‘Color temperature’ is a way to describing the color warmth/coolness of light. You may have seen this when buying light bulbs for your house, it is shown as a number 3600K or 5500K, etc. The higher the number the ‘cooler’ or bluer the light becomes, while lower numbers mean the Read more…
The main reason Lithium-Ion batteries are used for LED torches, is that they have a high ‘energy density’. This just means they have a lot of power in a small size. A typical 186560 cell is rated at 4.2V (Volts) and 2800mAH (milli-Amp Hours), in comparison an alkaline AA battery Read more…
“Lux” is the standard unit of measure for illumination (i.e. brightness) of a surface at a given point. This means the Lux value is only a point brightness NOT the overall output, but it is useful as a comparison between different beam patterns. One Lux is equal to one lumen Read more…
“Beam Angle” is the angle of the light produced by the torch, this is measured at 50% of maximum power; this is also considered as ‘half angle’ as it is only the angle of one side of the graph (see below). Hence, to get the actual angle of the beam, you Read more…
NEMA, produce a set of international standard that LED torches; should be rated against. First released in 2009, these standards are not compulsory for any torch company but are supposed to give the customer a fair way to compare torches. The icons are shown (right) indicate the important specifications for a Read more…
Lumen is the standard unit of measure for the total amount of light from a source, in all directions. This tells you how much light the torch produces, with no regard for the area, unlike Lux. This is demonstrated by the example below: 1000 Lumens concentrated into an area of Read more…
Burn time is the definition of how long in minutes or hours the torch will produce a useful amount of light. This is often measured in different ways by different manufacturers; refer to the NEMA FL-1 standards. We measure our burn time, based on the time it takes to go from 100% Read more…
So you have decided you want to buy an LED torch? Easy, just go and buy the one that has the most lumens, right? WRONG! To correctly buy an LED torch you should understand a few things, firstly it’s not all to do with Lumens; you also need to know how wide Read more…