When was the last time you actually needed to use a flash light for 7 or more hours

[Jean-Luc Descarte]

Had a spring storm with a lot of wind last October. Half the city's trees lost branches to it, and many fell on wires. My complex was without power for some 6 hours, at least 3 of which were sunless. Not that it made much difference, as the stormy sky was twilight-dark and shed little to no light indoors.

My solution was to tailstand a few lights. A Convoy M1 in my bedroom, an M2 in the living room, and Lumintop Tool AA 2.0 in the bathroom if anyone had to use the dunny.

After this, I've only had one outage at night but it was so short it's barely worth mentioning.

 

[The Hawk]

When I was a LEO, of course we depended on our flashlights. However, I never needed to have it on continuously for several hours. Now that I am retired, I use mine several times a day. Fortunately, I have not encountered power outages for more than a couple hours here. ,

 

[idleprocess]

When it comes to power outages my sense of ... romanticism ... on the subject has long since expired.

If there's a prolonged outage during the workday I spin up the backup generators I procured a ~year ago and life goes on as normal. While the company has recently opened an office in the area again it's less than ideal to work from there and a significant time sink to commute to/from.

If there's an outage outside of the workday it depends. In the past I've often just lit an oil lantern in the living room or dining room, tailstood one of the various 18650 lights in the bedroom on low, and carried one of my heavy users room to room. Or on occasion I sit in the dark and get in tune with the sounds of my surroundings absent modernity's various means to tune them out.

 

[knucklegary]

Oh, the sound of running generators. I got one neighbor who must be running straight pipes. Even with muffler, Not music to my ears.

I'm happy with extended power outages. Makes for that much less $$ I'm sharing with the crooks.

 

[idleprocess]

Oh, the sound of running generators. I got one neighbor who must be running straight pipes. Even with muffler, Not music to my ears.

I do try to be considerate of my neighbors. I've got inverter generators that mostly idle along once all the loads have been connected and I'm making steady progress on the sound-insulated doghouse that will further cut down on the noise. As opposed to the neighbor with the new-ish automatic whole-house generator that makes as much noise as a garbage truck does when cruising past one street over.

 

[ilikeguns40]

Sound of generators gets very old. I use them a lot at work and during the winter, pair a generator with a turbo heater and get max annoyance

 

[thermal guy]

Sound of generators gets very old. I use them a lot at work and during the winter, pair a generator with a turbo heater and get max annoyance

It also tells everyone what you have when times get tough.

 

[ilikeguns40]

Yeah my neighbors aren't that close but a few are and I tell them if they ever need to plug an extension cord in they are more than welcome. I got 3 refrigerators and a deep freezer. Having a generator for my house is vital because it's happened before when power went out for a couple days I lost a lot of money in food

 

[Rat]

What does a prawn (flood?) torch look like ?
We call the little guys shrimps, and bigger ones prawns (-:

I use this one. You do not what a very bright light or use a head torch as it scares the prawns. One day I will make my own custom light.

What would you guys call these they are about 15cm long Prawns or Shrimp?

later

 

[knucklegary]

@Rat, Fish markets in US measure the amount of shrimp per pound (kilogram) The tiny guys that go into salads and hors d'oeuvre measure 70-up per kg they're called shrimps. Fishmonger's call the larger ones prawns. They also get more money per lb/kg for the big boys

What you got in that bowl, I call a feast!

 

[louie]

I first didn't have anything to add to the 7 hour discussion, but the other day, I bicycled to work - I have a 4 Sevens X 123-2 neutral white velcroed on top - and after an 11 hour day, realized I'd left the light on all day (level 2 or 3). It was still going, so there is another reason for good runtime. FYI, it's running on a Keeppower 16650 LiIon, and it only took a short recharge when I got back home. It's not the primary bike light, so I don't normally carry a spare cell for it, but could swap out my EDC 18650 light if needed, which I do carry a spare for.

Back to shrimp on the barbie?!

