emergency light for a school building?

[kbog]

The power went out in our high school last week. The students were great, but we did learn that we have an enormous amount of places with poor lighting - even in the middle of the day. Good thing my Jetbeam was on my keychain! My boss (principal) knows I'm a light guy and I volunteered to propose some options. Here are my requirements:

floody is better - we have some bathrooms with no windows and one long windowless corridor. I'm thinking a crazy bright, tight spot is not the best option for this. I would much prefer to light up a larger area.

decent runtimes - this light will not have to be on for 4 hours, but when the power is out, we will use it quite a bit. Full brightness for two hours would be nice.

Not sure if batteries are a big deal here. I keep thinking lithium because of the storage life, but we have tons of alkalines in the building all the time. The lights will certainly be in desk drawers for the majority of their duty.

Smallish - we are not looking to have huge maglights or spotlights here. Smaller is better, but it should be a size that is not miniscule either. My Jetbeam, for example, is too small and would get lost in the drawer. I think my Inova T3 is a good size.

Price - taxpayers money and we are quite frugal. Around $30 would be great. Less is better.

My first thought is the Streamlight ProPoly Lux, but I tend to think that the beam is not quite right.

What do you folks think?

 

[Lee1959]

I think the Inova X5 would fit your criteria very well. Its one of the very best of that breed of light, in my opinion.

 

[BB]

Supplying lights for people to carry/charge/fresh-batteries on their own is probably only going to work for a few months or a year or two at most.

In businesses I have worked in, teams were created for each building, and a cabinet with emergency supplies (radios, batteries, chargers, medical, water, etc.) in a lockable cabinet seemed to work well (we are in earthquake country). Teams were kept active (testing, training, evacuation tests, etc.) and they had to keep the cabinets checked and stocked.

Otherwise, look for the standard plug-in and mount on wall type emergency lights. They will always be there (might need a security screen with kids/outdoor access to recreation events) and ready to go.

But make sure that somebody cares and is assigned to maintain them (test, water, replace as needed).

We have so few power outages now-a-days that nobody really knows or cares what happens when the power goes out--until it goes out. One place I worked was a warren of labs, hallways and offices. Had emergency lights with a central battery bank. The same old story--lost power, people tripped all over half assembled computers and monitors trying to get out, and several days later were pallets of new batteries to replace the bank that had not worked in a decade or more.

-Bill

 

[bfg9000]

It's a high school. Anything that doesn't mount to the wall or is plain undesirable will just get stolen, so the most reasonable approach would be to invest in proper emergency lighting infrastructure. Writing letters to the school board expressing your alarm at the extreme hazard and liability that exists is likely the best way to secure funding for such matters.

 

[DaveG]

Brightguy.com sells Pelican glow in dark light stations that attach to a wall,for just this type of thing.

 

[OceanView]

It's a high school. Anything that doesn't mount to the wall or is plain undesirable will just get stolen, so the most reasonable approach would be to invest in proper emergency lighting infrastructure.

I would agree that this is a two-pronged issue. Battery-powered emergency lighting should be added. If there are security concerns due to the dark areas, like your students getting jumped during a blackout when they go to the bathroom by themselves or falling down an unseen stairwell, the fact that the teacher has a flashlight back in the classroom doesn't do the students any good.

I don't think trying to equip all the staff with individual flashlights that they maintain on their own is the best long-term solution, although from a preparedness standpoint, that would be great if they all had one available when "something" happens.

I would agree that a floody light is probably the most useful since you'll be indoors and mostly need very short range illumination. Instead of the ProPoly Lux, how about just the multi-LED ProPoly? Yeah, it's not sexy and doesn't use a high-powered emitter, but it's tough as nails and casts a floody beam. I keep one on my wife's nightstand. Both the 4AA or 3C will last a long, long time and are bright enough in candle mode to illuminate a classroom once everyone's eyes are a bit dark adapted.

I'm glad that you're trying to think about the safety of your students and the staff, though. :thumbsup:

 

[WadeF]

Doesn't your state have codes that require emergency lighting in hallways, bathrooms, etc, in a public high school? Handing everyone flashlights doesn't sound like a proper solution.

I can see it now, a dark hallway filled with some teachers waving high intensity flash lights around thus disorientating and blinding everyone and causing people to fall down and get hurt.

 

[luminiferous]

It's a high school. Anything that doesn't mount to the wall or is plain undesirable will just get stolen, so the most reasonable approach would be to invest in proper emergency lighting infrastructure. Writing letters to the school board expressing your alarm at the extreme hazard and liability that exists is likely the best way to secure funding for such matters.

Check your local ordinances. The school is likely in violation by not having proper emergency lighting. The sign posted by bgf9000 is the type of emergency lighting you should be looking for. In the event of a fire that cuts off power, the building occupants must be able to find the fire exits.

 

[Gunner12]

Something from Dealextreme might be good. Most of their lights are under $30. Gree($17.44), Ultrafire WF-606A($20.30), as examples. Not sure about run-times though.

 

[CeilingDweller]

I can't imagine a school building not having an emergency circuit. If it does it shouldn't be much trouble to add a few lights to it.

