Night lights can be a hassle. They can be bulky, can heat up and pose a danger to children, easily break off and take up one of your sockets and sometime block the other. The SnapRays Guidelight seeks to solve all these problems by combining the light and the switch plate into one piece.
Plates purchased through the Kickstarter funding campaign cost about $12. This is higher than a standard hardware store plate, but the cost to operate the light for a year is estimated to be less than ten cents. The SnapRays draws only 5 milliamps of power and is lit only when the room is dark.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/snappower/the-snaprays-guidelight-illuminate-your-life
No wires or batteries are needed to install the SnapRays light. "Power Extractors", a patented method of contacting the existing switch creates the electrical connection when internal tabs push into the outlet during installation. A light sensor controls three LEDs at the bottom of the switch plate to create light when its wanted and turn it off during daylight hours.
Three colors and two styles of plates are available through the Kickstarter campaign. Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter do not work with the plates due to different switch construction. A second video on the campaign page shows company founder Sean Watkins installing a plate in 54 seconds.
There are two adults, two teenagers and a preteen living in my two story house. Multiple times per week one of the adults is required to take a trip downstairs to fetch something vitally important that cannot wait until morning.
During these trips we use the light from our phones, a keychain LED that never shines as bright as it did in the package, or fumble around in the dark. Since our house was built we've had princess lights, flower nightlights, animal styles and the occasional seashell design. Any kind of light exhibited at least one of the problems outlined in this video and none of them lasted more than a few years.
These plate designs seem too good to be true. The campaign has earned $100,000 more than its modest $12,000 goal in the first two days. While writing this article I watched the number of backers index several times. The Snap Power team seems well organized, well funded and made a very professional video for their Kickstarter. I look forward to watching this project be completed (target fulfillment date is May 2014) and seeing what the team does next.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/snappower/the-snaprays-guidelight-illuminate-your-life