Lights used during 8 days without power.

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Number one most used were 5 Energizer 4AA 2LED lanterns. They run for days with one LED lit, and kept us from needing a hand carried light always.

Second most used were Energizer 4D 2tube flourescent lanterns. Pretty decent runtime but one did kill it's batteries.

Another light that got a lot of use was the Streamlight Pro-Poly 3C 10LED. I never have changed batteries in that light since I got it.

Dorcy 2C 8LED got considerable use too.

Only Incans I used much were Craftsman 3D Rubber, and a M*g 3D with 4C (as a ceiling bounce light in the bathroom).

Oh yeah, the Dorcy Super 1 Watt 3D was used by my Dad as a light to prepare the coffee maker with.

A few other lights got a little use, including SL PP 4AA 7LED, Garrity 3AAA 1LED and SL TT 1L in LED mode.

 

[TorchMan]

Eight days without power in this heatwave, ugh! As fun as flaslights are, I'll bet you are glad the power is back on! I got lucky, they never even flickered here.

My ideal blackout is about eight hours or so, one cool fall night. Or even cold winter night.

 

[randman]

I went five days w/o power. My blaster Jr. saw the most use inside the house. I unscrewed the head, made a quick shade, and hung it from the ceiling fan: dinner is served. Did not change the batteries even once. Ouside the house, especially when patching up the roof in the middle of the storm I used the SF e2e and a SL Trident. If that clip on the SF were not so strong and stayed on my poncho I would have never been able to stay on the roof to make a patch.

An e2e in the urban pitch black is quite a lumens throwing little monster. Funny how all of your buddies want to borrow lights when the sh$% hits the fan. Who spent too much money on lights then?

I bet one of those laterns would have been handy. Imma gonna investigate.

 

[cy]

how about a pic of Energizer 4AA 2LED lantern or a link to which model?

 

[Techmedic]

Ya, Joe, send us the link Please!!

They do sound interesting, small, and economical to run.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

It most likely is the one on this page here
second one from the bottom. I have gone through about a dozen of them
gave a few away as presents and shipped a few all over the place.
BigLots had them awhile back for $2.99 each but they are all gone.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Indeed it is the second from the bottom in the above link.

8 days isn't quite as rotten as it sounds. We did have a generator going. And in the main room a drop light with a compact fllourescent in it. Skiters got pretty bad the last two days, but I slept by room AC!

A few more lights got a little bit of use. The Inova 2aaa and River Rock 2aaa, my Elektrolumens Starlux (3D 1W), my Milkbone (Rayovac 2AA 1W), my Minim*g with Opalec, my Minim*g with NiteIze...

And my River Rock 2AA Headlamp! In Daylight conditions on high to read, and on low in the dark. It's by FAR my favorite headlamp so far!

 

[wwglen]

Check Office Depot for the Energizer 4-AA LDE lantern.

They are on clearance for $1.00 if you can find them. I got 4 last month and gave 3 away.

You can also still find the 1-D energizer LED accent lights at Big-Lots (4 for $9.00).

wwglen

 

[Geddinight]

I hope you all affected by the hurricane are fairing well. About 6 or 7 years ago we had a wierd wind blow thorugh our region that kept us out of power for about 7 days and nights. It leveled just about everything like power lines and non hearty trees. I used a Coleman lantern that used propane and a keorsene lantern for main light at night. It lit up my porch, the street and the living room. I used MiniMags for primary around the house lights for me and the kids. I still keep them in zip lock bags and batteries outside the lights in a drawer. Just in case.
I camp and use kerosene and propane lights. Batteries make a poor subsitute for these types. Now I would use my CR123a's to suppliment my minimags.

 

[Donald]

I have to keep this quick (hmmm guess I didn't), but wanted to chime in since we were without power for 4 days courtesy of Wilma.

