# Battery life in lights **URL:** \ **Category:** Pub\ **Created:** [May 26, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://fixed.org.au/t/battery-life-in-lights/45843 "2010-05-26T17:20:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![greenmachine](https://fixed.org.au/user_avatar/fixed.org.au/greenmachine/32/243_2.png) [@greenmachine](https://fixed.org.au/u/greenmachine)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://fixed.org.au/t/battery-life-in-lights/45843/1 "2010-05-26T17:20:46Z")
Do you get more life out of your batteries when on strobe or constant? ---
**Author:** ![horatio](https://fixed.org.au/user_avatar/fixed.org.au/horatio/32/42_2.png) [@horatio](https://fixed.org.au/u/horatio)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://fixed.org.au/t/battery-life-in-lights/45843/2 "2010-05-26T17:24:14Z")
strobe of course (current is being drawn for half as long) ---
**Author:** ![iwearmoccos](https://fixed.org.au/user_avatar/fixed.org.au/iwearmoccos/32/26_2.png) [@iwearmoccos](https://fixed.org.au/u/iwearmoccos)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://fixed.org.au/t/battery-life-in-lights/45843/3 "2010-05-26T17:24:53Z")
I’ve never used my lights on constant, but thanks for reminding me that I need to replace the batteries in my rear flasher. ---
**Author:** ![bikegene](https://fixed.org.au/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@bikegene](https://fixed.org.au/u/bikegene)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://fixed.org.au/t/battery-life-in-lights/45843/4 "2010-05-26T17:34:41Z")
something like 200 hours when flashing and 30 hours on constant. thats with those tiny little lights people have in their hubs anyway ---
**Author:** ![greenmachine](https://fixed.org.au/user_avatar/fixed.org.au/greenmachine/32/243_2.png) [@greenmachine](https://fixed.org.au/u/greenmachine)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://fixed.org.au/t/battery-life-in-lights/45843/5 "2010-05-26T17:44:32Z")
Damn i thought it would take more electricity sending a pulse rather than constant. okay i’ll set it to strobe from now on, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![ronny\_cash](https://fixed.org.au/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@ronny\_cash](https://fixed.org.au/u/ronny_cash)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 7:20am UTC](https://fixed.org.au/t/battery-life-in-lights/45843/6 "2010-05-27T07:20:22Z")
haha this reminds me of my childhood when mum used to tell me not to flicker the lights cos it uses up all the electricity. two differing opinions…i think we need some kind of electrician mythbuster here? might as well share this [DealExtreme: $3.54 2032 x 20 pcs Cell Batteries](http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.751) for those with LEDs got some in the post, theyre so cheap i wont really have to worry about battery life. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![antmandan](https://fixed.org.au/user_avatar/fixed.org.au/antmandan/32/115_2.png) [@antmandan](https://fixed.org.au/u/antmandan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://fixed.org.au/t/battery-life-in-lights/45843/7 "2010-05-27T14:55:52Z")
> [@ronny\_cash](#): > > haha this reminds me of my childhood when mum used to tell me not to flicker the lights cos it uses up all the electricity. two differing opinions…i think we need some kind of electrician mythbuster here? 🙂 Depends on the light. If it is a standard incandescent bulb then the current drawn (amount of electricity in layman’s terms) is proportional to the time spent being on. If it is a compact fluorescent bulb (energy saver) or a standard fluorescent light it is true that a bit of extra power is used in the startup of the bulb, but this is almost negligible to be considered anything worth worrying about. In fact the old myth about leaving fluro lights on when you leave a room because you waste energy by turning them off and on is utter bullshit. You only have to leave them off for about 1-2 seconds to save that initial startup cost. Which means beyond two seconds of the fluro being off you are saving a lot of energy from being wasted. With flashing lights there is a little bit of energy consumed by the flashing circuitry and voltage regulation for the LED, but the major suck of power is the LED itself, meaning that if it is flashing then it is spending less time consuming power. Hope that this has been enlightening 😉 ---
**Author:** ![rolly](https://fixed.org.au/user_avatar/fixed.org.au/rolly/32/280_2.png) [@rolly](https://fixed.org.au/u/rolly)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://fixed.org.au/t/battery-life-in-lights/45843/8 "2010-05-27T15:36:20Z")
> [@ronny\_cash](#): > > haha this reminds me of my childhood when mum used to tell me not to flicker the lights cos it uses up all the electricity. two differing opinions…i think we need some kind of electrician mythbuster here? > > might as well share this > [DealExtreme: $3.54 2032 x 20 pcs Cell Batteries](http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.751) > for those with LEDs > got some in the post, theyre so cheap i wont really have to worry about battery life. > 🙂 i am most definitely going to buy some of these. thanks ronny cash. bought some batteries from a $2 shop for the cheapy 3LED lights i bought from dealextreme. realised last night that they’re pretty dead already??? only been 2 weeks…