Disaster Lights

Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

Like many here we get seduced by lumens - lots of them (why else would I be pondering a ROP mod?). With hurricane season in the Carolinas fast approaching I've been considering my current light selection and realize I have a fairly significant hole - a few long runtime lights and headlamps.

Where I live the direct damage is not likely very high as I'm far enough from the coast, but several day power outages are a very real and somewhat common possibility (got through this winter without an ice storn although that is pretty common as well). While I have an HDS EDC B42 that on lower settings will get the job done - I also have a wife and two small children (one 4 yo who is already a flashaholic; and a 6 mo) to consider in the equation. Consequently, changing diapers, etc.. with the baby will be a lot easier with a headlamp, and with the power potentially out for a day or two one or two general room lighting options with long runtimes is appealing.

However, given my recent investment in the HDS and a Strion (useful for short term checking on things and can be topped off from the DC car adapter when I have to be in the car) means any additional lights need to be relatively inexpensive as they will be fairly specific use lights.

Current lights are: HDS B42 XRGT; Strion; Arc AAA (red); Minimag with NiteIze (this is what my wife used the last time the power went out); Inova X1 (old style - my son currently "uses" this one); Pelican Super Sabrelight; Mag 3D with the Sears 1W PR bulb installed; a stock 3D mag; a stock 2D mag.

I've been thinking about 1 or 2 Lightwave 3000 or 4000 lights for long runtime.

I know next to nothing about headlamps, but the River Rock ones seem to get some decent press around here.

Any alternatives for the long runtime room lights, and fairly inexpensive LED headlamps I'm not considering? Maybe the Energizer flourescent lanterns or River Rock lanterns?

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

The River Rock lantern is nice, and nicer if you frost teh globe or put transparent tape on it. You can get a NICE headlamp from Amondotech (712L) with 3 light levels. Or you can just go to wlamart and grab some of the Energizer LED headlamps on the cheap and call it good. Also the Petzl stuff is good.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

The River Rock is handy for lighting a small area well, but a flourescent is more likely to provide enough light for a room. The tradeoff is that a flourescent will use up more power than the River Rock Jupiter lantern. 4 D battery (GE Steelcase Flourescent) .vs 4AA batteries with approximately the same run time on a set of batteries.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

Hello Gatsby

I would look for a big car batterie and 12V chargers, nimh, LiIon, depends which ones you needs.
So you can charge your resources without electricity.

Best regards

____
Tom

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

I'm in the same boat, but live a bit closer to the coast. The last time we had a major storm Maglite and Browning/Pelican lights were the rage around here, of course I had never heard of an LED at that point either, lol.

In response to your question, I own a Lightwave 3000 and the River Rock headlamp. I would reccomend the Lightwave, but not the River Rock and I think that you could replace the lightwave with a Magled and really not lose much runtime if any at all. The River Rock is too focused without diffusing it in some way and not really all that useful for the short range tasks that I always seem to remember doing after a storm hit. I think the Energizer LED headlamps from Wal-Mart would work better for most tasks, including reading and navigating through a totally dark house.

Since you have several compact flashlights that throw for some distance I don't see those as being as important. An alternative to the Lightwave series might be the UK 4AA eLED standard as it has an incredibly long runtime for 4AA's and though it does not put out a huge amount of light, it is probably on par with the lightwave.

I personally plan on adding a few lanterns and maybe on of the Energizer headlamps to my kit, because my PT Apex is not the most comfortable for all around use. The lights that will be ready to go though include a pair of Magled 2D's and a 4D, Streamlight Propoly lux 3C and 4AA, PT Apex, Inova X1 (new style), Dorcy 3D Lux. Those will probably get passed out the most to my family and I'll hang on to my Surefire's for the most part as I doubt they would like to replace one if they lost it.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

For hurricane related power outages, those that will likely last more than a few hours, I would use my AA powered lights...my Fenix L2T for example. On high it runs for 2 hours per set of batts...it only take 1 hour to recharge a set and I have 8 batts...endless light.

What folks do down here (Florida), those that do not have a generator, is use inverters. These convert 12 dc volts (car batt) to 110 ac house current.

