More Efficient LED Flashlights Are Taking Over

Flashlights, called torches in British English, have been around for a long time. Hand portable illumination is clearly desirable in many situations. LED flashlights use the latest LED lighting technology to produce a better product in almost every way.

The first flashlight was introduced in 1899. It was made possible by the development of portable batteries with paste electrolyte instead of liquid as had been used before. Early flashlights, along with most of them for the next 100 years, used incandescent bulbs.

Incandescent bulbs heat a wire till it glows by sending electricity through it. The wire is inside a glass bulb. This process is very inefficient compared to LEDs. The bulbs have pretty short working lives. Dropping the flashlight tends to make the working life even shorter.

Flashlights can be made with fluorescent bulbs. Their efficiency is between incandescent bulbs and LEDs. Even though they are bulky and easily broken, there used to be a niche for them. Now that LEDs have come down in price, fluorescent flashlights have pretty much disappeared.

The invention of the white light LED (light emitting diode) changed the flashlight game. Colored LEDs have been around for awhile, but are not generally suitable for use in flashlights. White light LEDs are incredibly efficient producers of light. They are shock resistant and have long service lives.

The major restraint on market success of LED flashlights has been their relatively high cost. Until the last couple of years they were so expensive that they were not used except for special applications. Their cost has been going down continuously and has reached the point where they are almost always the flashlight technology of choice, except in cases where extremely low cost is important.

LED flashlights can be much smaller than incandescent flashlights with the same light intensity and battery life. This is partly because a small LED can put out more light than the same size incandescent bulb. An even bigger factor is that the greater energy efficiency of the LED allows it to operate for the same amount of time with a much lower weight of batteries.

If you look around you will see some creative designs for LED flashlights. The old headlamp has been reinvented in a much more compact, comfortable form. There are modular units that can be several flashlights or put together to form a brighter light. Key chain flashlights are now actually usable. There is a model that straps to the arm. Six LEDs spread around the strap illuminate whatever the arm is pointed to.

LED flashlights are taking over the market. They represent a superior technology with a price that is now reasonable. It is hard to think of a reason to use any other kind.