spotlight can attach to any backboard, tree, pole or anywhere on your house in minute. A wireless light means no electrician, no wires and do-it-yourself installation. You can also move the Wireless Spotlight whenever you need to. At $40 it is a much cheaper light that installing a wired light to light your outdoor basketball court. This is why we claim to have the best light for an outdoor basketball court. Simply install batteries to power this light, drive one screw to attach the base and you can play basketball well into the night. This LED Spotlight is also available with a remote control to turn the wireless lights on and off from inside your house.

I think that our next Mr. Beams battery powered wireless LED light will have a camera in it so you can replay that weak foul call made by your friend.

The Best Lighting Solutions for Many Dark Areas of Your Home

In our last blog we wrote about how LED light bulbs will eventually replace incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs. They are durable, efficient and last for years. Mr. Beams battery-powered motion sensor LED lights are not designed to replace traditional light bulbs. Instead, Mr. Beams LED lights are designed to replace darkness – areas inside and outside your house where the darkness is a problem but the high cost of calling in an electrician to install a light fixture holds you back. For $10-$50, Mr. Beams provides the best wireless closet light, the best wireless shed light, the best wireless shower light, the best wireless attic light, the best wireless driveway light, the best wireless playground light, and the best wireless night light available anywhere. We use the most current LEDs for the brightest light of any battery-operated light. We use the latest motion sensor technology so the lights go on right when they are needed. We have designed the electronics to maximize battery life so you can get more than a year out of one set of batteries. And we have developed long-range remote controls for our battery-operated LED lights so you can turn your lights on and off from up to 100 feet.

So take a minute to think about all of the dark closets, storage spaces and corners in your house. Think about the darkness between your bed and the bathroom at night, or the kids room. Notice all of the dark doorways, dark corners outside your house, dark walkways and dark parts of your driveway. These are the lighting solutions that Mr. Beams was designed for. Our lighting solutions come in different shapes and brightness. The MB980 wireless Ceiling Light is the best solution for lighting dark closets, porches, gazebos, sheds, attics, crawl spaces, basements and utility rooms. The MB360 wireless Security Spotlight is the best solution for lighting dark driveways, dark garages, dark backyards, dark doorways, dark barns and dark playgrounds. The MB530 Stair Light is the best solution for lighting dark stairs, dark decks and dark docks. The MB723 Stick Anywhere Night Lights are the best lighting solutions for dark kids rooms, night lights where there is no outlet, night lighting bathrooms and night lighting hallways.

Whatever your darkness problem, you can find great wireless lighting solutions from the battery-powered LED lights from Mr. Beams. Please look us up at www.mrbeams.com to learn more.

Where Can You Buy Good LED Light Bulbs?

I had a meeting with a friend who is a sales manager for a company that we deal with. He is very technically savvy but when we talked about the state of LED light bulbs he was unaware of how far they have progressed into the retail market. Home Depot carries Philips LED light bulbs and the Lighting Science Group's Ecosmart LED light bulbs. Lowe's carries Sylvania LED light bulbs and Feit Electric LED light bulbs. The pricing is a little high but the return on investment from LED light bulbs can be just a few months if the light is on more than 8 hours per day. We know from our testing that the product quality is quite good. I think my friend probably falls into the same category as most people - who really browses the lighting section at these stores?

The bottom line is that LED lighting products like the Mr Beams LED lighting product line are finding their way into mass retail. 6 to 12 months ago, I was telling people that it would be 18 months before we started seeing quality LED lighting products hitting the shelves at the stores they shop. 2011 will be a breakthrough year for LED lighting. Expect to see 25W-equivalent LED light bubs selling for $19.99, up through 40W-equivalent LED lights selling for under $40.

Many people wonder how you compare the light output of LED light bulbs to the light output of incandescent bulbs and cfl / fluorescent bulbs. Some manufacturers use the term “equivalent to” or “compare to”. Watts are not a good indication because LED light bulbs and CFL / fluorescent bulbs use less watts to produce similar light. In theory, an LED bulb may need just 10W to produce the same amount of light as a 60W incandescent bulb. So when comparing light from an LED light source to light from an incandescent bulb or cfl / fluorescent, compare lumens instead. Lumens measure the total light output. A 60W incandescent bulb produces about 880 lumens. We have yet to find a LED bulb that produces 880 lumens, but we expect to see some in early 2012.

For comparison purposes, the Mr. Beams MB360 wireless Security Spotlight produces 140 lumens of light. While this is only the equivalent of a traditional 15W incandescent light bulb, this battery powered light is designed to provide efficient light where it is too expensive to hard wire (at a cost of $200 or more). 140 lumens – when focused properly – provides more than enough light to be a great lighting solution to light up playgrounds, basketball courts, driveways, dark pathways, dark garages and dark doorways.

More information is available at www.mrbeams.com

Battery Powered Lighting Improvements from Advances in Battery Technology

More wireless lighting solutions are now available - made possible by advances in LED technology and advances in battery technology. The two areas are converging to allow battery powered LED lights to find their way into applications where they have previously not been able to provide enough light or provide enough lighting solutions.

LEDs are inherently DC powered devices. Batteries for wireless lights provide DC power. As of just a three years ago, white LEDs were not efficient enough to provide enough light to be considered good off-grid lighting. By efficiency, I mean the lumens of light generated per watt of power consumed was not good enough to build a quality battery light. Over the last few years, advances in LED technology have found their way onto the market. These are not gimmicks - the light output, light color and usefulness of LED products meets or exceeds what incandescent or fluorescent / cfl lights can achieve. LEDs that can exceed 200 lumens per watt are finding their way into the R&D laboratories of the better LED component manufacturers. By comparison, incandescent lights provide just 10 lumens per watt and fluorescent bulbs provide just 45 lumens per watt.

