We decided that it might help our daughter find her way to the loo in the night, and help us to get around at night without turning on the main overhead light on our upstairs landing possibly disturbing both children, to try a night light there.

The upstairs corridor does not have a single power socket, so my first attempt was to try using a 3W (cool white) MR16 12V lamp from my solar off-grid system, temporarily hooked up at the master bedroom door. It's certainly enough to see by, even downstairs, but was too bright and kept us awake at night. Also the power drain is a bit more than I'd like from my off-grid system (the 'official' server drain is under 4W!).

Now we have a homebrew solution based on rechargeable NiMH batteries that lasts several months between recharges, or more if the built-in solar cell is used to keep it all topped up. See the whole story!