question from a complete novice

[oohlala111]

I am designing a table that has a light source shining through a lucite
top. I wanted the source to be battery powered so there would be no
wires coming through, and it has to be safe so incandescent bulbs would
obviously get too hot...I am debating between fluorescent light source
or LEDs...any suggestions as to the battery life that these will have
on regular batteries? Also, which will provide me with a move evenly
dispersed light?

Thanks!

 

[Tim Shoppa]

I am designing a table that has a light source shining through a lucite
top. I wanted the source to be battery powered so there would be no
wires coming through, and it has to be safe so incandescent bulbs would
obviously get too hot...I am debating between fluorescent light source
or LEDs...any suggestions as to the battery life that these will have
on regular batteries? Also, which will provide me with a move evenly
dispersed light?

The only thing really wrong about an incadescent for your application
is that there's a lot of intensity in one place. Spread a lot of bulbs
out uniformly and that's no longer a problem.

For white light the king of efficiency (which NECESSARILY implies the
least heat for the same quantity of light) is the fluorescent. Long
fluorescent tubes also solve the dispersion along one axis
automatically, and there are funky shapes available for many
applications too.

Battery-powered inverters along with smallish fluorescent tubes (e.g.
backlighting LCD's) and spreading sheets are ALL OVER the surplus
market right now.

An option that you didn't seem to have considered is luminescent
panels. Not cheap, not easily relampable, but they have their niches
and what you describe may be one of them.

Tim.