Battery technology is advancing rapidly also. Electric cars, cell phones, smart phones, laptops, portable electronics and other battery powered devices are forcing battery companies to produce higher capacity, better performing batteries. Whether they are non-rechargeable alkaline batteries, rechargeable Li-Ion, NiMH or even more advanced battery chemistries that are finding their way into products and into the R&D laboratories of the better battery manufacturers, you can be pretty sure that the impact will be seen over the coming years.

So combine LED lighting and batteries two years from now with the type of intelligent functions that Mr Beams is integrating into its products. What kinds of products do you think will result from these two rapidly progressing technologies? We think there will be some amazing off grid lighting products, LED lighting products, intelligent LED lights, wireless lights and solar powered LED lights (yes, solar powered lights with rechargeable batteries will only get better as solar cell technology is also advancing rapidly) that are coming. We want to be the company providing the best battery LED lights on the market. Stay tuned.

The Best Wireless Lighting Solutions

Wireless Lighting. Sounds like a dream. The idea of sticking a light wherever you need it and having light for closets, showers, driveways, hallways, bathrooms, sheds and garages is a fantasy. No more electricians. Because they are wireless, you take them with you when you move and can move them anywhere you need.

Now Wireless Lighting is available from Mr. Beams. We had the dream of lights that can be attached anywhere without electricians back in 2003. Not junky tap lights, that give off a light glow and burn out in a few hours. That's not the wireless lighting solution that we wanted. We wanted wireless lighting solutions that gave bright light, turned on and off automatically, was hands-free, and provided this wireless light for more than one year on a set of batteries.

The solution required a combination of many technologies to create the best wireless lighting solutions. LEDs are used to maximize the battery power. Motion Sensors are used for hands-free automatic lighting. Auto shut-off is programmed to conserve the battery life. And battery power is used to make the Mr. Beams lights wireless.

The Mr. Beams products provide the best Wireless Lighting solutions in four different shapes and brightnesses. The Stick Anywhere Night Light is the wireless LED light that attaches to a wall or stands up on its own. It is a great wireless solution to light a path to your bathroom and prevent falls. The Stair Light is an indoor / outdoor light that mounts to a deck post or stairway wall. It lights up stairs without wires, using a motion sensor to activate. It has a glow feature so you always know where the light is. This battery-operated wireless light will last at least one year on one set of batteries. The Mr. Beams Ceiling Light is the best solution for a closet light anywhere. Because it is wireless It mounts in minutes in your closet, attic or shed. Because the Mr. Beams Ceiling Light is weatherproof, it is the best wireless lighting solution for a shower, porch or gazebo. The Mr. Beams Spotlight is the best wireless light solution for all of your outdoor areas. Stick it to a tree for lighting up a backyard, driveway or basketball court. Light up doorways, garages and barns. Because it is wireless you can install it yourself in minutes and move it whenever you need to.

So wireless lights are now a reality at Mr. Beams. We exist to create the best wireless lighting solutions to eliminate darkness. We welcome your ideas for battery-powered light designs. Please let us know how we can help you create better wireless lights by writing us at info@mrbeams.com.

Proof We Make the Best Closet Light

In September I wrote about why our Mr. Beams Battery-Powered LED Ceiling Light is the best wireless closet light available. I pointed out that it provides more than 80 lumens of light on battery power. It can be installed anywhere in minutes. It is motion sensor activated and turns off automatically when you shut the closet door. The Mr. Beams Closet Light is weatherproof and can light up showers, gazebos, porches and sheds.

Since September we have received some great reviews from hundreds of people who have installed the Mr. Beams Ceiling Light. The Handyman Club of America had its members test our wireless LED Ceiling Light and loved it. 26 out of 27 hardcore handy men and women would recommend this product, and they graded it 8.6 points out of 10. Their comments were so positive that is reinforced our belief that the Mr. Beams Ceiling Light is the very best closet light available, and the best utility light to light up attics, sheds, hallways, porches and storage areas. Here are some of the comments from serious handymen and women:

"As a firefighter, I often have to quickly get dressed for emergencies while in a dark dorm. I realized that I can place this light under my bed and as soon as my feet hit the floor, my entire area lights up. I've never been able to find my black socks so quickly."

"A much brighter light than I thought. It easily lights a fair sized closet."

"I would recommend the Anywhere Ceiling Light due to the simple fact that it can be moved all over.I put it our downstairs hall so when our youngest son woke at night to use the bathroom he had plenty of light. Thus eliminating the need to wake my wife or me."

"i would greatly recommend this for closets and other small storage areas where it is not feasible to do a lot of wiring."

"This product is perfect for that one spot that you really need a light,but don't want the hassle of hard wiring."

"It provides a nice handy light for dark places. This is very usefull when your hands are full and you can't carry a flashlight. It's also just nice to have a light come on automatically when it senses movement."

The entire line of wireless battery-powered LED lights from Mr. Beams provide the brightest light available without wires. Our LED lights are all indoor / outdoor lights, motion sensor with auto shut-off, wireless and come with a 1-year warranty. They come in different form factors based on your lighting need: Spotlights; Path Lights' and Wall Lights. Users provide rave reviews about all of our LED battery-operated lights, and we will post more of them in future entries.

