9 LED Flashlight
 

I discovered quite by accident that these lights REALLY last. They have 3 AAA battery's.

I accidentally left one of these lights ON the night before last..under a bookcase where I was searching for something. I forgot to remove the light from under the bookcase and turn it OFF. At least 24 hours later i discovered the light STILL under the bookcase..and still ON...AND Still BRIGHT.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&key...sl_3ipggv5rd_b

Impressive...:) NB

PS: I've turned the light back on and placed it on the coffee table...Let's see how long it takes to run the battery's down. BTW: The battery's are the original battery's......FOUR years old..??

Interesting info. I'll be very interested in the results of your test.

I was thinking this battery thing... may be like the Kramer Road Test thingy. (Seinfeld) Will we run out of gas...?? I found the video on You Tube..BUT it left out the hilarious "Punch Line" ...where the car finally ran out of gas..somewhere in NY... and Kramer got out of the car and hailed a cab..leaving the car salesman stuck with the car. :D :D NB

PS: I left the flashlight ON All Night (10 Hours) on my bed table. It was still ON at 6:30 AM....I turned it OFF at dawn. . NB

I bought an extremely bright and cheap flashlight at Loews it's only one bulb but supposedly (so the packaging says) is 200 lumens. It's only one of the smaller ones around 5-6 inches long and bright as hell. Problem is I'm finding now it dulls fairly quickly for an LED light. It was just under 10 bucks so I bought 4 or 5 of them. Using one a lot taking the new pup out in the dark but have replaced the three AAA's already in three weeks. Still worked just dulled a bit I like them like a spotlight (which it is with newer batteries.) Awesome light for the $$.

I turned the light ON again last night on my bed stand when I went to bed. At about 4:30 AM I got tired of opening one eye every now and then and still seeing the light ON...so I turned it OFF. It was still Bright.

I think the LESSON here is that LED lights seem to require a whole lot less power than anything I have seen.

I am NOT a Global Warming... Tree Hugging... Commie..Environmentalist.....:look: :D :D

This is just my small personal experience with one flashlight....

Consumer Reports has a report about light bulbs..Maybe I need to read it.. maybe learn something. :D NB

PS: Only us Old Coots will remember the OLD flashlights that would go dead in maybe an hour..if you left it on..inadvertently..

No science involved in this response but its my thought. Incandescent lights use a lot of energy that is wasted on heat. Led are cool to the touch.

I have always believed that this same concept also applies to the engines in our cars/boats. If the heat we give away from the engine through the cooling system and radiator.... were recycled back into the engine somehow..we would have a very efficient engine....better gas mileage. Heat IS energy...why give it away. :look: :look: NB

The hard part is taking that heat and converting it to something useful. I'm not aware of any technology that would be efficient enough to take excess heat and create more energy from it. The keyword here is more...it takes energy to create energy and nothing is 100% efficient.

Look at it this way...

Consider case 1: A 100W (Watt) bulb running off 12 Volts = 8.333A (ampere). If the battery is rated for 85 AH (AmpHour), it would would supply 100W for a little more than 10 hours.

Now consider case 2: A 50W bulb running off 12 Volts = 4.166A. Now we're talking 20 hours...i.e. you double how long the battery will last.

Keep in mind the above cases are straight theory and not necessarily what you will see in real life, but you can use the same approach for a 60W incandescent and 10W LED bulb.

I have a "shake" LED flashlight. No batteries. Paid $2.00 8 years ago.

Still works.

Just finished reading the October Consumer Reports on light bulbs. Not much to learn from that read.

We have been subscribing to Consumer Reports for 4+ decades. They actually used to TEST Stuff and report....... NOW...Not so much...........but you HAVE to read it, if you want to be informed.... there "may be" a little tidbit that you didn't see somewhere else. Use JUDGEMENT... :) NB

Drop Light
 

This week I had a need for a NEW Drop/Work light. My 50 foot corded drop light had a plastic cage around the light bulb. It melted. SO: I went to Home Depot to look for a replacement Cage...for the light bulb. What I found didn't look like what I wanted.

