Dwelling

Ikea Sunnan Lamp

Convenient solar lamp

Last year I was walking through IKEA when I saw this strange little solar-powered goosenecked lamp in the lighting section. Intrigued, I bought it and took it home to try out.

I love it. The bulb is nice and bright, perfect as a reading lamp. And the battery/solar panel unit pops out, so you can leave it by a window or on your car’s dashboard, and it will fully charge while you’re at work. Since then, I’ve gone back and bought a second one. I always have a battery pack charging on a windowsill, and I always have light for my latest book.

Oh, and we brought one of the lamps on a camping trip. It was really handy there too. I left it on one night as a sort of night light for our daughter, and in the morning, it was still shining, just not as brightly. This is one of the few solar-powered gadgets I’ve encountered that actually works as promised. A nice additional bonus, for every lamp sold, IKEA donates one to a child in a country with unreliable electricity.

-- Katherine Falk 05/31/11

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