The last long power outage (some years ago) I used a 300 watt one. It ran all my tablelamps (twist type bulbs) fans (very important) 19 inch TV (to me, very important) cell phone (very important) and my trusty old laptop. I would just start the car every couple hours and let it idle for 30 minutes or so to recharge. Also it would recharge when I drive it to my friends homes or to the stores that had generators and where open (many did). At night, with the TV off, running only a small fan, I found I had no problem running through the night without recharging.

Inverters are cheap. I now have a 500 watt inverter and I think I paid around $45 for it.

So to me...a good oil change...a clean radiator...and a full tank of gas are the ticket. Put your money into a inverter. You`ll be a lot happier with fans, tv, computer, cell phones and lights...than just light.

Ken

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

I am in the hurricane zone of eastern NC as well, and would second the River Rock lantern as an addition to the collection.
I have given them to all of my family that live near the water, as they mostly had the cheapie minim@g clones,
and I figured they needed something that would run longer than an hour per set of batteries.
Taping the globe helps tremendously with the light output, just wish they had left off the stupid strobe function.
All it does for me is trigger migraines.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

The pak-lite is a handy one a storm kit,small puts out a good amount of light indoors.Fits in a pocket,can be held in teeth,or a head band sold on the web site. 9voltlight.com.Same battery set up the palight is also very handy also.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

You will find that you can get away with much dimmer lighting than you ever deemed possible. It does not take much to light up a room enough to work by, especially if bounced off a ceiling. Too much light tends to attract unwanted attention from human vermin, an all too real a threat.

A good lantern, I like the Sportsmans Guide lantern (uses 4 D batteries and I have never ran through a set of batteries even though used it numerous times, some for days, since the 2003 blackout which was its first test), but there are plenty of others. A good headlamp is invaluable, you will not beleive how much you use it during normal daily chores, mine are the Brinkman 3 LED version 2 white one red.

The Lightwaves are splendid indeed. I got them after reading about Quickbeams, Doug of Flashlight Reviews, experience with them and how long they lasted. They are excellant buys.

The very things you are thinking about is why I carry the X1 in my pocket, the runtime, it means much more ot me than brightness. MJLED and SMLED upgraded Minimags last about 30 hours per set of batteries, both the AA and AAA versions, and are cheap additions, espcially if you find them for sale, which will happen more after the LED Minimag comes out I bet.

My wife and I each have a headlamp, and we each have personal carry pocket light(s). Hers are the RR AAA and an 8 LED Cheaper than Dirt light she likes, and mine are the X1 and either X0, X5, or X03 depending upon situation.

Good luck and I hope you never have to use your hurricane preperations.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

Great suggestions as usual! I was in eastern NC (New Bern) during hurricane Floyd. Like WDR I had a couple maglights of varous sizes and that was it. Power in the historic district where I lived was out for about 2 days, much longer in other areas however. Since then I've moved and we've been lucky although some ice storms (like the one mentioned on Doug's site) have been unpleasant. I've picked up a small generator in the interim which ran well during the ice storm keeping food from going bad. I could charge the Strion more or less indefinitely on that - I have around 8 NiMH AA's so perhaps a quick charger and some more AA based lights would be a good strategy. I don't know if there are any AA based headlamps, have to check that out. And the MagLED does have a pretty long runtime in the 3D format - something like 22 hours - I'd forgotten that even after reading the review - and more light than a lightwave. Although the lightwave's run forever it seems and are on a special for between $10 (aa) and $20 (3D).

This is obviously just lights. During a couple hurricanes downeast we've figured out most of what we need to survive an extended outage - and some form of entertainment is pretty key so that inverter sounds like a great idea - certainly more efficient than running the generator for 2.5-3 hour stretches.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

I favor the EternaLight ErgoMarine which uses 3 common AA cells (any flavor) and lasts for more than 1,000 hours on the lowest setting, yet has lots of oomph at the highest level when needed. Recommended.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

I'll second the new Pak-light. Here are some pics of my kit.

LINK

The headlamps are cheap and the energizer is mod-able so you can have a bit of fun too. Maybe mod it while you're bored during the power outage. Need a gas soldering iron though

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

Gatsby,
I agree totally with the entertainment. I did a lot of reading when I wasn't out working. Luckily we had satellite tv and once we realized that we could run the tv and the satellite reciever instead of watching the news the whole time we were a lot happier.

As for the Lightwave's I gave mine to my mother for the purpose you mentioned. It works well enough and gives out plenty of light for almost any task and when the batteries finally died in it this year they had been in the light for four years.