Instant Bright Lighting for Property Managers

We have gotten a lot of great feedback from property managers on what types of applications Mr Beams LED lights are good for in the condos, apartment complexes, community associations and other properties that they manage. We realize that a lot of the lighting was designed into the building or property from the beginning. In those cases, a property manager can find the replacement lighting at an electrical supply house. However what we are finding is that there are a number of property management lighting applications where a wireless battery powered light makes a lot of sense.

In one example, a property manager for a condo association found that there were a number of places inside and outside of the condo buildings he was in charge of where a security light could be added. For indoor lighting, he had a number of locations in hallways and stairwells that he thought did not have adequate lighting. For outdoor lighting, there were a number of alleys that had dark spots he felt could be better. He ordered a number of the Mr Beams MB360 Wireless Outdoor Security Light which contain a motion sensor for automatic activation of the lights. His condo association board approved the spotlights as I believe the property manager had identified a place where it was worth spending money. The MB360 is a very cost effective solution for this application. In the end, he was very happy with the lights and ended up recommending the MB980 Anywhere Ceiling Light and MB530 Motion Sensing Step Light to condo owners as a good solution to lighting problems in their condos.

In another example, a different property manager used the MB980 Anywhere Ceiling Light to provide extra lighting at the mail stops on his property. At every set of outdoor mailboxes, he installed an MB980 on the overhang. At night, when residents walk up to get there mail the light would automatically turn on. The MB980 is a weatherproof, battery powered LED light. It has a light sensor that acts as a day / night sensor such that the light only turns on when it is night time. It has a motion sensor to turn on only when it senses motion and it automatically turns off 60 seconds after no motion has been detected. Battery life should be very good in this application.

For the property manager, Mr Beams LED lighting is a good option in applications where you want to add extra lighting but do not want to get an electrician involved. For outdoor lighting, utility room lighting, equipment room lighting, storage room lighting, as a wall light or a battery powered light fixture where wires are not an option, it is worth taking at look at the wireless battery-operated Mr Beams LED lights. If you are a property manager and you have an application that you think our lights would work well in, please email us at info@mrbeams.com.

Indoor Light Pollution

My last blog entry pointed out how traditional outdoor lighting is poorly designed and creates significant light pollution. The culprit is the traditional incandescent light bulb, which emits light in all directions. The CFL bulb copied the incandescent bulb and also emits light in all directions. The result is a lot of wasted light. Why are millions of lampshades sold every year? If the light bulbs were emitting light only in the desired directions, then lampshades would be irrelevant. Other light fixtures that use traditional incandescent and CFL bulbs are providing more light into your eyes than illuminating the floor and walls.

LEDs are designed to shine with tighter directionality. The majority of indoor lighting applications – down-lighting; lamps; sconces; track lighting; ceiling lights; wall-mounted lights – need to emit light over less than 180 degrees. Thus LEDs area better match for most indoor lighting applications. LEDs are more efficient and create less indoor light pollution.

Mr. Beams makes a number of energy efficient LED lights. The motion sensor battery powered Ceiling Light has a bright LED that emits at a 120-degree angle. This tight beam is perfect for lighting closets, sheds, crawl spaces, attics and porches without creating light pollution. The Mr. Beams motion sensor Ceiling Light mounts easily in minutes without an electrician because it is battery powered. It operates for about $1 per year.

The Stick Anywhere Night Light prevents light pollution in your hallways, stairs and bedrooms. Instead of lighting up all night and interfering with your sleep – as most night lights do - the Mr. Beams motion sensor Stick Anywhere Night Light stays dark until it detects movement. At that time it provides the perfect amount of light to prevent falls, but not so much light that it disturbs your sleep mode.

That is the definition of the perfect indoor light: it is on only when you need it and it lights up only what you need illuminated for safety and security. The Mr. Beams battery operated LED lights provide light only when it is needed and only where it is needed. These LED motion sensor lights come in four designs: Spotlight; Ceiling Light; Stair Light; and Wall Light.

How to Reduce Light Pollution

My 7-year old son was recently given a telescope for his birthday. We were excited because we had recently watched an episode of the original Batman TV series where Bruce Wayne was unlocking the secrets of the universe to Dick Grayson through a telescope at Wayne Manor. No doubt Bruce Wayne – being a millionaire when millionaire meant something - had the top of the line telescope and that helped. But there was another reason why our telescope was not able to reveal too much about our universe: light pollution.

Light pollution is caused by improper lighting in heavily-populated areas. Light from outdoor fixtures is aimed improperly and causes light bouncing in all directions. You can see this in parking lot lighting that shines in every direction; street lighting that lights in too many directions; and house lighting that shines in your eyes and shines up instead of just lighting the ground.

Drive down a residential street at night and notice how many lights are shining right at your eyes instead of just lighting the path and the house. Some are a nuisance, while some can almost blind you. This is one of the complaints of incandescent bulbs: they shine in every direction, while you only need the light to shine in specific directions. This is one of the important advantages of LEDs - they are more directional. The typical LED shines a beam of about 120 degrees – putting light in only one third of the places that an incandescent bulb will throw light. This is the main reason that creating an incandescent bulb replacement using LEDs is so challenging. However, this is also why LEDs create much less light pollution compared to incandescent bulbs. And this is why light fixtures made with LEDs can be so much more efficient that incandescent bulbs and CFLs as well. Incandescent bulbs and CFLs emit light in every direction. Does your outside lighting really need to shine upwards?

