Thought I'd whip out a quick page about LED lights. The Light Emitting Diode (LED) is a small low powered completely cool light source. In the past, they have been used in computers for blinking lights on circuit boards and other displays. Because of their low power requirements and ability to be cycled on and off extremely fast, they are perfect for motherboard diagnostics or ethernet board status lights.
LEDs have always been red or amber in color but recent breakthroughs made by Shuji Nakamura have added blue, green, and white colors to their spectrum. Mr. Nakamura was a researcher at Nichia Chemical Industries in Tokushima, Japan before recently joining the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara. The addition of white means that replacement of the standard white lightbulbs is now possible.
LEDs promise efficiency that will be much greater than standard incandescent light bulbs because they can be optimized to give off much less heat. Standard light bulbs are hot to the touch and give off a lot of energy in the form of infrared radiation. Replacing incandescents bulb with white LEDs will reduce the energy consumption of the lights which in turn will reduce air-conditioning costs since LED lights do not give off excess heat.
Right now white LEDs are still expensive to produce but the price will drop as sales increase, manufacturing processes get more efficient, and the economies of scale get into play.
Research is also being done to turn the technology on which LEDs are based on their head and use it for photovoltaic power generation. LEDs work my causing an electron to jump across a small space causing a photon to be released. With the right orientation, if a photon hits the space, an electron is excited across between the poles, causing a current. Something like that. Here's a great online piece about polymer photovoltaics.
Here are some LED flashlights which are currently available on the market.
Free Spam Protection ORMLite Java ORM Android ORM EV For Sale, Lexington, MA