Defensive light

[golfer]

1. What makes a good defensive light for the home?
2. Is a inside the house light different than an outside the house light?
3. How many lumens is enough for inside, how many for outside?
Best wishes.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Superhouse 15]

Well I have a 1 year old in the house and he gets up sometimes at all hours of the night. I use a L1 Lumamax from Surefire for an around the house and all purpose light. It has a low 10 lumen setting and a high 65 lumen setting. 10 is fine for sorting out baby stuff and moving about the house, 65 is plenty for other purposes. All purpose light for utility or defensive use.

L1 LumaMax® LED Flashlight in Bright Blue, Green, Red or White from SureFire

Or you might check this thread:
http://www.defensivecarry.com/vbulle...ns-lights.html

[Chooie]

This is a common topic here, you can find many of your questions have already been answered. However, I'll try to address them individually for you.

1. I assume you intend to use the light to search your home and/or identify intruders, in addition to the menial tasks you would use a flashlight for (power outages, etc.) With that in mind, I like a multilevel light - one that is bright enough to serve in tactical applications while also efficient enough to give good battery life for general use. However, it is just as easy to have a dedicated defensive light and a dedicated utility light.

2. Yes and no; you can use any light, anywhere - but certain aspects of a given light may be more appropriate to one or the other. For example, I like a light designed to give a thin, concentrated beam for outdoor use. This gives you good "throw", letting you illuminate things down the driveway, across the street, or in a strange car. Indoors I prefer a wider, diffused, or "spill" beam. This lets you illuminate more of a room without having to wave the light around, enabling you to see more at once.

3. Outdoors I would say there is no such thing as too many lumens. I would probably stick to a light that has 100+ lumens for outdoor use. In my experience this gives you the ability to see 100+ yards. Indoors is a little different, especially if you have white walls. You see, a bright light can bounce off of light colored walls, blinding you and negating the extra brightness. I would probably stick with a light in the 60-80 lumen range and a diffused beam. With a heavily diffused beam, you could increase the lumen output a bit without having the reflection of the high lux spot blinding you.

If you want some suggestions, I'd be happy to oblige. Start with a basic Surefire G2 or 6P, and for indoors use I like the Malkoff Devices M60LF or M60WLF LED dropin. These are high quality dropins that are unfortunately somewhat expensive and limited stock. Both are about 140 lumens, but have a very wide, smooth beam that gives a "wall of light" effect. The W version has a warmer color temperature, which means there is more yellow and red in the light. This more closely approximates an incandescent bulb, and for some people is more pleasant to look at.

For outdoors, Malkoff also makes the standard M60 dropin, rated at 235 lumens.

If you want to do more research, please search this section of the forum or check out CandlePowerForums.

[MilitaryPower]

1. What makes a good defensive light for the home?
2. Is a inside the house light different than an outside the house light?
3. How many lumens is enough for inside, how many for outside?
Best wishes.

1. It needs to be durable, dependable, ergonomic, needs to be at least 60 lumens, have decent run time, and needs to have a switch that can be activated easily (usually while holding a gun). LED's are an excellent choice for this, but you just can't get any LED light.
2. Sure, it can be. Inside you don't need the light to go as far, so a flood might be the choice. Outside, the better option would be a thrower for longer distance. A flood that throws would be perfect, but you usually can't have the best of two worlds. Color tint could come into play for better picture as well. Also, the incandescent has an edge here as it can generally throw better than the LED (that gap is closing quickly), however I still recommend the LED as a good LED light will light up anything you are in range to shoot.
3. 60 lumens minimum for inside, as for outside, it really depends on what you are doing.

I have have a Surefire 6P with Malkoff in it that throws 235+ lumens. It will light up the inside of the house and the outside. I also have a Fenix LD20 with 180 lumens, and while not as much flood or throw as the other, it can be used inside or out. Basically, you need to match a flashlight to your needs as soon as you figure those out. Don't just buy any light. You need a light from a good manufacturer with track record, and usually you get what you pay for. That is why my best light (6P Malkoff) cost me about $150 to put together. It is worth it.

When you are ready to get a light, ask us and we will steer you in the right direction.