I recently wrote about the cost savings of using the Mr. Beams battery powered LED security light versus using a traditional wired spotlight with an incandescent bulb. The cost savings is dramatic: If you would normally turn a 75W incandescent light bulb on all night (cost of $35.50 each year at $0.13 per kWh) then you can save about $33 per year by changing to a Mr. Beams battery operated Security Spotlight. The Mr. Beams LED Security Spotlight will only activate when it detects motion. The Spotlight also reduces light pollution. It s bright LED will only shine in the direction that you have pointed it. It is smarter lighting that will prevent light pollution while preventing wasted energy.

Please learn more about the Mr. Beams line of battery powered, motion sensor LED lighting at www.mrbeams.com

How to Choose the Best Outdoor Lighting

What kinds of things are important to consider when you are thinking about adding outdoor lighting at your house? Here is a list of things we think are important:

1. Weatherproofing - Wherever you live, a good outdoor light has to withstand the rain, snow, temperature, humidity etc. You want to put the light up and not worry that rain will leak in or that it will stop working when it gets really hot or cold outside.

2. Ease of Installation - Most of the places you need more outdoor lighting are not easy to wire AC power to. A completely wireless light would allow the light to be installed anywhere. This flexibility gives you some options on adding light to the places you really need it.

3. Controls - How do you turn the light on and off? This is a very important consideration because a wall switch in a convenient place might not be an option.

4. Application - Do you need a spotlight or flood light focused on a particular spot? Do you need a patio light or porch light that provides lighting for steps or near a door way? A lot of times, people notice a place where they just don't have enough light before they think about the first 3 items on this list.

5. Budget - Many people over-pay for their outdoor lighting by installing more light than they need and by not installing controls to prevent the lights from being on all day. Determine how much light you need in lumens (total light output) and lux (how illuminated an object is). Also determine when you want you lights to be off. If you want to save on an electrician then look at battery-powered LED lights.

Mr Beams put a lot of thought into the design of its lights for outdoor lighting. We are making the best battery powered LED lighting solutions by making LEd lights that solve each of issue on the list that are most important when choosing outdoor lighting. So here is how we have addressed these important outdoor lighting issues:

1. IP44 rating - This addresses the weatherproofing issue. You cannot get a solid IP rating without building a robust, sealed housing for the outdoor light and we feel that an IP44 rating is a solid rating for our lighting applications.

2. Battery Powered Lights - Our lights are powered off of batteries. This allows lights to be wireless: installed anywhere without needing wires to AC power. The light output and wireless controls allow the batteries in our products to last more than a year and in some applications several years.

3. Motion detector outdoor lights, outdoor lights sensors, outdoor light remote control - This gives you a convenient way to turn on and off the your outdoor lighting. Intelligence built into our battery powered lights will automatically shut the lights off after some time of no use. .

4. Spotlights, stair lights, ceiling lights - We created different types of bright LED lights to solve the outdoor lighting problems people are telling us about. We have designed our outdoor light fixtures to be outdoor wall lights, outdoor spotlights, outdoor path lights, outdoor stair lights, for landscape lighting etc. Many times we hear from customers about ways they have used our lights that we had not even thought about.

Hopefully Mr Beams LED lighting solutions can provide you with the outdoor lighting options to add outside lights where you need them.

Great Holiday Gifts for your Clients and Customers

Holiday Gift Guide for Your Clients and Customers

If you have clients and customers that you want to give them a holiday thank you gift for their support over the past year, there are many options. I know this because my wife always gets anxious about what she will give her clients and I can either help her or live with her stress. So here is my 2010 Gift Guide for your clients and customers. All gifts are unique and thoughtful - mostly new electronic gadgets that use advanced technology and will have your client or customer thinking about you all year.

Really Big Thank You Gift:
I consider a really big thank you to be in the range of $150-$300. (Any higher starts to look like bribery). There are a few cool electronic gifts that I recommend in the gadget and fun living categories:
Flip Camera – Everyone can use a convenient, small video camera. Even better, the Flip connects to your computer by a built-in USB adaptor so you can upload instantly. In 2 hours you can learn any video editing program and create fun and memorable movies. The Flip is a great electronic gift for the geek and novice. http://www.theflip.com/en-us/

Wine of the Month / Beer of the Month – I like a gift that repeats itself throughout the year. When people have sent me the Wine of the Month and Beer of the Month, I found myself looking forward to the delivery. Thoughtful gift that seems bigger than it costs. http://www.goldmedalwineclub.com/

Sansa Clip with a 1 Year Subscription to Rhapsody – It was hard for me to give up my iPod, but the Sansa Clip combined with Rhapsody is the greatest music gift around. The Sansa Clip is a small, unpretentious MP3 player. Instead of it relying on purchased music, it synchs with your Rhapsody account. Rhapsody gives you access to millions of songs – the difference is that you rent instead of buy. For $10.99 per month, you are giving people the ability to listen to any song out there (with some exceptions) and then to fill up their MP3 player with any song or playlist imaginable. Never get tired of your music – change out regularly at no cost. Fantastic gadget. http://www.sandisk.com/products/sansa-music-and-video-players/sandisk-sansa-clipplus-mp3-player


Super Nice Thank You Gift:
The very nice thank you is in the range of $100-$150. Still much bigger than your clients and customers are used to receiving as gifts. Here are some ideas:
Spa Package – Buy a treatment at a local spa. Get your client or customer a holiday thank you gift in the form of a massage or facial.