 

[ghostguy6]

I had a site where a storm knocked out power for 26 consecutive days. The facility was about to be decommissioned so the owners decided not to spend the money on renting a generator but needed security onsite. Most of the facility was underground so no daylight to be found. We had a crew of 3 running 12 hour shifts on site at all times for the 26 days. One lantern in the room we used as our office, a couple of glowsticks to mark important area. 3 issued maglites I upgraded with terralux led drop ins. I cant even imagine how many D cells we went through on that job. It was a flashoholics wet dream!

 

[Stress_Test]

......................................... the owners decided not to spend the money on renting a generator but needed security onsite. Most of the facility was underground so no daylight to be found. .........................................

That sounds awesome for flashlight use, but I imagine that an OSHA inspector would not be amused by that owner's decision to have an occupied underground facility with no lighting!

(if that was outside the U.S. though, well I get it... different story depending on where it is in the world)

 

[ghostguy6]

Believe me, it got old real quick. With the amount of damage caused by the storm I doubt any inspectors were coming around anytime soon but there is (at least was) some sort of an exemption for emergency services personnel. Technically they didnt even have to supply a washroom facility until we were on site for 48 hours. All I remember is we were the only ones allowed in, not even the regular staff could enter. I'm not allowed to say where this occurred.

 

[ampdude]

Any time I worked security going through buildings, the winters here get long.

 

[michiganstud]

I think this is dependent on your usage. For work I had a search go on for about 2 hours in the woods. I basically sat on a tree line in a field and shined my light down the tree line looking for someone to pass through it. I remember having my Stinger that night and I had to change out the batt after an hour and half or so. Then the search was called off soon after that.

Others have been under that. Mostly in the half hour to hour range.

 

[tech25]

I had a site where a storm knocked out power for 26 consecutive days. The facility was about to be decommissioned so the owners decided not to spend the money on renting a generator but needed security onsite. Most of the facility was underground so no daylight to be found. We had a crew of 3 running 12 hour shifts on site at all times for the 26 days. One lantern in the room we used as our office, a couple of glowsticks to mark important area. 3 issued maglites I upgraded with terralux led drop ins. I cant even imagine how many D cells we went through on that job. It was a flashoholics wet dream!

I can only imagine which lights I would bring with me!

Although for a 12 hour shift my Malkoffed maglight would be hard to turn down, should last a long time and won't get hot.

 

[Flashlightmaster2021]

Had a spring storm with a lot of wind last October. Half the city's trees lost branches to it, and many fell on wires. My complex was without power for some 6 hours, at least 3 of which were sunless. Not that it made much difference, as the stormy sky was twilight-dark and shed little to no light indoors.

My solution was to tailstand a few lights. A Convoy M1 in my bedroom, an M2 in the living room, and Lumintop Tool AA 2.0 in the bathroom if anyone had to use the dunny.

After this, I've only had one outage at night but it was so short it's barely worth mentioning.

nice . Alao do you have a few portable power stations and luci solar lantern and USB Deck lamps ? Thats what I use for my main lighting for my black out kit. Just some ideas for you. Thanks again .

 

[ghostguy6]

I can only imagine which lights I would bring with me!

Although for a 12 hour shift my Malkoffed maglight would be hard to turn down, should last a long time and won't get hot.

Unfortunately this occurred just as my flashlight hobby was taking off. All I really had at the time was a few Pelican incan lights, a M6 2330, a Surefire 6P and a few maglites. Nothing I would really call fun. The LED revolution was just getting started and cr123's were $8 a piece. If the same thing were to happen today it could prove to be quite fun.

 

[bykfixer]

Haven't needed it yet but the 2019 update to an old classic, the Maglite 2D classic touts 213 lumens for 17 hours on high. 213 lumens don't sound like much these days but 53,000+ candella says it's a bright one. No parasitic drain like the ML series lights means it can be stored without worrying if you remembered to loosen the tailcap.

It has a low setting that looks like a switch turned off much of the spill while the spot stays largely intact. No number is listed at Maglite for it's output on low, be it lumens or candella, but it's kinda hard to tell when it's down shifted to low. Yet it is said to run an amazing 127 hours on low. That's 5 days.