Fellow gadgeteer Martin Niklasson sent in a link to this nifty $19.99 solar lamp from IKEA. The solar cell / battery pops out of the base so that you can set it in a windowsill during the day for charging, then at night, pop it back in for free illumination. It uses LEDs and according to Martin, it does a decent job. This might make a gift for Earth Day next week 
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If it’s from IKEA, I have no choice but to buy it.
That’s a cute lamp – I may have to pick up one (or two or three) the next time I head that way.
@Claire If you do, we need a full report!
The lamp is only available at Ikea stores. Unfortunately, you can not purchase it through their website at this time.
i like solar but what if you’re a model maker (cars and things like that) and you work in the basement and want no other light source…
Solar light is great..
Too bad these aren’t available online – I’d order 2 today! My favorite flashlights are 2 I bought at Costco that have a mini-solar panel in the handle. They charge almost anywhere and last for hours. Since I got these, I’m throwing away all my old wind-up flashlights. Flashlights aren’t real easy to read by, tho – these look perfect. No IKEA store in Hawaii. however.
They shouldn’t have put up the sign above it in the store that says IKEA will donate one to UNISEF for every SUNNAN solar lamp sold, it actually gives customers the impression that they are paying an inflated price for it; customers may assume that IKEA may have already factored in the price of the second donated lamp into the retail price(meaning the customer is actually paying for two lamps, with one lamp going to UNISEF). Even if this is not true, customers may feel that way.
Another thing about the SUNNAN solar lamp – while the concept is commendable and clever, the actual product is not so useful in real life. Let me explain. While I was in the IKEA store, I noticed that all the demo SUNNAN solar lamps that they put out for display were not holding the battery charge well. I tried switching on all of them(more than ten of them, all over the store), and noticed that the LED light would give a nano-second of brief burst of light and then, just as quickly, died.
In practical terms, the SUNNAN solar lamp is definitely not useful, because it does not hold a charge well, as demonstrated by the display sets found in IKEA stores. Before you retort that there is no sun in an IKEA store to charge the lamp, be reminded that these lamps are placed under intense Halogen spotlights in the store, so there surely ample artificial light to at least charge these lamps reasonably well. But the performance of these lamps are very poor, if the display sets are anything to go by.
If anyone has a different opinion from me, I would be glad to read them here.
Hi everyone, I have bought 10 of the desk lamps. They worked for a while but now I cant get any of them to work. I have replaced the rechargeable battery in one and it still will not work. It flashes on with a tiny light for a second then nothing. I have cleaned the connections and tried to charge the batteries. Do you have any suggestions. I want solar for my travel trailer and in the house but not much success. thank you, Sheryl