Alas: I wasn't finding what I wanted: My EYE was wandering about and I spotted a 21st Century replacement. An 45 LED Work Light. "No need for a cord" to 120 volts...(except to charge the battery). It has a very powerful magnet in the base...to stick it on your car anywhere... as well as a hook to hang it up. The "Light Time" is 2.5---4.0 continous hours

The LED Light Head is totally Swiveling. I AM impressed. :D :D OH: I bought it. It comes with a 50% charge. It's now on the charger to bring it up to 100 %. . NB

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-L...9#.UnwwzOL91NQ

LED Home
 

I've been so impressed with LED lights lately that I bought my first LED light bulb for the house. I have a a 60 watt incandescent bulb in my den which stays on for most of the day...next to the computer. The incandescent just popped.. AGAIN today...They are made in China (GE) and they don't seem to last.

The NEW LED bulb is a 60 watt bulb that looks like ...same size and shape as the old bulb. It's heavier (weightwise) than the old bulb. The card says it uses 11 watts to make the light that the old 60 watt bulb did. ....The light "color" is the same....

The cost at WallyMart was $10.95. I'm going to get another one for the living room. I'm going to replace the bulbs that spend the most time ON.. :) NB

PS: I have a 60 watt "Compact Fluorescent" bulb over the kitchen stove. Not impressed. Once it comes up to full light it's fine..BUT It takes forever to come up to full light. The LED is Instant.

FYI, I like LED bulbs too, and have been using them with good results.

Some math...

Electricity around here is about 13 cents per kilowatt hour "all in" (meaning, factoring in taxes and all the other costs beyond the raw KwH cost).

A 60 watt bulb is ~1/16th of a kilowatt (duh!), so it costs 1/16th of 12 cents per hour to operate, or about .07 *cents* (less than 1 cent) per hour. Your payback on an LED bulb is about 10 years in normal use (figuring lifespan relative to replacing incandescent bulbs, and the power savings).

Hmmmm, lets review that again. (60-11)/60*.0007 is the savings per hour of using an 11 watt LED vs a 60 watt incandescent. Payback of the LED would be 10.95/( (60-11)/60*.0007 ) = 19155 hours or 798 days or
2 years+10 weeks.

This is assuming NB leaves his light on 24 hrs/day and does not include the added savings of replacing blowing incandescents.

Right, however very few people leave their lights on 24/7. 5 hours/day is a somewhat high average.

10 years = 3650 days. 3650 days * 5hours/day = 18,250 hours of operation over 10 years.

The replacement cost is harder to factor. The LED bulb *should* last that entire time, though you'll be approaching the point where its light output is probably starting to fade noticeably.

An incandescent bulb lasts about 1500 hours, so you'll be on your 12th bulb by that point, having spent about $8 on bulbs, depending on how/where you buy them. That could put the breakeven point closer to 5 years.

In either case, don't buy LED bulbs for anticipated cost savings...

but there are other reasons...
 

As someone who starts to sweat on the third rung of a step-ladder... I had a friend install LED lights in the track-lighting that is way up in the cathredral ceiling while the sheet-rocker's scaffold was still there... based on the expected usage, I can live to 108 and not have to worry about replacing them!

Much better then CFLs for looks, warm up time, and color spectrum...

- PIG

weather aside, last weekend was beautiful on the island, and yesterday Misty Blue came by to help harvest firewood for the winter, we are ready!

p.s. Thanks to NB I purchased the LED worklight from Home Depot... already has several hours of usage on it, and the magnetic base is really useful!

Yeah, you can't put a price on a fear of heights :emb:

Energy Smart
 

Here is the bulb I bought. It is "dimmable". Although that wasn't a requirement for my application. :) NB

http://www.amazon.com/GE-Lighting-68.../dp/B00AC7RBEO

Try Home Depot - they have the cheapest LED lighting with the NHSAVES program. The Cree LED bulbs I have found are really cheap, and work really well.

