Lights and Extreme Weather

Just curious, as Winter Storm Jonas is bearing down on many of us: do you alter your EDC lights or household lights for extreme weather? I've been known to pack extra batteries with me for hurricane season, for instance, but I'm curious as to what the rest of you do.

Bonus points for pics and detailed explanations.

My EDC is habitual. The utility of it (for me) is the instant familiarity. I do not change up my EDC beyond normal rotation of pocket Knives. But as someone living in Northeast Florida I do see a lot of thunderstorms and that means power outage potential. I use rechargeable in almost everything (Photon Freedom and County Comm keychains excluded). But storm potential drives me to compulsively make sure all batteries are fully charged before nightfall.

I'm with flashtastic in that power can go out at anytime.

We try to set up our home to live like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington lived using 2016 poducts and technology.

I live in an older neighborhood with lots of big trees near the above ground wires. If it's a localized thing we don't stay dark very long.

But in the big event our numbers are small enough to put us way down the list as the power company goes for volume of customers affected when they perform repairs. Sometimes it's several days of darkness.

Last night I charged everything I could think of. But we have vehicles loaded with fuel for recharging stuff via 12 volt and a generator for keeping food cold in summer.

I have a couple of auto battery boosters as well. Charged.

I have roughly 100 fairly new aa batteries, a couple dozen aaa's, same with D cells. And if memory serves around 50 123 primaries in addition to about 100 flashlights that have batteries in them....many have low level output capability for battery sippage.

Now all of that is incase we use up all those large sized Yankee candle jar candles. They provides about 30-40 each hours of light, and with a max efficiency ring on the top provide a wee bit of radiational heat as well.

We stocked up on canned food, pop tarts and lots of other prepared food. Screw the healthy crap at that point....we're talking starvation avoidence....lots of whole grain cerals for when the rice and bread are gone, and a brand new bag of charcoal with an old fashioned coffee percolator. Powdered milk for the wife's coffee if need be, and being a winter storm coolers for the cold stuff can be set outdoors.

And last but not least $1000 in cash stashed in various places for when plastic doesn't work.
Being a smoker we also stocked up on cigarettes.
Gotta have coffee and nicotine.

I do disaster response, so, well, if its a real mess, I'm typically NOT home, and, this is just business as usual. Just with solar and gas powered back up power, and an almost endless supply of rechargeable lithium ion cells, when the neighborhood is dark for a month, say after Irene or Sandy, my place is lit up like a Griswald Xmas.

I usually lime and overseed my yard right before a good snow. But this time I didn't because the ground was already frozen where I live. Bad for the seed.

Slow soak-age of snow melt gets the lime down in the soil efficiently and seed stays warmed by the earth under that blanket...provided it was not frozen when seed is applied.

I have a small stash of 1/2 spent alkalines that I keep bringing in and burning off in my vampire lights, when those are spent I move to the stock of AmazonBasics white-eneloops (made in Japan). I have solar panels to charge those.

I have enough kerosene and heaters to last well over a week without power and extreme cold.

Food is not a worry for me for an extended period of time.

I like how these type threads draw in folks who don't post often.

TEEJ said:

when the neighborhood is dark for a month, say after Irene or Sandy, my place is lit up like a Griswald Xmas.

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Yup. That would be me... I lived on the Gulf Coast for 35 years, and lived through three direct hurricane hits, and many near misses taking out the power for four days to three weeks. I had two smaller generators for a few lights, the fridge, and a window box A/C for the bedroom. I had halogen floor-stand lights in the front and back yards to light up the perimeter. My house looked like a scene from the Omega Man. Now, add many rechargeable (old school streamlights) lights back then, and I was hooked up.

Living in hurricane central, the smart people ALWAYS had three weeks of canned food, and at least two weeks of water stashed. I just kept a couple of flats of bottled water, and a couple flats of good old high calorie and carb Chef Boyardee Ravioli and spaghetti and eat the suckers right outta the can.

maybe this is off topic, sorry -- but I read subject and thought it was about extreme cold and batteries. Does extreme cold affect your batteries/lights as well? I left my light overnight in vehicle 8 degree low temp and next morning go to use it for a run and it is kicked. (18650 li-ion)

pooneej said:

maybe this is off topic, sorry -- but I read subject and thought it was about extreme cold and batteries. Does extreme cold affect your batteries/lights as well? I left my light overnight in vehicle 8 degree low temp and next morning go to use it for a run and it is kicked. (18650 li-ion)

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What's kicked?

Lithium Ion batteries don't like cold (below 15-20F) they slow down due to the chemistry. Place the light in an inside pocket to warm it and and it will be as good as new, well, almost as good as new.

No pics, and a sorta detailed explaination... Plenty of lights and batteries, around 50 ea. of AA and AAA Energizer lithiums, and about 100 primary 123's. Half a dozen each of 18650's and rcr 123's. Water and food aren't a problem, and as bykfixer mentioned, more jar candles than you could shake a stick at. Generator(s) and fuel for a week in cans, much more if I tap into the vehicle tanks. Probably two cords of wood still stacked and ready to burn. Three full backup propane tanks for the grill. We're expecting 1-3" of snow here, so I expect to need none of this THIS TIME.

