Average flashlight usage?

On CPF there have been a lot of polls and opinion surveys about disaster lights, EDC lights, bathroom lights, walking lights, etc., but I have not found one for actual average flashlight usage by a CPF member. To cover the difference between weekday and weekend usage, a weekly average total would seem to be a good datapoint.

CPFers spend a lot of time & money buying & testing chargers, batteries, flashlights. The point of all of our justification exercises is ultimately to provide portable/handheld illumination at some location w/o any mains/AC connections. So what is the end result? My questions:

1. How many average hours a week do _you_ actually use a handheld light of some kind?

2. Which are your top usage lights? ie: which flashlights are turned on the most (not necessarily carried the most)?

Conditions: Run-time testing does not count. Pointing the lights at ceilings or at some target outside to compare throw vs spill does count.

My answers:
1. use time? about 11hrs a week.
2. Turned on the most? Fenix L2T (low & high output together), Safelight (w/9V rechargeable).

Tim

I use my EDC lights more than anything. I EDC a SF G2 and a Gerber Sonic. I probably use the G2 the most out of the two because I keep it in a sheath on my belt. I work on a lot of computer equipment at work and I need bright light to see into some of those dark spaces. I'd say I probably use the G2 on average about 3 to 4 minutes per day. It also gets used at home at the end of the day several times a week as well. The Gerber is mainly my keychain light and backup. But there are times when I prefer it over the G2 when I just don't need as much light. So in total as to how much I use lights per week, I'd say probably about 30 minutes a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Usage a week would be about 7 hours a week, and the light that is used most, and used the 7 hours, is a CMG Infinity Ultra for bed reading. I use spent AA's from my client at work, so I have a healthy supply of cells that would otherwise go right into the trash.
If I was out and about, the go to light would be a Q3, on my belt.

I think there have been other threads polling weekly usage, but I'm not going to dig them up, so...
1. I probably fall in the 10 hours per week category unless it happens to be a week that I am camping.
2. I use my HDS U60xrgt the most followed by my A2.

1: probably only a total of 2-3 hrs a week on average.
2. I use my HDS B42XRGT 80%, followed by my U2, then the others.

Probably in the 3 to 4o hours a week range, some more some less. This time of year is more since it is hunting season so it is probably closer to 10 this time of year.

The lights most used would be:

Inova X0 - Hunting/walking to and from blinds etc.
Inova X5 - Around the house
Inova X1 - EDC

In all honesty, only two or three hours a week........at most. They ARE nice to play with though.

Cliff

Roughly 9 hours or so a week. Though I have several lights to choose from. I most likely will use my minimag Q3L 99% of the time. Night walks with the dogs, night raids to the frig., anytime I don't want to switch on the room or house lights and wake people up, etc. At night (or even when it's not), I prefer the quiet twist head of the mini over the distinctive click buttons of my other lights. They start to get on my nerves over time and (most importantly) the sound imforms the family that I'm playing with my lights again.

Hi all, I did find an old weekly usage poll at:

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1130842

However that was back in 2005 when good LEDs with commensurate lowered battery consumption were not prevalent. Besides a graph of average weekly usage, I intend to also slice the data another way - US vs non-US members. Non-US members usually pay a premium for the equipment and probably watch the costs closer.

As for my usage of 11 hrs a week: 1.5 hrs a day with the L2T usually for morning events (bathroom/shower, getting dressed, etc.). The Safelight is stuck to my desk swingarm lamp for a computer keyboard light at twilight times when I don't need a main reading light for the room. I'm trying to reduce electricity consumption in the house. I average around 150KWH/month in Spring & Fall for two people in a house. Kids long since departed for their own apts.

Tim

I rarely "need" a flashlight. I'd say use a flash light in this situation about 30 - 120 seconds a week, on average. However since I play with my flashlights sometimes, total flashlight use might be around 5 minutes a week.

