How many lumens for general purpose use?

[roymail]

I know this is subjective and everyone may have a different opinion, but I'm hoping for a ballpark figure of how much brightness (in lumens) is sufficient for a general purpose flashlight around the house and garage.

I realize most folks here have more than one light for different uses, but do you have one that gets lots of use around the house... more than most of the others? I think you get the idea.

 

[Marduke]

40-60 is plenty for around the house use IMO. Any brighter and the light glares off anything you shine it on within a few feet.

 

[Valpo Hawkeye]

Depends on the beam pattern, but I'd go 20-40 is what I consider general-use lighting. Outdoors is a different story.

 

[diff_lock2]

E01, more than enough. D10 minimum is a bit too low for everything, but sometimes it is enough, and it is useful if you are trying to extend run times.

I think that adds up to 10 lumens? I really have no idea, other than what the site says, "advertised" lumens.

 

[AlexLED]

Depends on the beam pattern, but I'd go 20-40 is what I consider general-use lighting. Outdoors is a different story.

+1

more indeed tends to glare
a little less would be enough, if you just need to find your way

 

[Hitthespot]

This is very subjective. I was installing something on a Plenum of a furnace one time and the 12 lumen setting was too low and the 107 lumen setting too high on my P2D-Q5. At 107 Lumens there was just too much glare for working in close quarters. I found the 55 Lumens setting just about right. A little less would not have hurt in that situation but 55 was OK.


When I'm running or walking at night I sometimes like to look one or two houses ahead because of Skunks and sometimes dogs. Most of the driveways where I live just have pipes running underneath them and Skunks like it there. In this case I find 110 lumens the minimum and usually prefer my E2DL on high or my P3D-Q5 on turbo.

Now if your just talking about picking up the car keys you dropped in the driveway, checking the dog in your small backyard, having some light when the power goes out, then 25 to 60 lumens I would say is plenty.

Bill

 

[Curious_character]

E01, more than enough. D10 minimum is a bit too low for everything, but sometimes it is enough, and it is useful if you are trying to extend run times.

I think that adds up to 10 lumens? I really have no idea, other than what the site says, "advertised" lumens.

And a good rule of thumb is that 1 actual lumen =~ 1 to 4 advertised lumens. The factor of 1 is very rare.

So once you decide how many lumens you want, then you need to figure out how many lumens the various lights actually produce.

My experience is that beam pattern is at least as important as total lumen output in determining usability for a given purpose. And for a given number of lumens, the illumination will be less with a floody beam than a tightly focused one. I personally find something like the cheap Dorcy light with nine 5mm LEDs to be a nearly ideal around-the-house light, except for the blue tint. It's all flood with no real hot spot, like most of the multiple 5mm lights. I estimate its total output at 33 lumens (using a light box calibrated against bare LEDs of known bins, and a couple of other reference points like a Novatac 85P).

c_c

 

[qip]

60 indoor 100+ outdoor to make up for ambient light

 

[sol-leks]

I think 20 is a little low for me sometimes, but yeah 40 is a good number. An LOD on medium is a very good around the house light, for example, and that claims 35 lumens, although its probably a little less than that. I'd agree with everyone else that 50, maybe even 60 although thats the upper limit could be good too if its a nice diffused beam. Anything where all the lumens are push into a tiny spot is going to change the scales.

 

[BlueBeam22]

I know this is subjective and everyone may have a different opinion, but I'm hoping for a ballpark figure of how much brightness (in lumens) is sufficient for a general purpose flashlight around the house and garage.

I realize most folks here have more than one light for different uses, but do you have one that gets lots of use around the house... more than most of the others? I think you get the idea.

100+ lumens IMO.

 

[sol-leks]

wow 100? I mean I use my E20 around the house sometimes and that is fine, but only fully diffused or it gets a pretty strong glare, also even that is pretty unusable under five feet or so. But of course, as he said this is an opinion question, I'm not trying to criticize. Might I ask what light you refer to that you use around the house that is 100 lumens? I actually just went and played with my lod for a lil bit, and I'd say for all purpose stuff 50-60 is good for most thing about 10-15 feet away.Although that will still be too much for up close stuff.