I also agree with Lee1959, you can do a lot with a little bit of light. Thinking back to Hurricane Fran, I can remember working on a tractor generator with just a mini-mag the night after the storm. Now............it would be a whole different ballgame, though I really am not all that eager to repeat the experience soon.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

If you don't want a whole lot of light and weeks of runtime, the Nite-Ize drop in for D size mags (walmart 10 bucks) is good.

It is pretty dim, but according to Flashlightreviews after 24 hrs running (2D size) the output dropped 4 percent......After 24 HRS!!!

Pretty good on D cell alkalines and cheap to run.....

Most on CPF don't seem to like it, but it is a very long running drop in that is focusable in the Maglite, cheap, and runs forever.

I like it.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

"Current lights are: ... Minimag with NiteIze (this is what my wife used the last time the power went out)"

Score one for the lowly (but useful!) Mini-Mag/Nite-Ize!!

Not a powerful light ... but a lot of useful light in very dark indoor conditions .... and a LONG run time.

But many others are probably better. Can you tell us more about the different settings on that EgoMarine light, PhotonBoy??

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

It looks like you have the more capable lights covered. When looking for longer runtime, look at.

Gerber Infinity Ultra (I've tested it to over 75 hours on a single AA)

Inova X1-new type (I've tested it to 38 hours on a single AA)

Lightwave 2000 and 4000

Smjled in a 2 cell host light

Eternalight

Maglite 3 cell w/ magled drop in (good runtime too)

L2T used on low (about 18 hours on 2AA alkalines)

Liteflux LF1 (similar to L2T and can be used in candle mode)

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

I was expecting to hear this sooner, but...the 4AA Energizer LED Lantern from target. Pocket sized, but if hung up high enough can illuminate a room wonderfully for 200 hours on low mode and 100 on high. Runs on four common AA cells, the tubes fold out for different positioning methods, including a nail/screw hole that is excellent for wall mounting. Best of all, they sell for about seven bucks each at Target. Buy a few, you'll want more after your first blackout with these things on hand.

Also, the cheap Energizer headlamps are also very nice for the price, the red LEDs are great for battery saving and night vision preservation. The standard red/white model is ten bucks, for fifteen you get the deluxe with the spot/flood/spot-flood/red modes that you have to tap through with a button. Once you get a headlamp for each person, I cannot stress these lanterns enough, you'll thank me later.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

Although I have my share of the full range of lights, for a serious power outage I have six Rayovac Industrial 2D lights that I have outfitted with PR based SMJLEDs. Cost for light and bulb is $15. Although this combination is not outstanding in any single area, it is adequate for all uses I can anticipate needing. It has a pretty good spot for moderate throw, easily equal to the stock incandescent bulb. The side spill is enough for general use when walking around with the light. One feature that made me choose this host as opposed to others was that the bulb mounts to the body, not the reflector like most, so the reflector can be removed and the light used in candle mode to light up an entire room. Run time is very good, 40 hours to 50% per Flashlightreviews.com and also has a RYG status indicator to warn of low batteries.

I also have a couple cheap Energizer 3LED headlamps just in case I need a hands free light. But I generally prefer a handheld light.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

DonShock said:

Although I have my share of the full range of lights, for a serious power outage I have six Rayovac Industrial 2D lights that I have outfitted with PR based SMJLEDs. Cost for light and bulb is $15. Although this combination is not outstanding in any single area, it is adequate for all uses I can anticipate needing. It has a pretty good spot for moderate throw, easily equal to the stock incandescent bulb. The side spill is enough for general use when walking around with the light. One feature that made me choose this host as opposed to others was that the bulb mounts to the body, not the reflector like most, so the reflector can be removed and the light used in candle mode to light up an entire room. Run time is very good, 40 hours to 50% per Flashlightreviews.com and also has a RYG status indicator to warn of low batteries.

Click to expand...

Excellent suggestion there. And the "candle mode" is really useful.

I'll just add those Garrity rubberized Tuff Lights along with the SMJLED.
Waterproof and the 2D version also floats. Grab a parka and one of those if you need to venture outside.

You can get the 2D and a 2AA packaged together for around 10 bucks, or they can be bought seperately.

Re: Rethinking my hurricane season light preparations

Presumably, as well as Alkalines, Lithiums, etc, a solar charger for nimh would also be useful, in case the power outage is for any protracted period.