Understanding flashlight LEDs’ lifetime

[XTAR Light]

One of the great advantages of the LED is its reliability and long operating life. The light output of an LED tends to gradually decrease over the extended period of time, compared to a halogen or incandescent light source which fails abruptly. And the accepted norm for LED lifetime is L70, which means at the point when the light source is at 70% of its initial output. So when you see a 50,000 hour lifespan LED, it would imply 5.7 years if the light is operated for 24 hours in a day.

With LED technology developing, its lifespan increases and the 70% figure of L70 could reach the duration exceeding 60,000 hours. This leads the industry to adopt additional ratings, such as L80 (80% of initial lumens) and L90 (90% of initial lumens). In other words, a LED rated at 50,000 hours L90 would retain 90% of its light output at 50,000 hours, whereas a LED rated at 50,000 hours L70 would only retain 70% of its original output.

As LEDs continue to develop, their performance and quality keep improving. And your next LED flashlight can be more durable and reliable.

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(The abrupt failure of incandescent sources in brown, and gradual dimming down of LED sources)

 

[Burgess]

Very interesting post !


But gotta' wonder --


Would all the OTHER electronic components last as long ? ? ?


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[lightfooted]

Soon enough the manufacturers will realize the same thing that they did about incandescent lamps, if the lights fail sooner, they will sell more lights!

It's just more a matter of how long before they start building in failure. Assuming they haven't already.

 

[XTAR Light]

Good question, while the actual lifespan of an LED flashlight varies between manufacturers, there are different LED, electronic components' selection, also different design and technology. And the flashlights' lifespan may be determined on many factors.

Very interesting post !


But gotta' wonder --


Would all the OTHER electronic components last as long ? ? ?


_

 

[snakebite]

its totally pointless.
excepting crap(multi 5mm dd)
the led is almost never the failure point.
there are so many cheap parts to fail in modern lights like crappy switches,ect that few would ever last long enough to wear out the led.
and who ever puts more than a hundred hours on a light before the other part failures take it out or it gets lost,stolen,destroyed?
not to mention as newer more efficient/brighter,better cri led come out many of us replace the light or upgrade the led.

 

[Qship1996]

Soon enough the manufacturers will realize the same thing that they did about incandescent lamps, if the lights fail sooner, they will sell more lights!

It's just more a matter of how long before they start building in failure. Assuming they haven't already.

this has already happened in the household led bulb market, take Crees initial led bulb, expensive and long advertised warranty- which has evolved into a much cheaper led bulb with less advertised hours and shorter warranty, they found it is all about low initial cost on the shelf to compete with cheaper bulbs fdrom other companys.