zespectre,
I also have found that MOST of my lights get no use what-so-ever.
I don't dog walk, nor do I go for pleasure walks, so unless I am camping, my flashlight use is primarily for in house tasks like finding a pot cover in the back of a cabinet.
The S2+ in the kitchen junk drawer gets used 2-3 times a month for seconds at a time.
Of the 7 night stand lights, really only one gets used. A DQG single AA twisty. It gets used usually once a night or morning for a second to check the thermostat setting. At that rate, the battery charge will probably last a year or three, but I charge it now and then anyway.
My key chain light, a little CooYoo, with a 10180 - 100 mAh capacity cell, has never been fully discharged. That light may actually be used for a couple of minutes here and there, every other month. Most weeks, it isn't even used for seconds.
My Crelant headlamp with an 18650 probably gets as much use as all lights combined, (which still isn't much). It'll get used when I am repairing something, or taking out the trash. Maybe when looking for something in the garage. I usually top it off before and after a camping trip. But in-between, it isn't necessary.
There is also a 2D cell light in the garage that I converted to run on a 26650, that gets 30 second uses a few times a week, while looking for something. That cell will last all year and more on a single charge.
For all the years I've been indulging my love of lights I never really paused and thought about how much each individual light really gets used at a time until I started doing reviews. I quickly realized that my lights actually get used a lot less than I thought.
For example, my "bedstand lights" rack up minuscule time since they are usually run for 2-3 minutes tops per use and even my "evening walkaround" lights, especially those used for the Real World Reviews usually get no more than 40-50 minutes straight of uninterrupted use per walk.
The "Hobby" headlamp I use with my magnifying glasses gets a lot more use, sometimes a couple of hours at a time a few nights a week and that is a light I sometimes wish I could either plug in, or wire in a much larger battery pack (grin).
Probably the one with the most hours on it is a battery pack powered Ryobi LED floodlight I use in my garage or out in the yard at night. It doesn't get used all that often but when I am using it then it is on for hours.
This really hit home with a few recent reviews of some lights that had 6-8 hours of runtime at their regular or medium settings. I came back from the evening walk and realized that there wasn't really even any point to topping off the batteries!
Yeah, the old fart in me is remembering when you would do an hour walk, and change your Zinc-Carbon "D" cell batteries because they were pretty much done.
