Where do LEDs really shine?

Just wondering where you guys see LEDs working better than incandescents in practice. A lot of us are getting LED lights just for the sake of LED lights, which is cool, but where do you think they honestly, truly, work better than incandescents?

For me, so far there's three areas:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Keychain lights: Photon and its ilk smaller than any incandescent. Arc clearly better than its closest incandescent competitor (Maglite Solitaire)
<LI>Mini lights: Arc LS 123A has no real competitors. It outshines and provides more useable light than everything from its low-cost (UK 2AAA) to high-cost (SF E1) incandescent competitors
<LI>Dimming: the dimmable features of lights like the EternaLite make these types of lights incredibly useful, from night light to book light to utility light. No real incandescent competition.
[/list]

And for me, that's about it. There are plenty of other LED lights I like, but I can usually find an incadescent that works better for me. E.g., As much as I admire the Inova X5, at around the same size I can get an E2 or UKE 2L, which give me big advantages in brightness/runtime tradeoffs.

Joe

I prefer LED light for any up-close work and performing general "area tasks" where long range throw isn't necessary.

For me they (white LED's) make less glare, have softer light, and better color rendition.

For me, the ONLY time I use or want or need an incandescent light is when I need to see a distance away. For everything else that I use lights for, there exists an LED light that is better suited for the job than any incandescent. My Surefires are used for about a second for each hour an LED light is used around here. My Maglights have all been converted over to LED. Basically, I don't use an incandescent light unless I need to. And I rarely need to.

So, the easy answer is "Everywhere except distance."

Throw one of your incandescents on the ground along with your choice of LED light. Switch them both on, and let me know which one is now better suited to the rough and tumble lifestyle of living with a toddler.

Ummm how about the Turtlelites? I want a flashlight with really good throw and so I (think) I am in heaven with their metal one (Because I can't spell alluminum) because I guess it's kinda a big light, but it appears to have good throw, even from what I have read on the LED museum, any commecnts anyone??

Both Joe and Slick covered things rather well for me.

For keychain and mini-lights, LEDs are more efficient lights relative to the diminutive size required for such a purpose.

They work well up close, when range isn't an issue.

Runtime. As a general rule, an LED light will get more life out of a set of batteries (or battery) than most incandescents.

Saaby,

Technically the Turtlelight and Dorcy Cool Blue types do have a tightly focused, long-throw beam, but they are dim. Up close they don't spread a really good swath of light, so actually in my experience they are..the worst of both worlds. I'd rather get a bright LED flood and a bright incandescent long-thrower (Streamlight, SureFire, etc.).

OH really? So what you're telling me is I'm better off investing in a...Eternalight? What is there out there as far as value priced long throw incandesent, pocket size preferably...By value priced I mean around $50 maybe a little more...

I use LED lights for many purposes.

In my shoulder bag, I have a MiniMag with a Lambda Pill. That is a general purpose look and see, look inside equipment, etc. light. It is as bright as the Arc LS but bigger, but uses 2AA.

In my pockets (on my keychain) is an Arc LE AAA white. This is what I use if I'm not near my shoulder bag to look at little things.

In my other pocket is a SF E2e when I need to know what's happening at a distance.

I also have a Lambda Illuminator at home that is the general "first grab" utility light around the home office. But I grab a UKE SL6 and/or D8 when it comes to things going bump in the night.

My two sons have Technology Associates regulated PR2 lamps in their night time reading flashlights. I haven't replaced the two C cells in months!

I have a LEDTronics MiniFlashLED (which I wouldn't buy again) on my bedside table.

I have a PT Aurora headlamp for reading in bed (so I don't disturb my wife).

I am looking for a use for my Inova X5. The one thing it shines (oooh) at is microscope illumination in the 40-100x region. Almost shadowless.

LEDs are useful when you need the light. But when you need something brighter than a Lambda LED light, I still reach for incandescent.

I don't use rechargeables.

Cheers,

Richard

An LED torch gives me a reliable, dependable light source when I need it...out on a dark night, whilst searching through my knapsack or tank bag for keys; whilst reading in bed;
...there are numerous times where the LED torch wins hands down. My 2-nichia 3 cell is as bright or is brighter than most torches I see whilst out and about, except for HID andv halogen torches, which tend to lose thier effectiveness by destroying night vision. The longer life of battery and light source means I have a very useful portable light source which can find 1000's of uses indoors and outdoors.
It's not quite universal yet, but LED's will ultimately oust traditional filament lighting... thier efficiency gets better month by month, so it won't be very long!
LED Tronics now have LED bulbs that can be direct replacements of filament bulbs... the same size and outut as regular 240V or 110V ac bulbs, but with 100 times the life of a conventional filament bulb!

When the batteries run down in an incandescent flashlight, the light becomes yellow and the lamp rushes toward complete failure. The LED on weak batteries becomes amazingly efficient, and the LED is not harmed at all. LEDs never die, they just fade away. It is a good thing when a flashlight can not go out.

Reliability is another big advantage of LEDs. All too often i've had bulbs break and lights fail due to weak batteries. An LED light will at least give you minimal usabile light with weak batteries, and i haven't had an LED bulb fail me. LED flashlights are terrific for the lazy among us who choose to not replace batteries often.

And of course, LEDs rule for colored lighting.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Saaby:
What is there out there as far as value priced long throw incandesent, pocket size preferably...By value priced I mean around $50 maybe a little more...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I'd recomend a Scorpion (from TTS for about $30) if you will be using it a lot and don't want to spend $ on 123 lithium batteries go with a 2 or 4 AA model. I think Underwater Kinetics has a couple. Look through some posts up on Gen Flashlight for lots of info or Brock's or Quickbeams site.