Glad to see a few people here are prepared Scout.

It started snowing where I'm at in Virginia around 9:30AM. I stopped over the storage yard to give the M923 another chance to start, still a no go. Looks like the new ether bottle leaked,(it's empty) and the CTA8.3 Cummins is a cold natured beast. The bottle was replaced in November, soap checked for leaks, and I thought all was well. Next time, it will sit behind the seat until needed.

Went out around 6:30PM to do some snow blowing, and we had a little more than 9 inches on the ground. Supposed to lighten up till later this evening, then 2-3 inches per hour. A friend that lives on top of Afton mountain has 15 inches already, so he won't be getting out until Tuesday or Wednesday. The blizzard of 2012, they got 39 inches of snow, and VDOT had to bring in a big V-blade plow to get up the winding road to where he lives.

NoNotAgain said:

What's kicked?

Lithium Ion batteries don't like cold (below 15-20F) they slow down due to the chemistry. Place the light in an inside pocket to warm it and and it will be as good as new, well, almost as good as new.

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Thank you. (battery was kicked-light was dim/dead) *yes I am new to led flashlights/batteries. I still thought maglites were it*

NoNotAgain said:

Glad to see a few people here are prepared Scout.

It started snowing where I'm at in Virginia around 9:30AM. I stopped over the storage yard to give the M923 another chance to start, still a no go. Looks like the new ether bottle leaked,(it's empty) and the CTA8.3 Cummins is a cold natured beast. The bottle was replaced in November, soap checked for leaks, and I thought all was well. Next time, it will sit behind the seat until needed.

Went out around 6:30PM to do some snow blowing, and we had a little more than 9 inches on the ground. Supposed to lighten up till later this evening, then 2-3 inches per hour. A friend that lives on top of Afton mountain has 15 inches already, so he won't be getting out until Tuesday or Wednesday. The blizzard of 2012, they got 39 inches of snow, and VDOT had to bring in a big V-blade plow to get up the winding road to where he lives.

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If you mean Rte 151?, 101? I forget...but I was an inspector on that road while they paved past the road that leads to the ski resort...Massenutan perhaps?

Probably the twistiest, hilliest, walls on one side, cliffs on the other kind of road I ever travelled on without actually being in the mountains...pretty scary in the summer, I can't imagine how scary it is tonight...

Sleeting here. Supposed to turn to a very, very cold rain.



But the grilled burgers cooked in winter storm jonas were mighty tastey.

Scout, I'm surprised more people don't use jar candles.

My wife found a scent she loved last year. A Better Homes and Garden if I recall, something winter/holiday/smells like baking cookies. I'll have to double check. A limited edition, only so many made each year. We cleaned out our two local Wal-Marts, I actually mail ordered a few from Amazon. I think she has 40+ of this one jar candle now. I, for one, think that's plenty... It does smell good, and anything that she likes that I can spin into a "Let's be Prepared for Stuff" moment I happily support.

No, not Massanutten Resort. The resort is north and east of the area.

He lives on a property that adjoins Swannoana golf course.

I looked at purchasing a house up there but figured I'd end up having to do snow removal, because when I want out, I'm getting out. If I wanted to plow snow for a living, I'd have something bigger than the M923.

There's a couple of spots on the road where if you slide off, you'll drop a couple hundred feet.

On the 6P front, I strapped on a 6P to supplement the headlight on the snowblower. Why Ariens mounted the light where the shout blocks the light is beyond me.

I edc an 18650 light in my pocket which has plenty of power for everyday normal tasks. I also carry an 18650 headlamp, a modded 4-18650 light or two, and plenty of spare batteries in my backpack. So usually I just make sure everything is charged and ready to go before the storm, and I keep the main edc in my pocket and grab the bigger lights if need be. Of course if I'm outside shoveling then the headlamp comes out.

We also have plenty of candles and I have fond memories of power outages in my childhood. Of course I don't want to forget the old dual mantle Coleman Lantern, my Dad could crank up in short order or the antique oil lamps we got from my Grandad. I guess I love the new tech so much I tend to forget about these more traditional light sources in times of need.

^^ Hurricane lamps. Yay!

I used oil lamps for a while, but soot build up was an issue after a few days...even with 'soot-less' oil that still cast a sorta glaze on the globe.

My pop had these glass globes called hurricane globes where you place an ordinary stick candle on a pedestal and place globe over that...man-o-man that candle would put out some light.
Doesn't work worth beans with jar candles though.

He kept a box of 12" long by 1" round stick candles, a box of wooden matches and 3 of those globes at strategic locations in his home...just like George Washington did...

You could set one on a table and read by the light it put out. And by the time the candle was down to a few inches it was bed time anyway.

Yep, I never had those as a kid but was tempted to buy one or two in recent years. At some point in the last few years there was a kind of resurgence of interest in hurricane style lamps. I'm pretty sure they were making them again too (who knows what quality) because a bunch of folks (like tiny house and other off grid people ) were wanting them. My other Grandad had a few of them but I never saw him actually use them.

I also have a few of those long candles stores away somewhere. You know At those dollar stores you can get something like 5 to 6 inch stick candles 8 for $1.