James,
The Perpetual Light [marketed by Wiggy’s] is in fact a resale of another company’s product, also made in the Grand Junction, Colorado area. The other company is UVPaqlite.com. I’ve had their products for close to six months now and I have been using them the entire time. Some notes on the lights:
1. The Glow in the Dark Spots (GIDS) are great to mark emergency gear. I have one on the ends of several flashlights so I can find them if the power goes out. I also have one on the end of my bed so I don’t walk into it in the middle of the night. They do last all night and I can’t say enough good things about the GIDS for marking purposes. The only other marking spots I’ve used that are as good are ones which contain tritium.
2. The Paqlite (the flat “bag” of crystals) do last all night long … by morning they are close to nothing more than a dim glow that you can’t navigate or read by but for several hours after dark they do provide a “night light” level of light. I’ve got one in each of my map cases for reading them at night without turning on a flashlight. And they are easy to recharge with even a small key chain flashlight.
3. The Tooblite is about the size of a chemical light stick (“chemlite”) and while it does not last as long as the Paqlite (about half the time) it is basically a clear test-tube shaped and sized container of the crystals embedded in a clear plastic. Not as usable as a chemlite for navigation or reading. Durable as all though and my large one is attached to my computer bag all the time — its been through multiple airline handling experiences and isn’t even scratched.
4. The material used has a definite preference for the type of light used to charge them up — light sources with UV (such as natural sunlight) create a much brighter, longer lasting, and more natural light (a whitish green glow) vs. incandescent lighting (a soft green glow). So while any light source can be used, the use of lighting with the UV spectrum is better.
5. At this point I have yet to lose my night vision when using one of these lights. While its not the usual reddish glow we associate with night-vision saving lights, it seems to work the same.
Finally, as with all sorts of lighting, since it is greenish hued you do not get true colors from objects so lines on maps tend to look the same (blue, green, gray) and even blood vessels are hard to distinguish (red for arteries and blue for veins). Regards, – H.D.