Okay, now that I've had time to settle down and calm myself, I'll detail the lighting instruments used during this five day outage....
1; Novatac 120P - the 120P was used on it's two lowest levels (0.8 Lumens and 10 Lumens) for 98% of the time, I did step up to level 3 (30 Lumens) whenever I went downstairs to get wood for the woodstove
when I was down in the cellar, I noticed the 120's beam tint, being a slightly cold bluish tint, not too far off white, made the brown and gray wood blend in with the gray granite stone walls that make up the basement walls, it was a nearly perfect camoflauge unless you were within arms length of the wood, adjusting power levels upward did not help much, if at all, conversely, when I illuminated said woodpile with my incandescent A2 Aviator, the wood stood out distinctly from the granite rock walls, it had color, depth, and definition (I'll get photos of this effect, maybe tomorrow...)
Battery life (BS RCR123a) was stellar, only on day 5 did it automatically drop from 120 lumens to 85 lumens, it's still got plenty of usable runtime on levels 1 2 and 3
2; SureFire A2 Aviator; used mostly on incandescent for short bursts, illuminating the wood pile in the basement, helping my mother search for her sweat pants (red sweats look different under LED illumination, they tend to blend in with the other pile of multicolor clothes), the high color temp and CRI of the A2's incan bulb helped her find her sweats in short order, the A2's still on it's first set of batteries as well, I kept this one in reserve and only used the incan beam when I needed it, batteries ZTS at 40%, had the outage gone on any longer, I would have had to change cells
3; Inova X5 White; this one had a fresh set of batteries at the start of the outage, and was used for general walking around, both inside and outside, it's wide, floody beam was a great use indoors, batteries ZTS now at 20%, I guess I used it more than I thought....
4; Princeton Tec EOS; In an extended power outage, a headlamp is a lifesaver, I wore the EOS every night, and kept it on the lowest setting as it was plenty bright enough for whatever I was doing in the house, having both hands free to load the woodstove and fireplaces with logs/firelogs was a great help, and a heck of a lot more convenient than mouth-holding a standard flashlight, every Flashaholic needs a good headlamp, once you have one, you'll wonder how you got along without it, the EOS was the one light that saw nearly constant use, the batteries were partially depleted when the outage started (40%), and now, they ZTS at 0%, yet the EOS is still delivering plenty of useful light
If I had to do it all over again (not that I would, mind you...) I could get by with three lights, the PT EOS, the A2, and a 2-cell flashlight with a MJLED PR base bulb...
5; Eveready "Plastic Fantastic" cheapo 2AA incan with a MJLED PR bulb, yes it's a cheap, crappy plastic light, yes it's poorly constructed and has a cheap, scratched up plastic window, but you know wuat, it has a *GREAT* faceted reflector, and combined with the MJLED 2 cell bulb, it has a beam profile that's just as good as the Überexpensive SureFire incan lights, a smooth, clean white hotspot melding smoothly into a nice usable spillbeam, no artifacts, no holes, no voids, the beam pattern is *perfect*, no it's not the brightest light out there, in fact, the same bulb in a 2C Mag is dramatically brighter (if a tad more artifacty), but for late night dark-adapted bathroom runs or to check the woodstove to see if it's still burning, it's just right, it saw just as much use as the X5 and EOS headlamp, it had fresh batteries at the start of the outage, and they now ZTS at 80%, the MJLED is one great little battery sipper
5A; Mag 2C with MJLED, same bulb performance as the Eveready, beam is a tiny bit artifacty, but to be expected with a smooth reflector, very intense hotspot at tightest focus, easily 3-5X brighter than the Eveready, the Mag 2C was used as a room light, it's resting in a Mag wall-mount clamp, it was used mainly after I had extinguished my Candleier candle lantern and hurricane oil lamps for the night and didn't feel like re-lighting them, batteries still ZTS at 100%
I gave my parents a couple lights during the outage, Mom chose the Rayovac swivel-head with the Sears Luxeon bulb, and used it throughout the whole outage, that and her Minimag with Nite-Ize kit, both still on their original set of batteries that I installed at the beginning of the outage, Dad had this crappy cheapo incan with dying batteries and a sickly yellow beam, I gave him a MiniMagLED 3 cell, and he used it the rest of the outage, he was stunned by how much better it was than his crappy plastic D-cell dinosaur, in fact, I saw him EDCing it throughout the whole outage, and he's not one to EDC anything!
Area lighting, as detailed in the first post, was with a hurricane oil lamp and a Candleir candle lantern, both for the pleasing orange flame, and the small amount of heat generated, of the two, the Candlier was far more efficient than the oil lamp, the oil lamp has a small resivoir, and needed to be refilled three times during the outage, but made up for it with it's infinitely variable brightness with an extremely simple UI, turn the knob up for bright, down for dim, the Candlier was much better as a single level (all three candles lit) light, and only burned up about 1/4 of the original candle height, in a super-extended outage, the Candleier would be a far more efficient choice, it also has a flat metal top that apparently can be used to heat water for a hot beverage, just put the ceramic cup right on the flat top. I have not tried this yet, but I will after I conclude this post
Overall, if I was to do it again, I would use the following lights;
Eveready Plastic Fantastic with MJLED (battery life)
Mag 2C with MJLED (room illumination)
SureFire A2 (LED low and incan high)
Princeton Tec EOS (general anything and everything use)
Candleier Candle Lantern (area light and heat)
Yep, only we still have power right now, thankfully. But we will get 8-12 inches tomorrow and another 3-5 inches after that and with all the trees around here we will probably lose power again as well, we do almost every storm. Saw a great deal on Energizer AA batteries at Home Depot 36 for $13!
