LED Flashlight Lamps Tested by Richard Perez, Barry Brown, and Mark Newell Every time my Mini Mag AA flashlight puked in the middle of the night, in a snow storm, on a rush trip to the outhouse, I wished for a better way. Well, my Physics fairy godmother (in the form of a company called Delta Lights) came through with a super efficient LED replacement lamps for standard flashlights. The Delta Light LED lamps give our flashlights over 12 times more operating time on the same batteries! And the LED lamp lifetimes are measured in decades instead of hours! Basic Equipment We joke around HP Central about recognizing true back- woodsies by the gear in their pockets. Experienced country folks always carry a pocket knife (usually a real Swiss army knife) and a flashlight (the Mini Maglite(r) AA model is a favorite). While both these tools are well-built and last a lifetime, the flashlight has a serious appetite for batteries and bulbs. Using AA nicads in the Mini Maglite(r) gives about one hour of light with its standard incandescent flashlight bulb. Incandescent bulb life is about 20 hours before replacement with another $2 bulb. A better way Delta Lights makes LED replacement lamps for flashlights. We tested two types. One replaces the PR2 series flashlight bulbs in virtually any flashlight using two C or D flashlight cells. The other replaces the tiny incandescent lamp used in the Mini Maglite(r) flashlights. When it comes to making light from electricity, no device made by man is more efficient than the Light Emitting Diode for LED. The LED is a semiconductor device and does not use the superhot incandescent filament employed in regular flashlight bulbs. While flashlight bulbs have lifetimes in the order of hours, LEDs will burn bright for ten continuous years or more. LEDs make light of a single pure color. In this case either red or green. Delta Light LED Performance The red Delta Light measured an average power consumption of 97 milliWatts and an average current consumption of 35 milliAmperes during our testing. The green Delta Light measured an average power consumption of 74 milliWatts and an average current consumption of 27 milliAmperes during our testing. This data was gathered by operating the lamps over the entire voltage range of the batteries (2 to 3 VDC). INSERT CHART This power consumption is between 13 and 17 times less than the power consumption of the stock incandescent bulb. This means that the batteries in the flashlight last 13 to 17 times linger before replacement or recharging. These LED replacements are not nearly as bright as the incandescents which they replace. Please don't put them in your flashlight and expect it to illuminate distant objects. While I can't see objects twenty feet away, I had no trouble with seeing within a six foot radius. The red LED in particular provides enough light to walk around at night. Since the red LED produces very pure red light, it does not spoil our night vision. The red LED is the best flashlight we have ever used inside a vehicle. It brightly illuminates the vehicle's interior without ruining the driver's night vision. We hoped to have real battery lifetime data for this article. We started testing these LED flashlight bulbs over 3 months ago. Barry Brown put a red LED bulb into a flashlight with two freshly recharged AA nicads (500 mA.-hrs at 1.2 VDC per cell). After 96 days of regular, normal use, the nicads still have better than 60% of their power left. Barry used to go through a pair of AA nicads in about a week. We figure that it now takes him about six months to discharge the same cells. Cost These LED lamps from Delta Light are a new product. In fact, Bill Mack of Delta Light is looking for companies and stores to distribute his products. Bill will sell to retail customers in orders of ten LED lamps or more, so coop the flashlight folks in your neighborhood. Cost for the various LED flashlight lamps runs from $8 to $9 each in lots of 10. The Future Consider that one of these LED lamp replacements pays for itself in twelve hours of operation (based on battery and bulb life). Consider that you will never have to change the flashlight bulb again (in normal service the LED lamp will live longer than any of us). Consider the billions of disposable batteries that will last about 15 times longer before becoming a waste disposal and environmental problem. Consider not being in the dark, in the snow, on that midnight dash to the outhouse... Access Author: Richard Perez, c/o Home Power, POB 520, Ashland, OR 97520 ù 916-475-3179 Maker: Bill Mack, Delta Lights, POB 202223, Minneapolis, MN 55420 ù 612-888-5070 ù FAX 612-854-4646