Apple TV - Apple TV has been redesigned to be small yet big on entertainment. Apple TV allows you to rent from a large selection of HD movies — many available the same day they come out on DVD. Buy Apple TV for your client or customer as a holiday gift and they can watch Netflix titles instantly. Apple TV also allows your holiday gift receiver to rent TV shows, commercial free in HD. Apple TV also lets you stream photos and music from your computer to your widescreen TV. http://www.apple.com/appletv/

Very Thoughtful Thank You Gifts:
These gifts are under $100. Very thoughtful and useful holiday gifts that seem much more expensive than they are and provide great convenience.
Mr. Beams LED Lights – We give these battery-powered LED lights to people as gifts all the time and they love them. Every one of your clients and customers has dark spaces in their home that need lighting. The Mr. Beams LED motion sensor lights can attach anywhere in minutes because they are battery operated. They will go on whenever they detect motion and your client or customer will thank you every time the Mr. Beams light turns on. These lights come in many different forms and are weatherproof for wireless outdoor lighting. Available in Spotlight; Ceiling Light; Wall Light. www.mrbeams.com

Duracell myGrid – Clever product that allows you to charge many electronic devices simply by laying the device on the myGrid pad. Duracell has been launching a number of products that provide a charge to a variety of electronic devices. The myGrid is a great holiday gift because it will allow your clients and customers to charge electronic devices without directly plugging in. http://www.duracell.com/en-US/category/mygrid.jspx

A Dark Room With No Windows Needs Wireless Lights

I walked around my house yesterday and counted seven rooms and two walk in closets without windows. Of the seven rooms, two rooms are bathrooms, two rooms are utility rooms, one garage, one attic and one basement storage room. Of these rooms, there was not adequate lighting in the utility rooms and attic until I added wireless battery powered LED lights.

One of the utility rooms is small and one is large enough to walk into. There was no lighting in the small utility room so as a utility light, I added a Mr Beams MB980 Anywhere Ceiling Light attached to the ceiling just inside the door. It is an LED light with a motion sensor and lights up when I open the door. The larger utility room has a single light bulb that can be turned on with a light switch but the room is so crowded with the furnace, water heater, storage shelves and a sink that I added a second battery powered LED light just to cover the space that the light bulb could not get light to. I added the Mr Beams MB360 Security Spotlight because I could mount the LED spotlight easily to the unfinished wall and point it towards the area I needed light the most. These battery operated LED lights work very well for utility room lighting.

My dark attic has the pull down stairs. When I get to the top of the stairs, there is a pull string to turn on a light bulb at the top of the stairs. With all of the stuff we have stored up there, a lot of the attic is dark blocked by various boxes and items that we really have no place else to put (why can't we ever get rid of anything?). First, it was nice to have a motion sensor LED light to put up there because the motion sensor picks us up just as we get to the top of the stairs. Second, it was great to install the light in minutes by putting just two screws in to mount the LED light. No electrician needed. I go up into the attic rarely enough that I know those batteries will last for years. I used the MB360 again because it puts out a lot of light and it was easy to direct exactly where I needed the light.

So for dark rooms without a window, battery powered LED lighting is a great option. Having a wireless light with a motion sensor or remote control helps a lot because it makes it convenient to control the light. Mr Beams LED lights are great in utility room lighting, storage room lighting, auxiliary lighting in garages, attic lighting and basement lighting because a lot of times these are windowless rooms where there just isn't enough light.

What is Your Home Security Worth?

What is your home security worth? Most of us have made that decision by how much we invested in alarm systems and lighting around our house. I have the conversation with customers every day. They want lighting around their home – maybe it’s an under-lit back door or a dark corner of the house or a backyard where the dog disappears into the night. I ask them if the problem is worth $300 to solve – the cost of getting an electrician to install a new light fixture on their house. Often times the answer is no - $300 is too much to pay to add a light.

At Mr. Beams we also believe that $300 is too much to solve this problem. So we designed our Mr. Beams battery powered lights to solve this problem for under $40. In fact, for $300 we can brightly light up 2 doorways, 2 corners on your house, your shed, your walkway and the edge of your backyard! And we can do it without using any electricity, with motion sensors to turn the lights on when needed and off when not needed, and with the flexibility so you can move the lights whenever you need to.

