Watch: Inventor creates 1,000W DIY torch that turns night into day

24 Nov 2015

If you’ve ever been frustrated at the pathetic beam of light emitting from your pound-shop torch, then behold the awesome power of a homemade torch that turns night into day with its 1,000W beam.

The 1,000W DIY torch was designed by filmmaker Daniel Riley, who goes by the YouTube name of rctestflight, with the intention of putting other torches to shame.

Comprised of 10 100W LED chips, the handheld torch is completely off the charts when it comes to the amount of light it gives off, which is scientifically measured in lumens.

To draw comparisons with familiar light sources, the average heavy-duty LED torch emits somewhere in the region of 300 lumens, but Riley’s homemade torch is 300 times more powerful at 90,000 lumens.

Even the most powerful of torches only reach a luminosity somewhere in the region of 700 lumens.

Weighing 4.5kg, the rig gets its juice from two 8-amp-hour lithium-polymer batteries, which Popular Mechanics points out as being the equivalent of nine iPhone 6s batteries.

Given the amount of energy required to power such a torch, it isn’t exactly practical, only lasting somewhere in the region of 10 minutes and, even then, the intense heat generated by the LED lamps means it’s unlikely you’d be able to last more than a few minutes holding it.

From Riley’s video, you can see how by turning the torch on indoors, the entire room becomes like a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey due to the brightness of the lights.

Totally worth losing your vision over.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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