Sierra Trading Post has solar-powered LED flashlights on sale for $7.96.I believe this is identical to a flashlight I’ve been testing and using and it’s pretty impressive – if kept on a windowsill – or exposed to artificial interior light – all day, it runs for at least a couple of hours.

And it’s got a clever design feature, which reduces the risk of accidentally turning on the light: the button needs to be depressed twiceto be turned on. That is, the switch is set to OFF, OFF, ON. If you didn’t know this, you’d likely find that it worked on your second try to turn it on.

solar flashlight from Sierra Trading Post.

Link to product page. We can think of two ways this light might be improved – (1) by adding photoluminescent (“glow in the dark”) material to the exterior, (2) adding reflective material, ideally Reflexite, to the exterior. A combination of both – and a bright color – would make it easily findable in the dark – when you’re likely to want it.

I’ve been keeping mine on the windowsill; be advised that these are seconds – because of minor cosmetic blemishes.

This seems a useful household emergency tool; possibly a good addition to a go-bag – but one wouldn’t want to store it in a go-bag, because of the charge. And it’s too big for a purse/keychain flashlight. However, they might be ideally placed one to a windowsill – or across from mirrors which get a steady exposure to light, or under a skylight.