A flashlight is OK for a momentary light. With a power outage, fixing dinner in the dark, eating, making repairs, GET A HEAD LAMP! Thinking of camping and a canoe trip got a Princeton Tec EOS (3xAAA) a couple of weeks before Hurricane Wilma. After all the press here on the River Rock .5 watt 2xAAA head lamp, got two of those. One earlier just to have and one just before the storm hit, since they still had them.

I had asked my younger daughter if she would want it for camping with the Girl Scouts.....no, wouldn't wear it. It turns out that it became her constant companion when it was dark, reading, drawing, and playing her GameBoy. Now she plans on throwing it in her Halloween bag. My wife even used hers. Perhaps a telling question was, "Should we also get one for our older daughter" (who is away at college).

I personally like my EOS, and it saw a lot of use. It really did not seem that the lights were out, since I had light on any task. I won't even say how late it allowed me to read into the morning! I did try the Press'n Seal diffuser trick, and found it even better if I used a small piece and Scotch taped it on to the light--which kept any adhesive off the lens, yet kept the piece of Press'n Seal secure. Not really necessary, but nice.

Since weather was unseasonably cool after Wilma, it was an extended luxury camping trip, since we did not have any major damage. (Just worries about our refrigerated/frozen foods) Other lights used were PaLights, 2xAAA River Rock flashlight, ARC-LS, Dorcy 1xAAA, Inova microlights (trying the new ones from Target), and a maglite or two.

The Dorcy was a consolation purchase from Wal-Mart as they don't have the Nite-Ize minimag conversions here. Does anyone know how water resistant they are? I kept it in the coin pocket of my jeans for that quick trip into the dark garage when I did not have my head lamp on (or another light on occasion).

Could not get the River Rock lantern at any of the 3 area Targets. Did pick up the 4xAAA Enegizer lantern for $12.99, which saw some use just to have light around. My wife liked it better just aimed at the ceiling. We also used a modern looking oil lantern that we had gotten as a gift, which also provided a useful amount of light.

 

[cobb]

My folks went 2 weeks without power with the snow/ice storm around y2k. I had two group u1 wheelchair batteries, 3 led tek light and 2 keroscene heaters. The light lasted 2 weeks on one set of batteries used to see in the house and as a night light. The batteries powered a 5 inch tv for 2 weeks continuous. The heaters used a gallon every 12 hours. We headed out after a week, got more food, powder soups and bottled water. We had the sense to fill the tub with water for flushing as we have an electric water pump.

 

[CroMAGnet]

I'm surprised by how little the headlamps are mentioned for emergency use here. Those AAA Tikka's EOS etc get 70+ hours of light on task which seems pretty handy. Or un-handy if you will.

I'd be in my car with my laptop hooked up to the inductor and online with my CellPhone modem it would pass the time well.

 

[paulr]

I think I'd just solder a Nichia CS led to a 68 ohm resistor and clip it to one of those square 6 volt lantern batteries. That should run for several weeks nonstop minimum.

 

[cobb]

I have an led head light. Use to use it for reading early on. Its rather disorienting to use during total darkness. I rather have the room dimly filled with light myself.

I'd be in my car with my laptop hooked up to the inductor and online with my CellPhone modem it would pass the time well.

Seldom do I loose phone and lights. Good thing I got a 9 hour battery on my laptop and a car charger to use the old wheelchair batteries to run it. Even on the lowest brightness setting it still seems too bright.

Having Sat radio aint a bad idea either. You get the cable news networks and many talk ones in addition to music. Most still work during the heaviest rain or snow storms.

 

[PeLu]

Since we moved to our house (15 years ago) we only had two power outages, the longer one 1.5 hours (what a pity for a flashaholic) and at this two occasions I had several kerosene lanterns lit, most of them the gasmantle kind.
In case of a longer outage I could use the Diesel from the car (I do not really need a car).
The only 'problem' would be the refridgerated food, beer could be cooled in a nearby river.

 

[brightnorm]

It most likely is the one on this page here
second one from the bottom. I have gone through about a dozen of them

The 2nd from the bottom is the 4D. the bottom one is the 4AA

Brightnorm