Best Lighting Options to Have When Power Goes Out

I have both the Black Diamond Apollo and Orbit LED lanterns and find them surprisingly bright for the low wattage LED's. I prefer the Orbit because it is much smaller, cheaper and almost as bright. Good for low ambient lighting. Keep your 200+ lumen flashlight handy for strange noises outside your door.
 
these lights are cheap usually under $3 with batteries they have a magnet on the back I have them stuck on the fridge side of stove backside of the exterior doors where the wife and or grandkids can get a light quick while I'm starting up better lighting I keep a few extras incase one doesn't get back to its spot
Roy
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I have several kerosene hurricane lanterns 4 coleman fuel lanterns, a propane lantern, a coleman pressurized kerosene lantern couple led lanterns and assortted good flashlight several pillar candles and a generator The trick for buying the pillar candles is to catch them on the clearance table I buy lots of seasonal scented candles for $1-2 a peice
 
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One of the best thing I keep handy are a bunch of 99 cent Walmart solar powered yard lights. I bought 10 for 10 bucks and they work great for lighting up my house when the power is out and at 99 cents I don't care if they break and I don't need batteries and my young ins can't burn themselves. Just a thought from a fixed income prepper
 
I've attempted to standardize my hurricane power sources to Sanyo Eneloop AA rechargeables ...in addition to the weather alert Midland 300 and old Grundig 200 radios.... they power the Fenix E21, Gerber task light, Black Diamond Icon, and the Coleman high tech 3 AA LED lantern...the Dietz Air Pilot kero lantern and its partner Little Wizard saw continuous service for the 6 1/2 days of power outage during the 04 and 05 hurricane season

 
I use Ryobi One+ tools, and have a bunch of their batteries, all stay on the charger when not being used, so are always full.
They make an LED lantern, that runs Up to 16 hours on a battery (I have 6 battery's, and a car charger, which charges them in an hour - it also works on Solar providing It can get 6A at 12V)
For work needing a directed beam of light, I have a Pelican 9420 RALS light, which throws 1000 lumens for 2 hours, or 500 lumens for 4 hours, with two batteries and a car charger.

In addition to that I have a large stock of CR123 and AA, and a lot of different flashlights, ranging from dim, long runtime lights, to high powered battery sucking monsters.
Most I can recharge from 12v power.

In a power outage, the first light I grab is my Surefire Minimus Vision - its normally in my pocket, and can easily be dialed up from 0-100 lumens and has a decent runtime on high, and a very long runtime on low.

My AEDC light is a Muyshondt Aeon - 40hrs at 15 lumens, or 90 mins at over 100 lumens. - all in a package not much bigger than a CR123 cell (it uses the smaller CR2 cells)

My RA Twisty has a pretty good burn time too, although its not always EDCed
 
shaw11b said:
One of the best thing I keep handy are a bunch of 99 cent Walmart solar powered yard lights. I bought 10 for 10 bucks and they work great for lighting up my house when the power is out and at 99 cents I don't care if they break and I don't need batteries and my young ins can't burn themselves. Just a thought from a fixed income prepper
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Solar garden lights are an excellent choice for back up lighting, cheap and reliable. I also have 3 solar flashlights, my favorite is the orange energizer solar flashlight with a hand crank to top up the battery should I need more light. I am never without a light by leaving it on the window sill until needed. I use it every night when I get up for a drink of water and use the bathroom, its easier on the eyes instead of turning on glaring bright lights.
 
I have a breaker box. I turn off the main breaker and then I plug my neat Extension cord for my generator to my dryer plug and I run that so I can watch my TV and be on the net with you very good people. I just hope that I don't run out of gas.
 
For me, nothing beats good 'ol fashioned lanterns. The older the better. These particular vintage Coleman lanterns are dated 1959 and 1963 and still going strong! 100% made in America from a time when things were built to last. I just couldn't bring myself to buy today's plastic-made-in-China when there are still a bunch of these fine pieces of Americana laying around (check the auction site). Camp fuel is easy and cheap to store too.

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The old Coleman gas lanterns are awesome.