 

[kbog]

Wow. Lots of concerned people here. I didn't think I would need to elaborate on all the details of the school, but perhaps it would be helpful for some folks.

These lights are not for teachers. School is in session in daylight only. All classrooms have windows. We had no problems at all with kids in class.

Administration (me) has emergency stations which we man throughout any outage or other emergency. They are strategically located throughout the building. The darker areas get additional people. We also have full communications during any emergency through an internal walkie-talkie system. The lights are for administration only and would serve to handle dark areas or help with lockers, etc...

We certainly do have emergency lighting circuits. They meet all requirements, I assure you. These lights are good for walking through a hall, but they are not nearly enough to help students open or see into lockers. Shadows are everywhere. Bathrooms do not have emergency lighting in the older wings. These bathrooms get locked down in an outage and students may only use the lit bathrooms. We need the ability to sweep the rooms before we lock kids out.

I certainly do appreciate all of the concern, but I am surprised that the flashlight community doesn't want me to buy flashlights!

Anyhow, are there any other good possibilities?

Thanks for all of the responses.

 

[Ken_McE]

I had a similar situation. Some comments on how we're addressing it:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=159417

If you're in the US, the comments by the previous posters about handheld units being insufficient, the school being in massive violation of life safety codes, and the legal situation being untenable, are correct. The good news is it's not that hard to fix.

 

[kbog]

Actually, the good news is that we are not in massive violation of anything and have no legal situation to worry about at all. The emergency lighting works just like it should and is placed where it should be. We have multiple inspections by fire and police annually and we have personel who check all of the batteries in the lights regularly.

We could double the emergency lighting and still not be able to see those little numbers on the locks or see items inside lockers. At those times, the people who are stationed in the halls would be far more helpful with flashlights than without.

We do have one corridor which could probably be improved with more emergency lighting, although the lighting that exists is to code. There are no lockers there, so wall mounted lights would be fine.

 

[NotRegulated]

I have both the Streamlight poly pro 4AA and 3C multi-LED lights. I have used them camping and indoors. They are all the light you will need. I would even go so far as to say they are one of your better choices for close in illumination.
They also have a great warranty that any school will appreciate with limited funds. I have had very good results with these lights. Even though I have very expensive surefires for work, these would be my first choice for the school. They are currently my long running backups. I live in earthquake county too.

 

[scottaw]

I definately agree on more emergency lighting, they also make ones without the exit signs attached, just add a few more of those.

As far as flashlights, i know everyone is going to bash this being a flashlight forum, but check around (got mine from amazon) for coleman rechargable flashlights. We had one at work that plugs into a wall outlet, stays charged until you need it, and has a built in nightlight so you can find it in the dark. I liked it so much i have one in my hallway at home. It's not super bright, but it's plenty for a power outage, and it's a continuously on dim led nightlight for my hallway. Oh, and they're around $15 each.

 

[enLIGHTenment]

Bathrooms do not have emergency lighting in the older wings.

You should be looking at retrofitting these bathrooms so students can self-evacuate in the event of an outage. Having staff sweep the area and lock the doors isn't necessarily good enough, regardless of what the letter of the law may say. A few wall-mounted standby lights ought to be good enough for self-evacuation.

For staff flashlights, I suggest issuing Inova X5s. They're long running, dead simple, reasonably bright, and damage resistant. The only down side is that they take lithium 123A batteries.

Lithium batteries are a double edged sword for your application. On the positive side, they have a very long shelf life (10 years) and flat discharge curve. On the negative side, lithium cells can be dismantled and the contents harvested for meth production. Pilferage by student drug dealers would be a huge problem unless the cells were kept under lock and key.

 

[jeremyison05]

What about some of these? http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2025 I've got one I keep in a emergency kit, it'd be plenty bright enough for a school/indoor setting. It has an adjustable beam, and it runs off two cr123's. I get about 4-5 hours of run-time before a noticeable drop off. And they're extremely cheap, you could afford to buy 3X as many of these and have some handy to give to teachers if they need em.

Edit:

If shelf life is not an issue, dorcy metal gear lights from walmart for about $20 might fit the bill too, they're extremely bright and run time is good too. About 4 hours on a set of fresh AAA's.

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/dorcy_metalgear.htm

Beamshots and such

 

[FulgensLux]

How about the Fenix L2S--it's $32 shipped from FenixStore. You'll get all the runtime you'll ever need on a rather bright low (IIRC18-20 hours constant regulation on alkalines, ~26 hours on primary lithiums) that should be perfect for your mentioned uses, plus a bright high if needed. It uses easy to find AA's, and can tailstand too if you want to light up a room or area with it.
Review:

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/fenix_l1s-l2s.htm

 

[TigerhawkT3]

The idea of having flashlights lying around, especially ones that cost more than a buck, and expecting them not to "walk" is laughable. Like this:

If they're for administration, and kept in non-student areas, you MIGHT be okay.

How about some $0.50 fauxtons from DX or something?

 

[Ken_McE]

Actually, the good news is that we are not in massive violation of anything and have no legal situation to worry about at all. The emergency lighting works just like it should and is placed where it should be.

Sorry, my bad. :sigh: