Published February 11, 2016 © CC BY-NC-SA

PringLED -

Pringles chips box and a fused CFL bulb recycled into a 6W LED Bulb.

BeginnerFull instructions provided600

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Pringles Box

LED Strip

Old CFL

230V AC to 12V DC convertor

Connecting wires

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Dremel

Soldering Rod

Tape

Story

This project is 3 years old and started off when I wanted a cheap, low power consuming light source for our house which would be kept switched on throughout night. From then this has been working without a trouble for more than 8032 hours undeterred !!

For implementation i had recycled a left over Pringles chips box, a burnt CFL bulb, a meter of LED strip and a 230V to 12V convertor that i had scrapped from an earlier broken equipment to create this LED bulb that will consume only 6W and yet produce the lumens comparative to a normal CFL.

The steps would be as follows,

Pringles Chips Box

The box cut to size

Drill a hole on the bottom of the box to let the wires in

Find an old fused CFL bulb with an intact holder clip

Cut and remove the base with caution, Safety glasses and gloves recommended

Use a bond like feviquick to fix the terminal onto the box and solder the terminal wires into the box

Wrap around the LED strip onto the box and bring the end wires into the box

This is how the wires were taken in

This is how it would look like

A 230V to 12V conversion board scavenged from a different fused LED bulb

Putting the board into the box and connecting the 230V terminals to the bottom terminal and the output 12V from the board to the LED wires.

And just to be safe had the entire strip taped.

The Pringles lid goes on top to complete this masterpiece

Tada.. on 1st April 2013.

Tada.. On 1st Febraury 2016.

The fact that keeps me wondering is how did this bulb created from just recycled materials last for 3 years while being switched on for 8 hours every single day. That means it has been working for 1004 days or 8032 hours or 481920 minutes or 28915200 seconds !!.

What makes this even more astonishing is i had to change the CFL two times in the neighboring room which was used for similar durations during this time period while this stands rock solid.