Jennifer Sheahan: Rechargeable lights change our homes and our lives
I love good lighting. It can utterly transform a home, but it is often underutilised as a design tool, and it can be difficult to get right. Redoing the fixed lighting in your home involves chasing wires and making holes in walls, and who can find an electrician these days anyway?Well, not so anymore — rechargeable lights are here to change our lives. Advances in battery capacity and the proliferation of smart home technology mean you can now install lights and switches anywhere in your home, no wire-chasing needed. It is now easier than ever to elevate the ambience of your home with great lighting, by yourself, no elusive tradespeople required.Accent lamps One of the easiest instant upgrades you can give to any home is to layer in some lamps, which, until recently, was all well and good if you had sockets in the right places. Even then, trailing wires were an issue. Enter the rechargeable lamp. Now you can put lamps anywhere you like — no sockets needed, no trailing wires to trip over. Rechargeable occasional lamps now come in a wide range of shapes and sizes— from small accent lamps for your shelves to large floor lamps.Liris rechargeable table lamp by Gejst from Lamp Masters.I have the Neo rechargeable lamp from Tara Lane, which retails for €39.99, has adjustable brightness levels and touch control. I also love the Liris rechargeable table lamp by Gejst, available for €254 from Lampmasters.ie. For beautifully quirky floor lamps, check out the gorgeous Lille rechargeable floor lamp available for £247.91 at Pooky.com — they ship to Ireland, but be aware of potential customs charges.Wall sconces This is where rechargeable lamps really come into their own for me. Avoiding trailing wires is great, but being able to install sconces without chasing wires or replastering walls is a dream come true. Rechargeable wall lights comprise brackets that are screwed into the wall which hold light removable light fixtures. This means you can install the wall light anywhere and simply pop it out to recharge when needed.Babington rechargeable wall sconce from Hedgeroe Home.I adore the stunning range of Babington wall sconces, available for €135 from Hedgeroe Home — either online at hedgeroe.com or in their gorgeous showroom in Carrickmines, Co Dublin.Ceiling lights Rechargeable ceiling lights have all the advantages of rechargeable wall sconces, but are less common because it is significantly more difficult to reach a ceiling light for its regular recharge. That said, there are some nice pendants whose low-hanging nature mitigates that issue.The Kettle 22 Portable Pendant by Nordlux from Lamp Masters.The Kettle 22 Portable Pendant by Nordlux, available for €75 from Lampmasters.ie, is an elegantly simple rechargeable lamp with a long cord that would hang nicely from a small hook in the ceiling and would be easily accessible to recharge.Battery life The downside to rechargeable lamps is that you must, of course, recharge them. While batteries have come a long way, you are sacrificing continuous power from a plug for limited battery life. If you choose a lamp with a long battery life and run it at low brightness levels, you could get up to 30 hours of battery life. With daily use, lamps could require a recharge every few days, stretching to a couple of weeks or so with less usage. You would need to consider whether this is worth it for you. Most lamps are rechargeable via standardised USB-C (the same charger used by the vast majority of phones).Smart bulbs While rechargeable lamps eliminate the need for sockets, trailing wires, and tearing up walls, smart bulbs also do something wonderful — they eliminate the need for switches. Switches are great if they’re in the right place. But perhaps you have acquired an old home where the switches are in funny spots, or you have changed the layout of your room, and the switch location no longer works for you. With smart bulbs, you don’t need to worry about rewiring to move the location of the switch, saving you significant cost and headache. Lillee rechargeable standing lamp from Pooky.You simply swap out the bulb. Smart bulbs also allow you to schedule light routines, for example, having lights coming on and off when you are away to deter thieves, and they often have a variety of brightness and warmth settings, so that you can adjust the mood as you need. Smart bulbs connect to your home Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and can be controlled via an app, a remote control, or a voice assistant like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or Apple Home.Philips Hue smart bulbs are the most popular, with a huge variety of styles and functionality, designed to fit into a wide range of light sockets. They are available online and from most electrical retailers across the country. Ikea also has an excellent, affordable range called the Trådfri.
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