Using my flashlights all the time

I recently started carrying flashlights every day and I have to say it is a very handy tool to have. I find myself using one so many times for so many things throughout the day I forget how much I use it.

For the past several years my dad and I have been on to the small/cheap LED flashlights that have the 7 or so old-fashioned LED's in them (run on 3x AAA batteries, rear click button on/off only). I think I have about 4 or 5 of them around. In the winter time I've stored a couple of them in my coat pockets - one to use and a spare. With the sun going down by the time I leave work and not coming out until I get to work all my time during the winter weeks away from work is at night. Until now I've never really carried beyond my coat pockets.

Now the flashlight is the first, and sometimes only, piece of gear I grab off the night stand. If I get up at night I grab it. When I go to work in the morning I grab it. You never know when it will come in handy!

If I could find perpetual electric cells I'd be in business. That way I'd never have to change/charge the batteries. Anyone know where I can get them? I suppose until then I need to swap batteries every other day or carry a spare.

Always have one on my keychain but since I got the Olight i1 I have this one in my pocket too. The size is just perfect and the UI fits great as an EDC.

Regarding your question wether a perpetual battery exist: I think there is no battery that never depletes. You need to store some energy first, to use it later. And there are no tiny nuclear reactors widely available at the moment . When I'm using my EDC I change the battery at least once a week or after I used them for a long time. So I always have a full battery in my EDC.

rayman

rayman said:

Regarding your question wether a perpetual battery exist: I think there is no battery that never depletes. You need to store some energy first, to use it later. And there are no tiny nuclear reactors widely available at the moment . When I'm using my EDC I change the battery at least once a week or after I used them for a long time. So I always have a full battery in my EDC.

rayman

Click to expand...

Yep. I was just being humorous about the perpetual battery. Neat idea, physically impossible. The transfer of energy can never be 100% efficient. You can reduce losses, but the greater amount of efficiency comes as the result of technology limitations and cost. When technology catches up to the limits of physics there is a plateau. I'm guessing that is about where LED technology is now - unless something changes and replaces the LED (like how LED's replaced incandescent bulbs). There is a limit, its just a matter of getting there - time, technology, and money.

I'd say there are probably bigger advances that could happen on the battery side in electrical storage/retrieval than the consumption in the circuitry and emitters right now.

As to the charging of your EDC batteries - I'd say every 3-4 days and I'm ready for a recharge/swap on my Nitecore EC1/16340 battery. I sent off my Fenix PD35 for a lens replacement last week so I haven't been carrying it. Though, I get longer run times off that, and I like it better than the EC1 for EDC. I'm sure my collection will grow.