So here is our list for brightly lighting up the outside of your house for less than the cost of installing one light with an electrician:
1. Mr. Beams Ceiling Light to light up your front porch and your back door. You stopped lighting up your porch and doorway because of the cost of electricity. In fact, leaving a 75W bulb on all night will cost you $35.50 each year at $0.13 per kWh! In addition, your bulbs burn out every 3 months (another $24 for a total of $59.50 a year per door - $119.00 total for two doorways). The battery powered Mr. Beams Ceiling Light will use less than $1 per year to operate. It will turn on whenever someone approaches because it has a motion sensor. It is a bright LED light that will light up your porch and front entrance. Total cost: $79.98 for 2 Mr. Beams lights.
2. Mr. Beams battery-operated LED Motion Sensor Security Spotlights on the corners of your house. We all have dark corners on the lesser-used sides of our house. The Mr. Beams LED Motion Sensor Security Spotlights will detect for motion all night. When an animal or a person is detected, the bright LED will turn on until the motion goes away. Because they are battery powered, they need no wires and you can install them anywhere in 5 minutes or less. 2 Mr. Beams lights for $79.98.
3. Your shed is dark. It creates a big hazard for you when you run in to grab a tool. Put a Mr. Beams battery powered LED Ceiling Light in the shed and never have to worry about darkness, spiders, sharp objects or rakes on the ground. The Mr. Beams Motion Sensor LED Ceiling Light installs in minutes. It will stay off until it detects the door opening. Then it will shine its bright LED to light up your shed. Once you leave, the Mr. Beams LED Ceiling Light’s motion sensor will tell the battery-powered light to shut off. $39.99.
4. Walkways are tripping hazards – especially in the winter. The Mr. Beams Path Lights are bright LED lights on stakes. They have motion sensors to light up brightly when they detect motion, then auto shut-off after 60 seconds. They are much brighter than solar path lights. And because they are battery powered, they don’t need access to the sun to work. They also have a unique remote control to turn them on and off. 2 for $59.99.
5. Light up the back of your backyard with the Mr. Beams LED Motion Sensor Security Spotlight. We attached a Mr. Beams battery powered LED Spotlight to a tree out back in one minute using one screw. When our dog goes out at night we worry about coyotes and skunks. Once she got skunked and it was a 3-day nightmare. The Mr. Beams Spotlight detects motion and shines a bright LED light to show us if any animals are around. It also lights up when our dog passes it and we can see where she is. The batteries power the LED motion sensor security Spotlight for more than 18 months and survive the northern winters. $39.99.

So I just showed you how to add security and safety to your home by lighting up all of the dark spaces with the Mr. Beams battery powered LED lights with motion sensors. If you do the math, this entire package of lights will cost $299.93 – the same as hiring an electrician to install just one light. In addition, you can save more than $200 per year in electricity by using battery operated lights that are off the grid. For reading this blog I will offer another 20% off so this entire package of lights will cost just $239.94. Please enter the coupon code “20percent” at check-out to get 20% off any Mr. Beams battery operated LED lights at www.mrbeams.com.

Reclaim Your Upstairs: How To Fix Dark Attics

I tell my wife Lisa that she was never properly initiated into our family because she never had to spend a night at Grandma Isabel’s house. My Grandma Isabel lived in a post-WWII bungalow-style house on Long Island. Upstairs were two of the smallest bedrooms you ever saw. Each had cots on metal frames build into an alcove in the wall.

The most memorable part of the upstairs was the closets. I call them closets but they were actually full-sized doors leading into dark attic space. They were dim and smelly as only a grandmother’s attic can smell and took up most of the upstairs. One time when my brother and I were fighting I chased him into the dark attic and his leg fell through the floor and he was stuck. After I hit him with a few cheap shots I ran to get an adult to pull him out. We respected that dark attic from then on and mostly stayed out of it.

Many people have a lot of attic space. Most of the space is not easy to use due to poor lighting. The Mr. Beams battery operated LED motion sensor lights are perfect for attic spaces and can turn uncomfortable spaces into good storage spots. Start with the MB980 Ceiling Light. This bright battery-powered LED light goes on once motion is detected so there is no fumbling for the pull cord. It is bright and will light up about 15 square feet of attic space. It will stay on as long as it detects motion, and then automatically shut off 30 seconds after you leave. I have left our attic light on so many times – the cost of electricity wasted and the hassle of replacing bulbs is eliminated with the Mr. Beams lights because they have auto shut-off.

For larger attic spaces we make the MB360 Motion Sensor LED Spotlight. This bright battery operated LED spotlight floods light for a distance of 30 feet and can light up 400 square feet. It will illuminate all corners of an attic with bright white light that turns on when it detects motion and turns off automatically when you leave. These batteries will last five years under typical attic usage, and avoids burning through bulbs by leaving them on for weeks. Your typical operating cost is less than $1 per year!

A remote controlled version of the LED Motion Sensor Spotlight is also available. The MB371 Remote Controlled Security Spotlight has a remote control that can be mounted near the entrance to your attic. Before entering the attic press the On button and the Remote Controlled Spotlight will turn on and stay on until you leave. It will light up your attic with bright white light. It is also battery powered so no electrician is needed, no wires needed and no code issues. When you leave your attic just press Off on the remote, or let the LED Security Spotlight shut off automatically.

By installing Mr. Beams LED battery operated lights you save the $200 or more of hiring an electrician and never have to worry about building codes. The LED lights are bright and turn on when they detect your motion. They turn off automatically once you leave. No more burning out of light bulbs. Reclaim your upstairs space and install Mr. Beams lights yourself for a bright attic and prevent kids from falling through the floor.

Closet Lighting with Mr Beams LED Lights

One of Mr Beams' early product ideas was for a wireless closet light. We thought that an automatic closet light controlled when the closet door is opened would be a very good product. We developed a prototype that was a light fixture adaptor that detected motion and turned on a light bulb when the door opened. We quickly found out that people really wanted a light that was easy to install that they could stick anywhere in a closet with no need for wires. The solution they needed was a wireless closet light - battery operated and easy to install.

So we developed a battery powered wireless LED light solution that was meant for closet light applications. We developed a version with motion sensor control and a version with radio frequency control. Either way, it was a battery powered wireless light solution that people could install anywhere in their closet.

Today, after years of working on LED lights and battery powered lights, the wireless closet light solution is still a good one. Currently, Mr Beams offers an MB980 ceiling light that can be easily installed in the ceiling of a closet and provide great closet lighting. Low to the floor where it always seems to be a little too dark in a closet, you can use an MB530 step light or more than one MB723 stick anywhere nightlights that come on with motion. For a walk in closet light, the MB371 remote control spotlight may be a very good option. These lights can be a primary closet light or an auxiliary closet light just adding light where you need it.

