As the proud mama of a nightowl newborn, I’ve suddenly found myself spending more time awake during the night than the day. Nightlights weren’t on my baby gear list, but they should have been. Not only do new moms need a guiding light for all those late-night feedings, but older toddlers and older children like to sleep with nightlights as well to keep the boogeyman at bay.
So what’s an eco-minded mom to do? Seek out solar power and energy-efficient LED lamps of course! Fortunately the two green technologies go hand-in-hand in one cute little package in this Moon Jar solar powered LED lamp.
If you’ve ever wished you could bottle moonlight to illuminate your room at night, the Moon Jar is your answer. A spin-off of the extremely popular ‘Sun Jar’ lamp by Tobias Wong, the Moon Jar is a frosted mason jar with a solar panel and an LED light inside. Put it on your windowsill to soak up the sun rays during the day, and at night the Moon Jar will illuminate your room with a soft cool glow — no cords or electricity required! If you aren’t a fan of blue light, try out the Sun Jar, which is exactly the same design, except with a warm yellow LED light instead of blue.
I just ordered a Moon Jar for my new baby’s room and I can’t wait to check it out!
$39.99 from PerpetualKid and Target
really? no electricity required? makes me wonder what the solar panel is for if it doesn’t use electricity.
those are freaking SWEEEEEET! i want one.. like. pronto.
these are some awesome lights. and solar power, are you kidding me?
It is excellent. I try to save energy as much as possible and this is another step which I will test.
Good for autumn evenings!
I bought one from ThinkGeek a while back… I leave it in the window sill (direct sunlight all day), and I’m lucky if I get 2 hours of glow out of it. I hope mine’s defective for those of you who want one, expecting it to last all night.
mkay, but at $40 it’s a ripoff, there’s dozens out there for a fraction of the price
anyone know where i can get this in Asia …???
Dude that is like the coolest thing I have ever seen! I love it.
I bought one of the sun jars last year for my other half and she loves it.
Just remember to unflip the lid to expose the solar panel to the sun so it can juice up quick!
[to joe: the solar panel generates the electricity that powers the lamp]
Don’t buy from target, buy from Thinkgeek.com. Support your local nerds
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I actually got one of these lamps for my mom for x-mas last year, they are very awesome.
The solar cells are under the cap. You can purchase these from many places, but my favorite geek merchant sites are http://www.firebox.com http://www.thinkgeek.com and http://www.jinx.com. I would ‘imagine’ the solar cells charge a battery and/or a super-capacitor.
They have been selling these things on Thinkgeek.com for a while now. And I believe they are cheaper than that other site offers them for.
You can find how to make these for cheap on instructables.com. I have made a few for about $15 each.
If you’re actually looking to save energy, just get an $8 led nightlight from Home Depot. You’ll never “save” enough energy from a device like this to cover the energy used to produce the solar panel & batteries. If you need a cordless light source, it looks nice, but don’t kid yourself that you’re being green with it.
I have both of these and they are amazing. They work really good!
how do you turn this one off? it’s really great you don’t have to spend for the electricity bill. it’s really great.
They look cool, but I’m disappointed that it’s just solar cells and LEDs rather than a chemical process.
It looks like a big firefly in a glass jar like from the Disney movies.
You can also buy a solar desk lamp from Ikea, just leave it in a sunny spot all day and it works really well at night!