by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The range of those flashlights and lanterns that are charged by some human action, whether by turning handle, pulling a cord, or other, is getting larger and more varied by the day almost.
Many of them are found as “freebies” given away by companies at trade shows and such events nowadays and this is certainly a good way of getting such devices into circulation and adoption of use by the public.
I have been using a “wind-up” flashlight for a couple of years now and it works well. This one was purchased from a Lidl Store about two years ago or thereabouts and was but about £3 or such.
Most of the wind-up flashlights and those that are charged by shaking the light or, as in another version, squeezing a lever, much akin to the old “dynamo-flashlights” of old, seem to be utilizing quarter watt LEDs – either in multiples or, as in the case of the “Shake Light” single ones.
As the costs of those flashlights have become so low at times down to, as far as the end user is concerned, nothing if those are freebies those, to some degree, at least, can and should start to replace those run on the ordinary non-rechargeable battery kind, or those that run on rechargeable batteries that need a charger.
So far we have not come to a final conclusion, obviously, as to the long-term reliability of those wind-up and otherwise human-powered, for lack of a better word, flashlights and lanterns, as they are still too young to judge thus, therefore we must still wait here as to the final judgment.
Reliability of the devices will, probably, be a little less, I should think, compared to the ordinary dry cell flashlights, as there are “moving” parts that will,m eventually, wear or and break.
Some of the lights will be more reliable than others, due to the nature of their construction as well as do to the quality of workmanship.
While there might be some that would say that at the cost of a set or two of batteries for one of those wind-up flashlights, for instance, I still would hope for a much better reliability that just that. After all it is an electronic device that will then have to be specially disposed off due to the materials within in them.
On the other hand I am very much for such lights and I am sure that they will be having a firm place in the future of greening our world.
© 2009
<>
