Stress_Test
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2008
- Messages
- 1,334
First let me say that it's very rare for there to be a long blackout in the area I live. I can't remember the last time we had one that went for more than 1 or 2 minutes. This one lasted about 4 hours.
The main lesson I got from this is that power outages in the summertime suck! Because it's friggin' hot and there's nothing you can do about it other than throw some water on yourself every now and then.
Anyway, the power cut off at about 7pm, so there was still quite a bit of time before actual darkness hit. I decided that even though I had a good number of AA Nimh and lithiums on hand, I'd stick to my "around the house" lights and save the AA stuff as my backup "go to" lights.
At first, for a low level area light, I used the RiverRock Nightfire 2C. This light starts out very bright (~100 lumen) but falls off quickly to about 30 to 40 lumens. However, it will run a looooong time at that level, which makes it a great blackout light.
However, my new best friend during all this was....... The Fenix E01! That's right, the lowly, much maligned, purple ringed beam, E01. In the complete darkness, it put out plenty of light to walk aound, and even did a fair job of illuminating a room in ceiling bounce. I was surprised by how bright it seemed, but it makes a big difference when there's NO ambient light at all. And I didn't worry about run time at all, because I knew I had a few AAA alkalines lying around, and each one would give me something like 7 hours of runtime. 15 bucks well spent!! lol :twothumbs
I occasionally looked out the windows to see how my neighbors were doing (I live in an apartment complex). Some windows showed some dim light, and I would occasionally see some obvious flashlight usage, but the majority of them were dark. I felt really sorry for anyone relying on nothing but a cheapo 2D or 2AA incan, or candles!
There was a lot of traffic (people probably trying to escape the heat, or out looking for lights and batteries!) but I didn't see hardly anyone walking outside. I did see two local neighbors, who live in a house close by, walking with some kind of led light that was pretty bright, but I had no idea what it was; bluish beam, fairly floody.
I thought about going outside and trying out some of my lights, but it was so damn hot I didn't want to do anything but sit still and try not to sweat to death!
Plus I don't like to call attention to myself either, and high power flashlights in a blackout tend to do that! But, I was ready to step outside and light up the area if the need arose!
All in all it was an interesting reminder about how complete the darkness is when ALL the lights are off, which is something us city dwellers tend to forget!
Maybe the next one will be in cooler weather
The main lesson I got from this is that power outages in the summertime suck! Because it's friggin' hot and there's nothing you can do about it other than throw some water on yourself every now and then.
Anyway, the power cut off at about 7pm, so there was still quite a bit of time before actual darkness hit. I decided that even though I had a good number of AA Nimh and lithiums on hand, I'd stick to my "around the house" lights and save the AA stuff as my backup "go to" lights.
At first, for a low level area light, I used the RiverRock Nightfire 2C. This light starts out very bright (~100 lumen) but falls off quickly to about 30 to 40 lumens. However, it will run a looooong time at that level, which makes it a great blackout light.
However, my new best friend during all this was....... The Fenix E01! That's right, the lowly, much maligned, purple ringed beam, E01. In the complete darkness, it put out plenty of light to walk aound, and even did a fair job of illuminating a room in ceiling bounce. I was surprised by how bright it seemed, but it makes a big difference when there's NO ambient light at all. And I didn't worry about run time at all, because I knew I had a few AAA alkalines lying around, and each one would give me something like 7 hours of runtime. 15 bucks well spent!! lol :twothumbs
I occasionally looked out the windows to see how my neighbors were doing (I live in an apartment complex). Some windows showed some dim light, and I would occasionally see some obvious flashlight usage, but the majority of them were dark. I felt really sorry for anyone relying on nothing but a cheapo 2D or 2AA incan, or candles!
There was a lot of traffic (people probably trying to escape the heat, or out looking for lights and batteries!) but I didn't see hardly anyone walking outside. I did see two local neighbors, who live in a house close by, walking with some kind of led light that was pretty bright, but I had no idea what it was; bluish beam, fairly floody.
I thought about going outside and trying out some of my lights, but it was so damn hot I didn't want to do anything but sit still and try not to sweat to death!
Plus I don't like to call attention to myself either, and high power flashlights in a blackout tend to do that! But, I was ready to step outside and light up the area if the need arose! All in all it was an interesting reminder about how complete the darkness is when ALL the lights are off, which is something us city dwellers tend to forget!
Maybe the next one will be in cooler weather