If you need a light in your closet, you don't need to call an electrician. You need a battery powered wireless LED closet light that is easy to install that was made to be your closet light.

Mr. Beams Lights Up During Power Outages

In July 2010, there was a power outage in the Washington DC area that left 280,000 customers in the dark. The electric company was able to restore power to some quickly but it took days to get everyone back on line.

Several years ago just before we first launched the Mr Beams products onto the market, we created a test program with more than 50 friends, family, people we worked with, potential customers etc to make sure that people we trusted to give us an honest review of our products were happy with our battery powered LED lights. They tested the MB360 spotlight and MB530 step light both battery power LED lights with motion sensors. We got very good reviews, fixed a few problems that had been caught and then launched the products as quickly after the test run as we could.

It just so happens that a few of our test group lives in the Washington DC area and were hit by the power outage. One was hit for several days. It was nice to get calls from people using the lights for over 3 years that called to say how happy they were that they had battery powered lights installed on their stairs, in their hallways, outside of their houses and did not have to carry a flashlight around for the whole power outage.

We feel strongly that a small number of battery powered LED lights permanently installed will be there where you need them when that power outage inevitably rolls around.

Battery Powered Lights and the Chilean Miners

I was watching Anderson Cooper on CNN talk about the rescue of the Chilean miners and he mentioned several times that they were using battery powered LED lights as their source of light. They had a dark area for sleeping and an area that was illuminated by battery powered lights where they spent their time while awake. Someone was very smart in selecting LED lights because for battery operated lights, LEDs put out more light and last much, much longer on a set of batteries than flashlights, those old tap lights (that no one ever seemed happy with) and other types of battery powered lights.

Mr Beams LED lights are battery operated, wireless lights. Typically, we have a motion sensor or RF control. For example, I would have recommended our MB980 battery-powered motion sensor ceiling light or MB530 battery-powered motion sensor step light for the mine. They are bright LED lights that are motion sensor activated. Perhaps if they wanted a remote controlled product, I may have recommended the MB371 remote controlled spotlight that uses an RF remote control to operate the LED spotlight. On a set of batteries they would have lasted for more than 40 hours. I am sure that the last thing the rescuers wanted to do was lower batteries down to the miners. We feel the same about our customers - we do not want them buying and changing batteries more than they have to. That is why we use the more efficient LEDs and quality components that extend the life of the batteries.

Congratulations to everyone involved with the rescue. They truly are heroes. And thanks to Anderson Cooper for highlighting the role of battery powered LED lights in the mine.

How to Reduce Your Cost of Outdoor Lighting, Part 1

We had a two-headed security spotlight above our garage for years. Every day when I pulled out of the garage to go to work, I would see that spotlight still on and it would drive me crazy. But not always crazy enough to stop the car, go back into the house and turn off the light.

In commercial buildings, lighting accounts for up to 30% of the total electricity consumption. For your home, it is much less – probably less than 15% of the electricity you consume is due to lighting. So turning a light off will not make a significant difference. Unless, of course, it’s your two-headed spotlight.

The math is much simpler than you would expect. If you have two 75-watt bulbs, then you are using 150 watts per hour. If those lights are on for 24 hours, then you are using 3600 watts per day. Since a kilowatt is one-thousand watts, you have burned 3.6 kilowatt-hours (kWh). At $0.15 per kWh, the cost of electricity from leaving your spotlights on all day is $0.54 per day.

So that $0.54 per day adds up to $16.20 per month, and $197.10 per year. Even if you remember to turn that light off 4 out of 7 days each week, it still is costing you $84.24 per year to light up one small area.

When I looked at those numbers I cringed – what a waste of electricity! This is one of the reasons that we at Mr. Beams™ wireless off-grid lighting are so passionate about our products. Yes they provide security from intruders and animals. They also help prevent falls in and around the home. And they save you the expense of an electrician because they are battery-powered and mount anywhere in minutes. But all Mr. Beams™ products stay off during the day and only turn on when they detect motion.

Compare that to the Mr. Beams™ LED security Spotlight with motion sensor. The Spotlight has a daylight sensor so it will only turn on at night. And it has a motion sensor so it will only turn on when there is movement. At $39.99, two of these Mr Beams™ Spotlights will pay for themselves in less than a year. You will never pull out of the garage and have to make the decision on how much saving electricity is worth to you.

How Bill Uses Mr. Beams LED Lights

My friend Bill called again this week. Bill is one of our favorite customers. He has installed Mr. Beams lights throughout his home and property and keeps adding more of our bright LED lights. Here are a few of the locations that Bill installed Mr. Beams motion sensor LED lights:

Barn – There is no lighting in a detached barn on Bill’s property. So Bill installed two Mr. Beams motion sensor Spotlights that turn on as soon as they detect motion. The installation took just minutes and the light is bright enough for safety in the barn.

Porch – Bill’s favorite application for lighting up dark spaces is a Mr. Beams Ceiling Light on the ceiling of his porch. When he approaches it lights up so he can see his keys, lights up the steps so he does not fall, and turns off automatically after 30 seconds.

Deck – Bill attached four Mr. Beams motion sensor Stair Lights to his deck posts. These bright LED lights glow once it gets dark and then light up bright when they detect motion. Compared to wiring lights on a deck, Bill saved about $600 and was able to install all four in under 30 minutes.