Also note: don't put LED bulbs near certain types of garage door openers. The switching circuit from AC to DC is very noisy and will cause interference. I found this out the hard way. Cold weather seems to make it worse....

I thought someone was jamming my garage door opener in the morning but not at night. Turns out the lights were on when I left in the morning but weren't activated by the motion sensor in the afternoon when I got home so it would work.

I noticed a Garage Door opener problem a few days ago. (A FIRST) My wifes side of the garage door "Opened" the door ....and she wasn't there. (Our SEARS garage door opener is over 30 years old.) This was BEFORE I got the new LED lightbulb.

Maybe the NSA is ......:D....

Both of mine were open one day last week and I thought the roommate hit the wrong button on the way out. Turns out the LED bulbs in the openers themselves were somehow opening them...?... Replaced the bulbs with incandescent bulbs (CFL takes too long to warm up) and the problems completely went away.

What really threw me off was the fact that these bulbs had been in there for a couple months before the problems started. Once the temps started to drop none of the remotes would work unless you were underneath the unit...and they would randomly open.

I even confirmed by putting the bulbs back in and having the problem return.

Its highly variable
 

My bathroom light is on 24/7, its a busy bathroom

My kitchen lights are on 18 hrs/day, the center of action.

My bedroom light is on maybe 5 mins per day.. :emb: Err, check on that one

Update
 

I LIKE My 60 Watt "GE Energy Smart" LED light bulb for $10.95. SO: I went on Safari today (On Line.. And at Home Depot (Brick) to get the same bulb...at 75 Watts.) It doesn't exist. Only one company makes a 75 Watt LED bulb..and it looks more like a "Flux Capacitor" from Star Track...AND it's $35. :eek: NB

PS: I gave it a shot. Now I'm going to hoard incandescent bulbs. January 2014 is a BIG cutoff date...for light bulbs...and other things as well. NOT paying attention...??? OH Well. :look:

I don't care about the math and keep lights turned off when I can. No bulb whichever I use is going to make a noticeable difference on the wallet (speaking of electricity.) Do like your father used to do and turn off lights when not in use, what you use vs. spend won't be even worth worrying about.

Turning off and on and off and on both CFL Bulbs and LED bulbs reduces the total bulb lifetime. Turning on a CFL bulb is worth just five seconds of cfl run time. However both the CFL and LED bulbs use a ballast which becomes less and less efficient as it is used. So you will use more electricity leaving on the lights but you will burn out those rather expensive bulbs the more you turn them on and off. I bought an LED TV the other day. Affixed to the screen edge was a tag that says this TV will use only $6.00 in one year of normal use.
I bought an electric 40 gal water heater that says it will use $539.00 a year in regular use. Guess which one went on a timer?:D

Oh and I am all for the LED bulbs. Those Mercury toting CFL twisty bulbs everyone uses are terrible for the environment. Never has so much Mercury been put out there for us to consume and generally throw around as there is today. Bad! If your going to go the energy saving route, go LED. It may cost more, but the CFL's cost our environment so much more.:(

Interesting article I came across today:

http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs...will-tell-you-

LED flashlights, all in disrepair or hopelessly corroded...
 

1) Does that include eliminating incandescent bulbs for chandeliers, microwave ovens, and refrigerators?

2) How do lamp shades that attach to the "regular" light bulbs work with alternative bulbs? How will I attach my expensive Lake Winnipesaukee-chart lamp shade? (To bring this thread full-circle). ;)

3) As to LED flashlights, they seem to be machined well (and I like them when new) but I can't keep those "button" batteries in them—sometimes the switch fails. :(

If you have a decent flashlight like a MagLite, they have LED kits to replace the incandescent bulbs.. They fare better in the "drop" test.. :D

LED Bulb Update
 

I have been testing....Maybe i should say "observing" my new 60W LED light bulbs. ($10.99 at Walmart) The Glass Face of the bulb burns cool. The BASE of the bulb (where the electronics are) burns HOT...essentially just like an incandescent. Too hot to handle. HEAT is energy Used.....NO.??

