Fiat Lux LED

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
-Genesis 1:3

I've been very impressed lately with LED flashlights. We have two giant incandescent flashlights that use multiple D-cell batteries and recently, when I needed them at night, the output was useless as the batteries were old (not dead, just old). I got better light from the LED I keep on my keyring. The old flashlights are more useful as a weapon than for lighting the dark.

According to Wikipedia,  in 1999, Lumileds Corporation introduced the Luxeon LED, a high-power white-light emitter which was used in the first LED flashlight, the Arc LS, in 2001. LEDs can be significantly more efficient than incandescent lamps. An LED flashlight will have a longer battery life than a comparable incandescent flashlight and LEDs are also less fragile than conventional glass lamps.

Our two D-cell flashlight produces on the order of 15 to 20 lumens of light. A small LED flashlight operating on an AA cell can emit 100 lumens. 5 times brighter with less power!

Bottom Line

LED flashlights would be a great holiday gift. We saw a gift box of 4 for $20 at Sears. My wife says she'll buy when they are discounted 50%. She got lucky once with a LED flashlight at a Dollar store but has not seen them there since. On Amazon.com there are many LED flashlights for under $20 and some under $10. I don't yet see the value in LEDs selling for $100 or more.

P.S.
Fiat Lux in the blog title is the Latin often used for Let there be Light, perhaps the most well-known phrase from the Bible. [Wikipedia says Fiat Lux actually means "let light be made" and that "Lux Sit" is a better translation in Latin but C'est la vie.]

γενηθήτω φῶς (or genēthētō phōs) - Greek
יְהִי אוֹר (yehiy 'or) - Hebrew