 

[superflytnt]

My first high quality light was a Surefire 6P (60 lumens) and I rarely used it simply because it was too much light for most of my uses around the house. My most used light for utility work right now is the Streamlight Microstream. It's a good 25 lumens with a perfect beam and it's small/light enough to fit in a headband for hands-free use. I find that it's plenty of light for most work up to 25-30(+) feet.

 

[fireboltr]

I find around the house (inside and out) that the dual stage Surefire E1L is perfect.... Inside in complete darkness the FO4 beam diffuser on low is about perfect. Outside without the diffuser low is surprisingly bright...

If I know I'm going to be outside for long something ALOT brighter is usually called for...

 

[Burgess]

Hi Roymail. :wave:


For "General Purpose use",
i'd be inclined to agree with ValpoHawkeye, in post # 3.


But let me add . . . .


Semi-total darkness indoors, and i simply wanna'
walk around my home, withOUT bumping into things:

In that case, "single-digit" Lumens are fine.

(and even prefered)


However, i don't consider that to be (for me) General Purpose.



As a wise CPF'er (Nate8) once posted here,

Flashlights are like Golf Clubs.

You really need the entire set of 'em.



_

 

[Oddjob]

10-15 for arms length tasks. 30+ for farther.

 

[BlueBeam22]

wow 100? I mean I use my E20 around the house sometimes and that is fine, but only fully diffused or it gets a pretty strong glare, also even that is pretty unusable under five feet or so. But of course, as he said this is an opinion question, I'm not trying to criticize. Might I ask what light you refer to that you use around the house that is 100 lumens? I actually just went and played with my lod for a lil bit, and I'd say for all purpose stuff 50-60 is good for most thing about 10-15 feet away.Although that will still be too much for up close stuff.

Yes, for me it is 100+ lumens. For general use around the house or outside I always use my powerful 150 lumen 2C Task Force, or my 100 lumen 6AA Brinkmann Dual Krypton spotlight. I have so many high output 2500+ lumen lights that I use all the time (Power On Board HID, Coleman 530 lumen CREE XR-E spotlight, 15mcp Thor, Professional's Favorite 17.5mcp), that I get used to super bright lights so 100 lumens seems like nothing to me (just right for general purpose).:laughing:

I will however be purchasing the Duracell 80 lumen Daylite flashlight next time I go to Walmart and I plan on using it as my general purpose as it looks very nice.

 

[fireboltr]

The minimum required to accomplish the task....Thats all.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

For me, it's 25-60 lumens. Any more than 60 can come back and blind you for some tasks. Most, if not all l.e.d. flashlights under 25 lumens will use a half watt or 5mm l.e.d.. That usually means that the light will be bluer and not pure white (excluding multilevel Cree/Rebel/SSC P4 l.e.d.s). Some tasks you can't use blue light. Definitely don't do electrical wiring with a blue l.e.d. light. (It's hard to make out the colors of the wires.) For me, under 10 lumens is a nightlight or for night adapted eyes. 10-24 lumens is good for a backup e.d.c. with good runtime (examples: Fenix EO1, Gen 2 Inova X1, Arc AAA DS/GS). I'd like to point out that a multi-level headlight is great for hands free work, even around the house. I like headlights with about a 25 lumen high (any higher and you'll be eating flying bugs). PT EOS and Quad headlights work good and are around this level. A 3AA l.e.d. maglite is about 60 lumens. You don't need anything brighter than that around the house unless you have land. If you have a sizeable chunk of land and do tasks at night, 120+ lumens would help for distance spotting. If you have pets and land, sometimes you need a bright bump in the night light to check on the pets and make sure wild animals aren't eating them. A bright light is also needed if you live in a high crime area.

 

[seery]

10-20 lumens for general tasks and navigation indoors and outdoors.

100 +/- lumens for more critical and demanding outdoor applications.

And a bright HID when you need to lay down some serious photonage.

 

[iTorch]

Subjective...depends on what you are doing (of course), generally i turn on the light sweitch (whatever that is), but if i am trying to not wake the wife then I reach for the Novatac - .08 lumens is enough to find whatver I need inside at night.

If I am trying to spot something behind the fridge or under the sink then 10 is plenty bright enough.

If I am grabbing another bag of firewood and want to make sure I am just picking up wood and no creepy crawlies then 2 lumens is fine.

And if there is a knock on the door late at night then having 120 lumens available just a click press away is very comforting!