How Many Lumens do I Need for a Flashlight?

Guess you are walking on the street in a pitch black dark night. Without any support you will feel like a blind. Because you will not able to see what’s in front of you.  What will you asked for as help? Flashlight! Yes, it’s the flashlight which can help you to see through the dark night. But the question is how much light do you need? Today we are going to focus on answering the questing how many lumens do I need for a flashlight ?

Lumens are the light output measurement. If you ever purchased a flashlight or light bulb then have a look at its packaging. You will see the printed information about how much lumens that flashlight or light bulb will produce.

Now a day, flashlight becomes an essential gadget if you are working in the law enforcement sector. Even if you like hiking, trekking, hunting, camping or walking at night then you always must carry a suitable flashlight for you and you need to ask yourself “How Many Lumens Do I Need for a Flashlight?” before you start your adventure.

If we look back few years ago, In 2005, 100 lumens was referred as the suitable for tactical flashlight which were commonly used by the law enforcement sector. But for the advancement of LED light technology, in 2016 more than 1000 lumens tactical flashlights are already available in the market.

So, lets discuss how many lumens do I need for a flashlight? Please be informed that the below description is solely my own subjective judgment.

 

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1 Lumen: Generally 1 lumen is considered as 10 times brighter than the moonlight. But this consideration is depends on the flashlight beam’s wide. If the beam is wider, the brightness of the light will be dimmer. Interesting fact is you will find this 1 lumen useful if you are in pitch black darkness. But this is well enough for reading purpose (consideration: the book should be 1 feet away where the beam spot is smaller and brighter). Normally, 2x AA battery flashlight with 1 lumen will give you few days run time.

10-30 lumens:  this amount of lumens produces brightness like a candle. Surprised!! Because it is very hard to compare as the brightness of candle is not focused through beam like flashlight. But 10 lumens flashlight is well enough for your hiking, camping, backpacking activities. This amount of brightness also will give you enough light for emergency situations like assisting in blackout or while finding something lost in store. A 2x AA battery 10 lumens flashlight can give you a full day run time.

100 Lumens: Standard for now a days average flashlight. An average 100 lumens flashlight is able to provider 5 -10 hours runtime using 2x AA battery. This amount of lumens is technically enough for urban and suburban use. 100 Lumens flashlight can use to create a shining spot on the road so that car driver can spot you, can be useful to temporarily blinding the attackers when using a self-defense weapon, can be useful to check the medium size backyard, can be useful for bicycle lamp.

300 Lumens: Wow that enough for most of usage like searching human or animal at 50 meter distance, can comfortably lighting up a small room, can be used as bicycle headlight.

1000 lumens and up: That’s a monster powered flashlight which are used by the professional like law enforcement or emergency services. This category of flashlights can easily lighting up a large area like construction site, ship yard, factory etc.

Please note that anything below 10 lumens is only handy in pitch black condition. 10 lumens even look brighter when you are in dark. But as you move toward brighter area more lumens you need. For example, if you are in a dark backyard than a 10 lumens may be enough to guide you to follow the road but this amount of lumens will flash away when you come to the road where there are street lamps.

Our suggestion is choose & buy one flashlight from our best rechargeable flashlight review list. You adjust the lumens settings in different lighting area. You only need some experience to understand how much lumens you need in which condition. Don’t get frustrated if you are not able to understand the lumens requirement by using your flashlight.

We are always here to help you out!