Back to main topic--My family used to run 4 mini-Mags for 1-2 hours a day. We'd go through 8-12 AA's a week and a several bulbs a month. We switched to 3 AA LED lights and go through less than 12 A's a month now. We've picked up a few new LED lights since then but wouldn't go back to Incan's as task lights again. We have 1 Scorpion and a 2 million CP rechargeable spotlight for throw.

I agree pretty much with everything the others have written. LED's RULE (within 40' at least)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Saaby:
What is there out there as far as value priced long throw incandesent, pocket size preferably...By value priced I mean around $50 maybe a little more...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Surefire E2, or for big value points, UK 2L.

Ok thanks, I feel bad that I keep taking threads so off topic but I'll have a question and don't feel like it warrants it's own thread...who knows.

Now I will try to contribute to this a bit

there are some other places that are using LEDs instead of incandesents, the first one that pops to mind is stop lights on cars (to which there is currently a whole thread devoted to) they light up faster than fillimant bulbs, fast enough that it translates to something like 40 feet at 60 MPH or something like that, 40 feet is a lot when you still end up within 2 feet of the car ahead of you (and I am just learning to drive so I know what it's like to brake to late oh, back to the subject)

There are also some places LEDs are uses that incandesents would simply not make sense, like some gigantic TV screens, display boards, and the backlighting for things like your cell phone. Wouldn't you be a little upset if the lights under the keypad on your cell phone had to be replaced every so often? How about in places they've been forever, like the lights on the front of your computer...trivial at best I know but really, if it wern't for LEDs what would we put there?


So there, now I've repaid my debt for taking you off subject.

In my oppinion, LED have one huge advangage over incadescents: efficiency (battery use)....

People will say that the LED is about as efficient as a halogen. How about when the batteries are half-dead? As the voltage drops, old-fashioned bulbs get a LOT worse efficiency, while LED's get MORE efficient.

actually I think that if you look at it a different way they're MORE efficient...

Take 2 flashlights, in fact lets say 2 MiniMags, one modified with a Opalec drop in...run them both, the normal mag's light may be "more efficient" but if you somehow measured (In Lux or whatever, don't care how you measure it) the output of each light and muliplyed it by the time it ran (In seconds, minutes, again doesn't really matter) on a fresh set of batteries who would win??

Also, and maybe something to this extent has been discussed before, LEDs (in my opinion, and I think many will agree) put out much more usable light...

It's like a car and a truck, the car is obviously more efficient but when you are pulling a heavy trailer, the truck can actually be more efficient at pulling that trailer than the car...With lights as long as you are "pulling a truck" so to speak, the LED is, in a way, more efficient (Does that make sense to anyone but me...maybe my logic is a little twisted, somone tell me if so)

Mods are interesting, too. What really is going through my head is: outside a few areas where LEDs definitely work better, many LED lights seem to be much bigger than incandescents that put out the same amount of light. Yeah, they have some advantages, but often they're not worth dealing with much bigger lights, IMO. The LS LEDs may end up addressing that, though.

Joe

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Joe Talmadge:

If you're so inclined, instead of just telling me the general qualities that make LED lights work better for you, can you name your fave LED lights, what you use them for, and tell me why there's no incandescent that can handle the job as well?

Thanks!

Joe<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Glad you asked.

I use my ARC LS with NiMH for many hours a week. Much of that use is is just because I can. Using this product is just about free. It doesn't replace a regular flashlight: it simply creates new opportunities.

I always carry an ARC AAA in my pocket on a short lanyard. There just isn't anything that compares.

But strangely, the LED flashlight I use to the exclusion of any other product is my RED Infinity. It is the last light I use every night. I like the way it fits my hand, it is always bright enough (and dim enough) for my needs, and battery changes are mainly just a ceremonial event every few months.

Ironically, those are the exact lights that I also think don't have good incandescent competitors. For the Arc LS 123A, I'm obviously not using Nimhs, but look at the difference between, say, the SF E1. The LS is smaller, and it doesn't put out as much total light but the light is significantly more useable. Arc LE on my keychain. Photon clipped to the lamp on my nightstand, handy for roaming around the house at night.

Joe

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Saaby:
actually I think that if you look at it a different way they're MORE efficient...

Take 2 flashlights, in fact lets say 2 MiniMags, one modified with a Opalec drop in...run them both, the normal mag's light may be "more efficient" but if you somehow measured (In Lux or whatever, don't care how you measure it) the output of each light and muliplyed it by the time it ran (In seconds, minutes, again doesn't really matter) on a fresh set of batteries who would win??<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The unit that you want is the 'lumen-hour', and it is a measure of the total amount of light produced just like kilowatt-hour is a measure of the total amount of electricity used.

And without a doubt, in the experiment you described, the LED would win.

It is still true that the most efficient LED that you can actually buy today, measured in terms of lumens of light out versus watts of electricity in, is less efficient that the most efficient halogen incandesent lamp _when properly driven_.

However small flashlight bulbs are _not_ the most efficient incandesent lamps out there, and connecting a couple of batteries to a bulb is _not_ properly driving the bulb. When the batteries are fresh, the bulb is probably overdriven, and while very efficient, its useful life is getting chewed up rapidly. When the batteries are even slightly drained, the bulb is probably underdriven, and thus much less efficient.

Now, as properly driving the LED requires a bit of a circuit, it is only fair to compare the LED lamp to a bulb with regulation circuitry as well.

In this case, it is a much closer call, as lamp efficiency will remain high until the battery is drained. However if you look at the LEDs which are expected to be available by the end of the summer, then LEDs will clearly win at any power level below about 5W.

-Jon