The very positive feedback from our customers has been the most rewarding part of running Wireless Environment. Our customers are the best advertising – so many of them buy additional lights and tell their friends about the lights that can be installed anywhere in minutes, use bright LEDs and the best motion sensors available, light up brightly when they detect motion and turn off when they are not needed. We hope that you will try our Mr. Beams lights to drive away the darkness and add safety and security to your home. Start living off the grid.

Living Off the Grid in Nigeria

CNN reports today on the problems with the electrical supply in Nigeria. There is a story about a hospital that was constantly suffering from the effects of power outages. One night 12 accident victims came in and nobody could treat them because there wasn't any light to see their wounds.

According to Amara Nwankpa in the CNN story, “Less than half the population has access to grid electricity and those who do typically have power for nine or 10 hours a day, but sometimes go for three or four days with no power at all."

Wireless Environment is focused on improving the quality of lighting in off-grid situations. We help countries like Nigeria by providing lighting that runs without wires, and a hybrid version of lights that tap into the electrical grid when it is working and then switch to battery power when it is advantageous.

Our Mr. Beams line of products helps residents of Nigeria operate during power outages and rolling blackouts. For interiors, the Ceiling Light can light up an entire room with enough bright light to read by. It is battery-operated so power outages do not affect it. It turns on with motion and stays on as it detects motion. The Mr. Beams Stair Light can provide safety lighting to prevent falls in the home. It also is battery operated and turns on when it detects motion.

For outside, the Mr. Beams Spotlight can provide security lighting to protect a house. It turns on a bright LED when it detects motion. Like all other Mr. Beams lights, it is weather-resistant and can survive extreme environmental conditions. And because it is battery-operated it works off the grid in countries like Nigeria.

Wireless Environment is also developing battery systems that are contained inside light fixtures. These batteries store electricity when it is available and then discharge power when grid power is not available.

Prepare Your Home to Go Off-Grid

Glenn from Australia called me this week. He wants to introduce the Mr. Beams line of wireless LED lighting to his country. I assumed it was because Australians are more likely to spend time outdoors and they need lighting that can operate without electricity and be installed anywhere. That is partially true, but the real reason is to save money.

Electricity was deregulated in Australia and rates have risen more than 17.5% in 2010. According to Glenn, the average household in Australia is paying $200 to $300 more per year for electricity than they did last year.

Australians are looking at their electricity consumption and figuring out where they can go off-grid. People in China and India are constantly focused on shifting off-grid. It is only a matter of time before people living in other developed countries will need to analyze their electricity consumption and shift off-grid as well.

Look at the statistics in the U.S. In order for electricity production to keep up with expected demand in 2035, the U.S. will have to create 250 gigawatts of new generating capacity*. At an average of 750 megawatts per plant, that means the U.S. needs to build 330 plants over the next 25 years, which is almost impossible. This means we can expect many more black-outs, rolling outages and a general inability to rely on the grid to provide power.

Mr. Beams’ parent company - Wireless Environment - is working on solutions for the future electricity shortage by developing quality off-grid solutions for lighting and other appliances. Currently, Mr. Beams offers six products to help you start shifting off the electrical grid. All use LEDs and motion sensors and can be installed by you in under 5 minutes. These LED lighting products are designed to help you go off the grid by lighting the following dark areas:

Outdoor Security Lighting – with batteries, a motion sensor and LEDs, you can install a weatherproof Mr. Beams wireless motion-sensor spotlight all by yourself for under $40. It will activate when it senses motion – people, vehicles or critters – an shine a bright light until the motion stops. $3 of batteries will give you at least one year worth of light. Security lighting even during power outages.

Shed Lighting – Install a light in your shed for under $40. The weatherproof Mr. Beams Ceiling Light provides bright enough light for illuminate a 15’ x 10’ shed. The Ceiling Light detects motion and keeps the light on until there is no motion, then turns off automatically. $4 of batteries should last more than 2 years.

Garage Lighting – Instead of using fragile light bulbs to light up your garage, install a Mr. Beams Motion-Sensor Spotlight for under $40. The Motion-Sensor Spotlight will provide the light you need and will turn on automatically once someone enters the garage. It will survive vibration and temperature extremes and still provide 120 lumens of bright light. It will never stay on all night and burn out. You can install it anywhere in less than 5 minutes and aim it in any direction that fits your needs.

Closet Lighting – Stop worrying about leaving your closet light on all day. The Mr. Beams Ceiling Light is a bright closet light that can provide the equivalent of a 40W light bulb. It will turn on as soon as it detects motion in the closet. It will stay on until 30 seconds after you leave the closet. $4 of batteries should provide at least 2 years of closet lighting.

Attic Lighting – Our attic light has never lasted more than 2 weeks. Someone always accidentally turns on the light and we never know it is on. The Mr. Beams Ceiling Light installs to a rafter or wall in 2 minutes. No electrician needed. Install 4 C batteries and this light will provide you with 5 years between battery changes with typical use. Bright light that goes on even during power outages.

Path Lighting – Solar Lights introduced the world to off-grid lighting, but they have serious issues. Switch the solar cell with batteries and you have the perfect off-grid solution for path lights. Indoor or outdoor, path lights with batteries work even after cloudy days in the winter. They go on much brighter than solar lights once they detect motion. The Mr. Beams Stair Lights and Remote Control Path Lights are bright, off-grid lights to provide safety for those walking in and around your home.

* DOE – U.S. Energy Information Administration