Yellow-LED flashlight that lasts hundreds of hours?

Hi people,

I'm interested in a couple of unusual items here. Lots of people are always talking about the latest greatest flashlights that put out the most lumens and all that, and I have those models already.

But I'm actually wondering about something more suited to long term power failures. Like for example if the power goes out for days or even weeks?

I'm also interested in something with LEDs that have a more yellow spectrum, to see better at night, for basic survival lighting in such a situation.

So is there a cradle rechargeable, preferably less expensive ( so I can afford several ) yellow spectrum LED flashlight that can last hundreds of hours on a charge?

Also I'm interested in a night light with similar yellow spectrum, which turns on automatically when it gets dark but is not super bright, and which will work as a power failure light and last hundreds of hours in the event of long term power failures.

Thanks!

Zebralight has been always the talk with regards to the long lasting runtime. Foe example the SC51. It uses a single AA an has different modes from a moonlight that will run for 3 months IIRc. And a high that can run or an hour

Colored light for general seeing isn't better than fun white light in most situations. If you are in mesopic vision, most tasks (not to mention most people's mental health!) Are best served by white light. For example, my emergency lights have about 5 lumen output with hundreds of hours runtime on two D cells (100 lm/W, about 50 Wh total), and are adequate for visiting at night. Working requires more light, and I'm rarely able to do good work by monochromatic light... And it weighs on your mind, the dim, tainted light.

A cradle charger really limits your options. If you can accept long-shelf-life batteries (10 years) or check quality NiMHs once a year, you'll have many more options and reliable light in am emergency.

There are quite a few modern lights with a white beam and colored beam. There are many with very efficient low modes, running a month and more on low. So: do you really want colored light? Can you go past cradle chargers, which usually cook the cells and only keep a light ready for routine use?

www.9vlight.com is the website for pak-lite, a 9 volt powered light that is available in a variety of colored LED's including yellow. With a lithium battery, either from them or available elsewhere, they would have a 10 year shelf life, put them in a drawer and forget about them until you need them. I ran a white LED version on a regular Duracell battery on low for 6 continuous months, it was still making light. Figure 1500-2000 hours of enough light to be able to navigate in the dark around the house, no problem. Great power outage/ emergency light.

PALight from safelight USA has a glow mode that lasts over 365 days. Red or green are better for night vision.
https://www.safe-light.com/store/safe-light-survival-led-flashlight.html
thats the one I have, and it hit the one year mark this weekend. Love the glow mode

The two nine volt lights are both excellent suggestions.

I agree yellow may be more relaxing at night, but as has been discussed in other threads, a very dim white light is best for bumbling around in the dark.

If you want the holy grail of reliability in conjunction with a power LED from a reputable manufacturer and insane runtimes with useable output, here is what I suggest, and with this, you need not bumble at all:

1) Obtain a Cree XM-L2 in T6 flux bin.

2) Find a modder who will build you a dropin made for six alkaline "D" cells in series, a 6D Maglite, bucking 9.0 volts.

3) I don't think 90% efficiency is out of the question in this application.

4) According to the PDF, an Energizer 1.5v alkaline "D" cell can supply about 21000mAh at a discharge rate of 25mA.

5) According to foxtrot's tests we get:



So at 100mA in, we get 46 lumens out. You can certainly navigate a house with 46 lumens!

6) Let's visit the wonderful LED Runtime Calculator, a gift to us all.

Since the Energizer EN95 PDF indicates about 21000mAh capacity at 25mA, let's figure about 20500mAh capacity for the jump up in current draw...

Now we will plug in the values:


Runtime: 616 hours 8 minutes

Battery current draw: 33mA

How does 600 hours of output sound to you?

In all likelihood, the cells will leak, corrode, and destroy your host before you use their full capacity at a 33mA draw.

If you used the light for five hours a night, we get:

600 hours / 5 hours per night = 120 nights

If you are without light, and more significantly, without electricity for four months, then there are larger issues to worry about.

—hey, now I want one!

I would advise good single cell AA lights with a good selection of efficient low modes, as in single digit lumen and sub-lumen levels. Such a light would be worth carrying 24/7, and provide plenty of utility outside of the power outage/survival situation. Then get a few AAA>AA adapters ($0.50), and you'll be able to scavenge all those AAs, AAAs, 9V (6xAAAAs) already littering your home by the dozens in remote controls, clocks, thermostats, toys, etc. A "brightish" 0.3 lm moonlight mode (eg, good for book reading) will run ~200 hrs/AA (~100/AAA, ~300/9v), while dimmer ones (~0.1-0.2 lms) are fine for navigating and simple tasks, and will run ~400 hrs/AA.

I also EDC a lantern diffuser and "neck lamp" cord (together about the size of a AAA) that have now displaced my dedicated camping lanterns and head lamps. I typically use a single Eneloop, certainly no more than two, for a week's camping trip or Sandy power outage. But then again, I will admit to being a big low lumen/night vision fan.

I have the best sub-lumen 1xAA lights from Foursevens, Eagletac and Zebralight and have tested them side-by-side with a light meter and stop watch on a variety of modes and find them to be equally efficient for a given lumen level, despite certain manufacturer specs which claim otherwise.

Thanks guys. Will have to look into all these suggestions.

Meanwhile, I mentioned a power failure night light and this one at Amazon.com looks decent:
[h=1]Leviton LEDFL-WHT .5 W, 120 V, 3 In 1 Rechargeable Power Failure Light, LED Flashlight and Night Light, White[/h]

While the Paklite with a lithium 9V is nice, maybe also consider a Photon Freedom Micro with yellow LED as a backup. You can dim it very dim and will run a long time considering the battery size.

Keep it on you at all times, until you can locate another light

OK, I took a look around and am ditching the yellow idea. I'd kinda like something like my Magcharger, but in LED, and don't need that many lumens, to save on price. But definitely the kind of wall cradle charger that my incandescent Maglite has, I love that.

I found the LED Lenser P5R but Amazon suspended it, and is saying some weird things about it, and I'm not sure why.

But something like that. Not a huge number of lumens necessary. These will be bedside rechargeables, for a wall cradle, in case the power fails at night or someone breaks in, and we need to grab it and go. I'd say length of time is more important than huge amounts of lumens, but the 150 lumen range sounds decent.