Solar Powered Flashlight Hits the Market

Are Battery Powered Lights Obsolete?

The Hybrid Solar Lite could make current flashlight technology obsolete.

The latest “green” product hit the market yesterday with the launch of a solar-powered flashlight from Hybrid Light, LLC of St. George, UT.  The Hybrid Solar Lite flashlight uses both solar power and a rechargeable lithium-ion battery to ensure the flashlight will work every time it’s needed.

Every year in the U.S., three billion batteries find their way to a landfill, and according to a press release by Hybrid Light, 1.7 billion of those batteries come from flashlight use.  The company says their product holds a solar charge for three years and the battery holds its charge for seven years, so the need for flashlight batteries could potentially be a thing of the past.

The product has an LED bulb that delivers 1 watt of power or 40 lumens of light.  The light is waterproof up to 80 feet of water and floats, which does make it an excellent candidate for boating use.  If the claims of reliability are true, it’s hard to imagine a better light for emergency purposes too.

The charge from solar panels may come from sunlight or room light.  While it may be inherently unintuitive for a flashlight to operate on power that isn’t present while its use is required, the company says an eight-hour solar charge will result in 16 hours of light - more than enough to get through any dark period.  The lithium-ion battery has enough capacity to provide 50 hours of light without the benefit of the solar panels.

LED lights are inherently reliable, because they don’t rely on a filament that can break.  The LED also has extremely efficient power consumption numbers, and my own direct experience with these types of lights indicates they’re almost indestructible.

The retail price of the Hybrid Solar LIte flashlight is exceptionally reasonable at $24.95, and the product can be found at local Costco stores or at the company website, http://www.hybridlite.com/.

Many readers know Writer to the World^TM is a winter camper, and I’ve amassed a considerable amount of experience with flashlights during more than two decades of stumbling around at night in very cold conditions.  The following is my personal assessment of the available renewable power flashlight technologies to date.

I’ve had no direct experience with this flashlight, however if the claims are even remotely true, this is a technology worth investigating.  Most people will never use a flashlight under the extreme situations I’ve tested other lights in, but for the few who may need the light then, the following is an accurate account.

Previous renewable energy lights rely on mechanical motion; they must either be shaken or have their charge restored with the use of a crank.  None of the models I’ve tested had a backup battery that maintained a charge.  This means the user must expend energy to keep the light functioning for any period of time extending more than five minutes.  This can be very tiring in the harsh situations of winter camping.

LED lamps live up to their reputation for being durable.  In one test, I threw a flashlight constructed very much like the Hybrid Solar Lite off a cliff and retrieved it.  After a severe tumble of more than 500 feet, it worked fine and although the lens was very badly scratched, there was no discernable change in the quality of light. 

The drawback to an LED lamp is the lack of a focused beam.  In close quarters outdoors or for indoor situations, they work very well for illumination purposes.  But the LED does not, in my experience, pierce into deep darkness.  When a camper hears critters circling the campsite, that’s a considerable drawback, especially when the animals are potentially dangerous.  Admittedly, most Americans don’t use a flashlight to detect bears or wolves looking for food.  Trust me though, an LED flashlight isn’t good for that at all.  Better have a Plan B for that situation.

There are two other drawbacks to the technology I’ve tested.  The first is cost.  The truly decent renewable energy flashlights cost upwards of $40, so the Hybrid Solar Lite is a major breakthrough in that area.  The second drawback is weight.  The current technology is extremely heavy - about a pound.  That may not sound like much, but when you’re climbing a snow-covered mountain it’s going to be huge at around 4,000 feet or so, and it gets heavier with every step forward.  There’s no data about the weight of the Hybrid Solar Lite in their news release or on their website.  Again, it’s probably less of an issue for the average person.

For emergency use in normal conditions, this certainly sounds like a promising product.  Batteries are very expensive, and in addition to being pretty heavy in their own right, they don’t last long in cold conditions.  If this product reduces the amount of garbage we’re choking the environment with, then it’s probably a very good investment.  I remember when we used to have battery-powered calculators, and they’re pretty much a thing of the past now.

If anyone has had direct experience with this light, please let me know.