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BillG said:
just becoming aware of led lights...looking at turtlelite 2, lightwave 3000, and streamlite propoly 4AA. what do you think of these as general house lights? any other recommendations under $50?
thanks from a newbie
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$50 can get you a good "house" light, but you should know that there are trade offs involved in chosing, such as size, weight, battery type, brightness level, and run time. For a "general" light I like the propoly 4AA (which I have). It is the brightest of the bunch, is not too large or heavy, uses common AA alkaline batteries, and costs only about $24. The downside is that it will only last about 6 hours until 50% brightness (although will still produce light for a long time after that). Now that would be very good performance for an incandescent light, but is sort of middling for LED's. The lightwave 3000 (which I also have) is not as bright as the propoly, and is larger and heavier. However, because it uses "C" batteries it goes about 15 hours to 50% brightness and 40 hours to 30%.
Have you considered one of the new Hybrid LED/Incandescent lights (called "Twintasks") also made by Streamlight? The TwinTask 3C, for example, has 6 LED's and uses the same 3 "C" cells as the Lightwave 3000 but also includes a Xenon bulb for times when you need a lot of throw. You can choose between 3 LED's, 6 LED's, or the Xenon depending on the task at hand. Run times for the LED's should be the same or better than the LW3000, although slightly less bright. BUt then you have the Xenon for that. Cost is about $30.
Of course, you could just do what we all do in this circumstance and get them both!!