Got the honerable mission of finding flashlights for my workplace. (Not for me, I have Plenty )
Today they are using flashlights that are on/in an charger all the time just for powerfailiure/fire. But according to the personel using them they fail due to the batteries not working after some while.
Now my question is:
Are there any batteries/flashlights that can take that kind of beating (being constantly on charge)?
My solution would be any flashlight with cr123 that have a looong shelflife and checking them every now and then or?
Iād +1 the above. NiMh cells are quite resistant, but leaving them on trickle charge all the time will do them no favours at all.
Lithium primary AA batteries would be a good bet for long term shortage as they donāt leak and have a shelf life of 10 years +. All you need to do is make sure you put them in a light with no parastatic loss.
A couple of Mini MagLite Proās with these in wouldnāt be the worst idea ever and in a form factor everyone knows and is familiar with.
One of the features that is important is that in a powerfaliure the light comes on by itself so that one can find his/hers way to it or in other emergency one has only to pull it of the wall and it goes on.
What im now looking for is these features but with highpower leds. All i find is lamps with an incandescent bulb as main light and some leds for saving battery or some small flashlights with som7-8 leds with approx 15-20Lm.
I agree with using a 1xCR123 light. They are small, fairly cheap, and a CR123 has a good 10-15 year shelf life. They dont leak and donāt need to sit on a charger for years.
NiMHs off the charger lose chargeā¦even the Low Self Discharge ones.
Having ANY battery sit on a charger indefinitely seems like a really bad idea. Therefore, I totally agree with using CR123s (non rechargable).
An ALTERNATIVE which might be cheaper is to use any AA/AAA powered light, such as a cheap Flood to Throw 3xAAA, or a cheap 1xAA light.
Use Energizer Ultimate Lithium L91/L92 batteries in it. These are basically CR123 style Primary Lithium batteries which wonāt leak, work great in the cold, and have exceptional shelf life.
Well first I thought that their biggest issue was the batterylife but now they are more concerned with the feature of the light going on in a powerfailiure and that its a LED insstead of an inc bulb. So if the light is not connected to the wall it will never know when āthe lights are outā.
My solution would also be a light with a cr 123 but I suppose that their fear is not finding the lights in panic situations.
Maybe IĀ“ll have a look and see if the bulbs can be changes to LED.
This was tougher than I initially thought it would be!!
if the lighting coming on in power outages is so important, why does the company not have battery backed emergency lighting installed? they usually look like a metal box with two spot lights on top and tend to be mounted above doors.
then just get some nice aa powered lights for personal use, to keep somewhere they can find them, thrunite t10ās etc.
no matter how small it is, if its a health and safety issue it should be properly addressed, if they need emergency lighting to escape Iām assuming its not a corner shop.
if its necessary that a light be traceable, then it should be worn on some type of lanyard, be it neck, attached to clothing etc, then it is with the person all the time they are on site.
I still feel that the proprietary emergency lighting systems should be looked at, many are not that expensive, and work reliably as long as they are serviced, they would also be tied to the fire detection system to come on in such an event, wall wart rechargeable lights wont till the powers cut, probably too late in a fire.
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