I've been shuffling incandescent bulbs around the house to see what LED Bulb can replace an incandescent. Ie..Is the new bulb bright enough ..in practice...for that location.

Tonight I replaced the Compact Fluorescent over the kitchen stove with a new 60 watt LED.. The Old Compact Fluorescent took Forever to come up to speed... I had things to do..(Like make a refill Martini..:D :D) ....and I had to wait.

I guess what I'm saying is...these bulbs seem to generate as much HEAT as the old bulbs.....SO Where is the Saving in energy...Heat..... is ENERGY.

:look: :look: NB

PS : I'm TRYING....

Ans: 1 NO

2. Same as now

3. I am not sure as I haven't looked into them.

http://i54.tinypic.com/2e56yqf.gif :)

1. no more kid's Easy Bake Ovens! (though I guess the new ones don't use a light bulb any more)
2. RLW is correct
3. Not all LED flashlights use button batteries. Heck, even the free Harbor Freight LED flashlights (with coupon) use three AAA in a holder.

Re-Chargeable Battery's
 

I previously made some comments about my New 48 LED Drop Light. It has a NiMH battery. (Nichol Metal Hydride)

I don't know what battery charging technology is contained IN this light..OR the "Charger". The "Charger" is labeled as a Switching Power Supply. (Mfg: GOE: GS2U-006-060-B1) I Googled it: It comes up but I can't decifer the Tech Specs.

I am aware of rechargeable battery's that have a Memory and as such... if you don't fully "Cycle" the battery regularly through it's Entire Range..the battery will take on a very narrow range. IE..a shortened service life under a single charge.

Does the NiMH battery have a charging "Memory"...:look: NB

PS: Why do I ask..?? When I recharged the battery yesterday..after some Use, it took forever to Complete....It may have been 20 hours..I was no longer keeping track of it because of the time...On and On and On..etc

A switching power supply just describes how the power supply regulates power. Switching supplies are used in lots of electronics, so nothing overly special about the charger.

Many power regulators step the voltage down by throwing the excess voltage away as heat, obviously not very efficient. A switching supply switches on and off quickly, regulating the power output that way. It's more efficient than heat-dissipation voltage regulators.

Current generation NiMH batteries should not have any memory effect, and can be recharged at any time (ie: they don't have to be fully run-down). However, they're not optimal for stand-by devices like flashlights since they lose about 1% of their capacity daily when in stand-by.

I've actually read that NiMH lose up tp 4% daily. They dont have a "memory" and they were developed because its predecessor NiCD did.

The amount of daily discharge can vary based on storage temp, overall battery capacity, and whether the battery is truly disconnected from any circuitry, or if there is any kind of trickle current at all.

1%, 4%, or whatever, the main thing to keep in mind (IMO), is that NiMH probably isn't a good choice for standby devices that you want to be at the ready unexpectedly (like a flashlight). They're great for electronics like cameras and game systems,since you can use and recharge them on whatever schedule you desire with little worry.

The Defiant 45 LED Work Light has a little green LED light on the handle that flashes while the charger is charging. When the charge is complete, the little green LED STOPS flashing and stays on steady until you unplug the "charger".

I've been doing a lot of looking on line about NiMH battery's and one article suggested Overcharging "could" drive one of the cells into reverse polarity and damage the cell. I'm wondering if the little green LED burning steady..signifies that charging has actually Stopped..ie disconnected from the battery via some circuitry in the light....:look: :look:

I have an IRobot Roomba robot vacuum cleaner which also has a NiMH battery installed. The instructions for that device Insist
that the charger remain Plugged In 24/7 while the vacuum is out of service, or damage to the battery WILL result. NB

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimh_battery

PS: The Wiki article seems to say that Both Over Charging AND Over DIS-Charging can damage the cells.

PPS: Maybe this sentence from Wiki titled "Charging".. is the answer: "A NiCd charger should not be used as a substitute for an automatic NiMH charger".