I also have a new, full-size rechargeable LED lantern from Coleman that lasts a surprisingly long time on a full charge, and while the light is bright enough to read by, etc, the light quality still doesn't compare to the old gas lanterns, imo.

We had a storm roll through last week, and we lost power for about 5 hours that night. Pulled out the candles, headlamp and lantern and persevered through the "hardship." While we don't have cable tv, it was a good reminder of how dependent we have both become on the internet. Several times I caught myself thinking of things I wanted to look up and research, only to remind myself that I couldn't. So instead I put on my headlamp, pulled out a book and read the whole thing. It was awesome.
 
For always with me illumination I have an application on my phone that enables the flash for the camera. If I need to get to a circuit breaker or find my way out of a building this will do in a pinch and I am never far from my phone.

At home I have a slightly outdated fenix ld20 flashlight that runs off ubiquitous AA batteries. The low output mode really makes the batteries last and the high output allows me to see far enough most of the time. I also have a few hand crank LED lights here and there as backups but they do not work very well. I got a bunch for like 1$ each and probably overpaid.

Long term I think building in a way so you get plenty of sunlight in your home is the way to go (but not necessarily direct sun on the glass for heat transfer reasons). When outdoors in low light conditions I often just make do without light since it is good practice. The human eye does surprisingly well in low light conditions given enough time to adjust.

As an ABSOLUTE LAST RESORT I have a few candles but am loathe to use them because of the fire risk.

Then there is also the generator. In retrospect an LED headlight that sips power stored in a known, easy to access, location is probably the best emergency lighting you can have.
 
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sideways said:
Long term I think building in a way so you get plenty of sunlight in your home is the way to go (but not necessarily direct sun on the glass for heat transfer reasons). When outdoors in low light conditions I often just make do without light since it is good practice. The human eye does surprisingly well in low light conditions given enough time to adjust.
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Speaking of glass and heat transfer.
I saw a house a few months back that had been designed to use very little power.
It had lots of skylights for internal light
It was situated where it got plenty of breeze, all the north facing (southern hemisphere) walls had big glass sliding doors, or big window.
The eaves were long enough they blocked the sun from hitting the glass for most of summer, during winter the sun is low enough in the sky it came through the glass and hit a row of black tiles, just inside the glass - solar room hearing during winter.
The house also had big rainwater tanks, a roof full of solar panels, and was designed so the breeze would cool the house in summertime.
The owners were having the power company pay them due to the amount of solar panels, and lack of energy use.
 
Echo63 said:
Speaking of glass and heat transfer.
I saw a house a few months back that had been designed to use very little power.
It had lots of skylights for internal light
It was situated where it got plenty of breeze, all the north facing (southern hemisphere) walls had big glass sliding doors, or big window.
The eaves were long enough they blocked the sun from hitting the glass for most of summer, during winter the sun is low enough in the sky it came through the glass and hit a row of black tiles, just inside the glass - solar room hearing during winter.
The house also had big rainwater tanks, a roof full of solar panels, and was designed so the breeze would cool the house in summertime.
The owners were having the power company pay them due to the amount of solar panels, and lack of energy use.
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Yeah they have made a lot of progress in low energy housing. The tricky bit is making a house that is comfortable to live in year round. If you just make big windows that get lots of sun things can get very uncomfortable in the summer even if you save a pretty penny during the inter. You either need a way of regulating how much sun you let in and how much heat you let out; or you seal the place up really tight so very little heat gets in or out and you set the temperature artificially.
 
As an ABSOLUTE LAST RESORT I have a few candles but am loathe to use them because of the fire risk.
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Me too. But if I have to use them, I will, but I absolutely will not allow a candle to burn unattended inside my house. Learned my lesson on that score and I believe my brother learned his lesson since his house burnt down due to an unattended candle being knocked over by a pet.

I have a couple of the old (metal) Coleman lantern and this thread has remined me that I probably should buy some mantles next time I'm at Walmart and remember.

I keep a lot of batteries available in my house generally. I have really gotten used to the bright C sized flash lights for general use and for work where I need a lot of light to inspect things.

The linked article was interesting.

I have a couple battery operated flourescent "lanterns" that are the first thing to be brought into use during an electrical outage. I would take one along car camping, but otherwise they are a little bulky to carry. The batteries last a good while (C-sized, I believe).
 