Instances when a flashlight is truly needed, I use my Maglite 3AA LED or whatever is on my keychain. Instances when I play, I use anything, but mostly my SureFire G2

Mag Solitare - 20 minutes (getting the mail after work)

MiniMag - 30 minutes (night time bathroom break through the apartment)

Dorcy Metal Gear - 30 minutes (various weekly tasks at work, finding light switch in a dark room, finding a dropped screw, that sort of thing)

3D Mag - 3-5 hours (nightly walk up the road or wherever, With hefty 10K NIMH I feel comfortable I could take out any "unsavory" individuals or animals I would come across)

Stanley Tripod - sporadic only used for playing with the tripod, or occassional tasks (wires under desk, adjusting the dish)

Weekly Total: Probably 4-5 hours. Shhhhhh don't tell the Wife, she'll say you don't need anymore flash lights. To which I'll say you don't need any more purses. To which she'll give me a nasty look and I'll have to go get Taco Pizza, thus wasting precious flashlight money.

Truth be known, I rarely "Need" a light. But, that doesn't stop me from playing with them constantly. The folks at work are starting to call me, "Flash" as a nickname.

1. Probably around seven hours per week - maybe more in winter and less in summer.

2. In order of usage:
Minimag w/Nite Ize: 15 minutes per day (to and from bed, etc)
Gerber Infinity Ultra: 10 - 45 minutes per day (reading in bed)
ProPolymer 4AA Lux: 10 minutes per day (walking home on trail)
Red $1 keychain LED: 5 minutes (checking on children sleeping)
White $1 keychain LED: 0 - 5 minutes (finding things in basement, etc)

When I'm too tired to read in bed, the daily flashlight usage is cut in half.

I EDC a Civictor, but that honestly doesn't get used all that much - especially as my PP 4AA Lux lives in my work bag during the winter. I don't know if I'm unsual here, but I rarely actually use the light I EDC - if I know I'm going to be out after dark I'll grab the PP 4AA Lux, and for other short usage tasks like finding things in the basement I'll use a $1 keychain light.

I work second shift and commonly use a light several times per night. My average length of use is about 10 seconds, so I'd estimate that my work EDC (L1P) sees about one minute of use per shift.

After work, I come home to a dark house and rather than run around turning lights on/off I use an Inova X1. The X1 sees about 3 minutes of use per night.

Overall, my total useage is probably 30 minutes per week.

My most switched on light would be an old CMG Infinity (non-Ultra) with blue/green LED. Total runtime is probably a couple minutes a day.

I have no problem justifying the price of the lights and cells and chargers at this low usage level as I need all of them all of the time in the same way that one needs a spare tire or a seat belt or an insurance policy. The amount of time that these things are actually used is of very little importance to me when compared to how very useful they are when they are really needed.

Minimag w/ Niteize dropin..... 7hrs/week for me and my wife's alone time The bedroom light is too bright for our tastes.
Fenix L1P .......... 30min/week Lives on my belt and I use it constantly, but it doesn't add up to much because I've had a Energizer Lithium in there for a couple weeks now.
Ultrastinger ....... 30min/week Lives in my truck, mainly gets used when I try to help my dad combat his skunk problem. Gotten so bad I might have to order a surefire forearm for my shotgun.
15MCP Thor ...... Everytime I grill now that the time has changed. So about 1hr/month.

2-3 hours per week with Nuwai TM-301X-3 (LedWave). I use this light for everything. It is versatile, compact, bright and have two stage switch. I love this light.

40-50 hr/wk. My SL PP Lux AA gets the most use, very closely followed by DB-3W and EverLED modded 3D Mags. Everything runs on nimh. My lights aren't niceties or backup plans. They make me money and have saved lives on more than one occasion.

:buddies:

I'm embarrased to admit it's only about 20-30 minutes a week and, in most cases, not because I couldn't just flip a wall switch. Time is mostly spent with the Fenix E1 or E0. I'm not counting time with lights set up with diffusers to provide "lamp light" when I'm just sitting listening to the radio and playing with other lights.

Geoff