World’s Brightest Flashight
Gallery
(Note that some images are removed for now pending TV and print media release)
Specifications
Concept
Construction
Media
World’s Brightest Flashlight 2010
(Note that some images are removed for now pending TV and print media release)
Well this is really an offshoot of the bike project but will have more appeal to the non cyclist. Using the front array of high powered LEDs to 90,000 lumens attached to a battery pack in a (sort of) flashlight body gives the “muscle” flashlight here.
The front array of high powered LEDs of 90,000 lumens attached to a battery pack in a (sort of) flashlight body gives the “muscle” flashlight here.
(The flaslight body was empty – you won’t pick it up easily at 57 kg when full with batteries included)
Gallery
Specifications
Front lights:
15 x 100 W LEDs (12 white, 1 red, 1 blue 1 green: all approx 6000 lumens)
1500 W total
90,000 lumens
Beam 5 degrees
Power:
3 x 12 V deep cycle 33 AH batteries
Run time:
est. 10 mins at 50 A 33 V
Weight: 57 kg
Concept
This will have a total light output of 150 W (10% efficiency at 1500 W input). So like a 150 W laser unfocused to whatever beam size so a lot of total output. Sounds dangerous.
However,
A single 10 W light output from a single 100 W electrical input LED focused at 5 degrees is perhaps 20 cm diam (= 0.04 m2) ,at 1m. i.e. 250 W/m2. Sunlight is 1000 W/m2 of which only 20 % is visible. ie 200 W/m2. It comes from a 1 degree source.
Hence at 1m, using back of an envelope figures you will see 11 large (5X) weak suns in a circle and a red, green and blue sun in the middle. You will blink and look away reflexively . You will not get an excessive dose as in a laser which will focus to a point and burn in a short time.
It should be fairly safe but still should not be used irresponsibly.
It is bright but not focused in a manner to cause damage.
I am much more concerned about my 40 mW Blu-ray laser as an eye risk.
It’s easy to make a claim of being the “World’s best” at anything and rather hard to refute particularly if there is no independent arbiter such as Guinness World Records, particularly if it has not appeared on the net. Of course, sometimes it’s comparing apples and oranges. Like mine is not commercially useful, theirs is. Mine can’t be focussed well, theirs can. Hence theirs will have higher peak intensity at a distance (candlepower) due to better focus. But mine has more total light output (lumens).
I have now applied to the Guinness World Records as world’s most powerful flashlight. However on further perusal, there is no online reference to any flashlight as being brightest or most powerful. Why might this be? I speculate that the “brightest” handheld light is going to be a laser with unrivalled intensity at 1 mile in a small spot. The beam divergence is so low that it will be hugely bright at a distance if looked at or measured. So brightness at a distance is not really a good measure of what a flashlight is all about. What about total light output measured in lumens? This is the best measure of light power output and is in common use, however, it is very hard to measure with a non uniform beam. Sure it is easier with a source projecting evenly throughout 180 degrees but few light sources are like this. My 90,000 lm is the summation of LEDs derived from manufacturers information when the LEDs are driven to specification.
So what to do?

Construction
Some construction shots.
Take one domestic kitchen bin with defunct automatic lid opener removed plus the top of a domestic rainwater tank. Presto!
Media

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Coming soon. The World’s brightest flashlight shown above lighting a lighthouse.