22-rimfire said:
Me too. But if I have to use them, I will, but I absolutely will not allow a candle to burn unattended inside my house. Learned my lesson on that score and I believe my brother learned his lesson since his house burnt down due to an unattended candle being knocked over by a pet.

I have a couple of the old (metal) Coleman lantern and this thread has remined me that I probably should buy some mantles next time I'm at Walmart and remember.

I keep a lot of batteries available in my house generally. I have really gotten used to the bright C sized flash lights for general use and for work where I need a lot of light to inspect things.

The linked article was interesting.

I have a couple battery operated flourescent "lanterns" that are the first thing to be brought into use during an electrical outage. I would take one along car camping, but otherwise they are a little bulky to carry. The batteries last a good while (C-sized, I believe).
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Yeah I've also been burned by using candles indoors. We only lost a table but it was enough to drive the lesson home. Enough so that even those coleman lanterns or other types of storm lanterns will only ever see use by me in winter camp-outs where we have someone feeding the stove all night anyway. YMMV, I prefer to just stock a few extra batteries or run the generator every couple of days (weeks?) to recharge the eneloops. I think in a true emergency I'll just adjust to doing things during daylight hours and not need much in the way of extra light anyway.
 
A couple of years ago we had a mobile home burn down. It turn out the old man lit a candle and then went out to dinner with a friend. the candle burn down and then set something on fire. these mobile homes go up real fast. when he came back home the fire department had put it out but all that you could see left was the metal frame. he had no insurance to pay for it.
 
My backup plans at home revolve around generator use. I have two (2800w and 5500w). I need them for work, and they have more than paid for themselves in the last couple of years. I have never yet had to break them out at the house. They have Honda motors and I find it remarkable how I can leave them sit unused for a couple months or even a year and they start right up. The larger one gets used every couple of months at least.

In general, I also find it amazing just how quickly a house can catch fire and progress to a level that is fire department level to put out or burn the whole place down. There is no... oh gee, I wonder if I can go back in and get those guns or whatever unless you want to die after a few minutes.
 
22-rimfire said:
My backup plans at home revolve around generator use. I have two (2800w and 5500w). I need them for work, and they have more than paid for themselves in the last couple of years. I have never yet had to break them out at the house. They have Honda motors and I find it remarkable how I can leave them sit unused for a couple months or even a year and they start right up. The larger one gets used every couple of months at least.
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I was wondering when someone would chime in with the generator option. Lanterns, flashlights, etc. are all fine for when you want to play campout in your house, but when you get serious about keeping lights and other electrical devices such as a fridge going, a generator is the way to go.

The Honda EU 2000 is a great for this or if you need more, get the parallel kit or the EU3000. Quiet power and they sip gas.

I've sold all my gas Coleman lanterns and haven't regretted it one moment. I've gone to the electric Coleman lanterns with the rechargeable batteries. They just can't be beat for convenience and efficiency. No more gas to carry around, no more busted mantels (then not having extras :( ), no more dried up washers on the pump stem, no more gummed up generators!
 
Mudbug007 said:
I was wondering when someone would chime in with the generator option. Lanterns, flashlights, etc. are all fine for when you want to play campout in your house, but when you get serious about keeping lights and other electrical devices such as a fridge going, a generator is the way to go.
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Ah yes. Now don't get me wrong, as much as I love my vintage Coleman lanterns and how charming they are, I understand their limitations and know that they are not a long-term solution.

For a more serious power outage/grid failure/emergency a generator is a must. As you mentioned, the Hondas are phenomenal. Its hard to believe how efficient and quiet they truly are. After watching footage of Hurricane Sandy last year and seeing just how cold and hungry and miserable those victims were (especially those without a generator!) my wife was finally on board with spending the money for a EU2000i. Yes, it hurt the wallet to shell out over a thousand dollars for something I hope I'll never need, but the peace of mind is there and I didn't want to skimp on something that could very well play a huge part in our survival in an emergency.

Here's a photo I snapped of it as well as....*ahem*....a few means of making sure it doesn't walk away in desperate times.

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