Lessons learned from long power outtage

[Scott_T]

*My home made lanterns with Q5s that light up the room like daylight and only work on high power killed the batterys after about 2 hours.
*The home made lanterns I made with 5mm LEDs will run for days.
*Flashlights that cant stand on their end suck for power outtages.
*Did I really need those extra LSD AAs that were on sale? Hell yeah!

 

[Cataract]

Did you use any candles or headlamps?

I never thought a flashlight tailstanding would be much help for chores, but didn't it help navigating?

 

[Scott_T]

Did you use any candles or headlamps?

I never thought a flashlight tailstanding would be much help for chores, but didn't it help navigating?

Hate candles, no headlamps either.
When you're carrying a flashlight and you want to do something with both hands you can tailstand it for a light bounce off the ceiling for a nice diffuse light. The cheap 3D mag I got from lowes for $15 worked well for this. They're a very nice light now with the new LEDs, super bright. Just not very pocketable.

 

[JohnRussell]

We are four days into a power outage which is the second one this fall. The first one lasted three days. I am still not as prepared as I need to be, but here is what has worked for me.

When the power goes out I find my EIB backup with a lanyard that I hang around my neck. Then I get a SF G2 LED and put it in my pocket. These work well for finding the generator and connecting the cords to get power to the essentials.

We use candles for long term lighting in rooms where we do not run an extension cord from the generator. I would like to have a lower power led or other option but I have not done enough looking to see what would work for a multi day situation.

We have some old headlamps that work for going outside when two hands are needed. These are not essential but it does make things easier.

For a mutli-day outage it seems you need to have something other than flashlights to supply light. However a good tailstanding light or a light that can bounce off the ceiling can provide plenty of light for short periods of time.

Other than the G2/E1B we use mostly 2xAA lights that we can recharge from the generator. The older Streamlight 4XAA are in almost every room and they put out enough light to be very useable.

In the absence of a generator then a good lantern for longer term use would seem essential

​

 

[crazyk4952]

Well I would look at both of these lanterns:

The Titan runs off of 4 D batteries and has a max brightness of 250 lumens.

The Apollo runs off of 4 AA batteries and has a max brightness of 50 lumens.

Both lanterns are dimmable.

Edit: Well at least, it seems, that you still have internet

 

[Illum]

candles still pose a fire hazard...extension chords are messy, one good alternative is to stock up on some ropelights, then lay them directly on the center of main walkways.

yeah, only when its totally dark does one want to invest in "dim" 5mm LEDs again

 

[smokelaw1]

I have two Milky Candles, which are handy, and run FOREVER on a set of "dead" CR123's.
ANyone know of any CR123 powered dimmable lanterns?

 

[hyperloop]

*Flashlights that cant stand on their end suck for power outtages.

if u dont mind me saying, those that cannot tailstand can be placed in shot glasses, paper cups etc and still point up, albeit not at a perpendicular angle to the surface

 

[Yucca Patrol]

if u dont mind me saying, those that cannot tailstand can be placed in shot glasses, paper cups etc and still point up, albeit not at a perpendicular angle to the surface

+1 on that. Tailstanding is not an issue with me at all for this very reason.

 

[Scott_T]

+1 on that. Tailstanding is not an issue with me at all for this very reason.

True its not a killer for a flashlight, just a handy option that designers should be thinking about. Recessed end switches are good anyways to prevent accidental pocket turn ons. If you know what I mean.

 

[savumaki]

I was born and raised on a farm where oil lanterns were the norm for lighting. To this day I keep an oil light and scentless oil handy for power outages, plus of course an array SF and homebuilt lights to go with the gen set.

I am more concerned with heat in the winter so the furnace is wired to run off the gen set; a simple mod where the furnace is unplugged from the house wiring and then uses the gen set.

 

[Cataract]

I got two rayovac 150 lumen flashlights that run on C batteries for a verrrrryyyy long time and do tailstand (the package says 100 hours, but I read a review that said 10): just take the head off and you got massive flood light, enough to read your newspaper. I strongly recommend those if you have frequent power failures.

 

[PCC]

How about a home made Paklite? I have a few of these that I made myself with two 5mm LEDs and a resistor mounted onto the end of a salvaged connector from a dead 9V battery. Costs about $1 to make and, using "dead" batteries, lasts a very long time. I once tried to kill a "dead" 9V battery that read 7.5VDC when I started and, twelve hours later I gave up and turned it off.

 

[metlarules]

I use an 8d coleman led lantern on low for the main room.It will light up the room well enough to see what your doing and where your going.I also use a 4d magled. A headlamp such as princeton tec eos makes it handy when you need your hands for other things. Leds and d cells are nice for extended power outages

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I was without power for 4 days in 2007, I had no generator and found a mixture of lights worked well. dim 5mm LED lights for rooms you were in often but did not need to but navigate through. personal area lanterns that put out reading light suitable for one person for about 4-6 hours using AA rechargables. a decent headlamp for working on things in areas a lantern wouldn't flood well to. a handheld higher output light for inspecting things outdoors (we had a horrible ice storm with branches taking down power lines). A car charger for AAs and AAAs. I had a radio that runs forever off 4C cells that has never had new batteries for the last 10 years. The radios I have use external power input adapters so if you run out of C/D cells you just adapt a AA based power pack or use a SLA battery out of a spotlight or something to power them. Since I don't have a family I didn't use my twin tube 8D fluoro lantern it was overkill, nor did I use my unleaded twin mantle gas lantern.

 

[ackbar]

if u dont mind me saying, those that cannot tailstand can be placed in shot glasses, paper cups etc and still point up, albeit not at a perpendicular angle to the surface

sometimes I place my EDC in a martini glass to light up the area i'm working on behind the bar. Works like a charm

 

[balou]

How about a home made Paklite? I have a few of these that I made myself with two 5mm LEDs and a resistor mounted onto the end of a salvaged connector from a dead 9V battery. Costs about $1 to make and, using "dead" batteries, lasts a very long time. I once tried to kill a "dead" 9V battery that read 7.5VDC when I started and, twelve hours later I gave up and turned it off.

+1

I once calculated the runtime of my home made pak lite. Couple hundred hours on low, 3 years continuous(!) on moonlight. Self discharge is probably higher

 

[palomino77]

I just put white diffusers and hang like light bulbs work great. .:wave:

 

[MarNav1]

I bought 3 or 4 of those Lightwave 4000 before they went under, they run for quite a while, stick the end in a TP roll. Those little Energizer folding lanterns work great too. Also bought a couple PT Eos headlamps, they will last a long time as well. Also have 3 or 4 Paklites.

 

[paulr]

I got a bunch of crappy Dorcy 1aaa lights from woot for $1.50 each or something like that (came to more like $3 each after shipping). They are the ones with the annoying focusing optic. But the whole circuit board pops out rather easily. It should be pretty easy to connect it up to a single D cell which should run the led for 100's of hours.