Power Outage, How many Lumens, How many batteries? (for lights and more)

[bluemax_1]

You guys have really opened my eyes to this type of thing. I am not in an earthquake-prone area, but I may begin to clip a small light to my shorts pocket while I sleep just to make sure I can always get to it even if a severe disaster occurs. Leaving things on my nightstand might not be good enough. I'm sure I wouldn't mind doing so, and it could be very useful one day. 🙂

Hence why I mentioned the poster sleeping with a tiny flashlight on a loop around their neck. Anyone who wears anything around their neck (I know some folks can't get used to having anything at all around their necks) could probably clip on something like a Photon or Nano/Pico light without being bothered by it.

If there are other folks living with you though, the emergency auto-on lighting in key areas can be extremely helpful (in an earthquake zone with the setup pictured in Poppy's post above, I'd tape/secure the battery and USB light in place so they can't separate from falling or being shaken in an earthquake).



Max

 

[bluemax_1]

One thing that I find appealing to "universal" chargers, is they typically have moveable pins and some type of holder so that: phones, cameras, or other LiIon powered items with removable batteries can be charged. If they otherwise require a unique charger because of a non-standard charge port, and the battery is removable, a charger like this might work.

I like the fact that it adds flexibility.

It's a long story, but I actually used LEGO pieces, springs from pens, rivets, and jumper wires to my Xtar charger to charge some dumb phone batteries. The McGyver-ing actually worked pretty well, but LOL... this would be much easier.

Lol, MacGyverisms. Folks who can MacGyver solutions have much greater ability to adapt to circumstances than the ones whose minds don't work that way. It was definitely one of my all time favorite shows in the 80's (so much so that I bought not one but TWO DVD sets of the entire series because the first set was so poorly packaged).

I do enjoy seeing some of the homemade solutions people come up with like a rubber band and bent white business card to create a diffuser/reflector for a tailstanding flashlight.


Max

 

[Poppy]

Lol, MacGyverisms. Folks who can MacGyver solutions have much greater ability to adapt to circumstances than the ones whose minds don't work that way. It was definitely one of my all time favorite shows in the 80's (so much so that I bought not one but TWO DVD sets of the entire series because the first set was so poorly packaged).

I do enjoy seeing some of the homemade solutions people come up with like a rubber band and bent white business card to create a diffuser/reflector for a tailstanding flashlight.


Max

I soldered a USB cable into the battery box of my two Energizer lanterns. They take 4 AA batteries, IE up to 6 volts. They run fine on the 5V output of battery banks.

The KING of McGyvering flashlights is our friend reppans.
With some tinfoil, a dollar bill, and a paperclip, he can run an AA light on a C or D cell.
The MASTER, he is :bow: :twothumbs:

 

[more_vampires]

I've also learned to keep a flashlight in my pocket at all times in the house (and of course, several when I leave the house LOL), after stubbing my toe in the dark on something on the floor I wasn't expecting to be there when the power was knocked out.

I did the same thing, woke up in the middle of the pitch black night with a dire need... except when I stubbed my toe on the door frame, my instinct was to bend forwards yelling "OWWW!!!"

The result is not only did I break off a toenail, but split open my forehead by headbutting the door frame in a pitch black room. This happened about 10 feet from my shelf of junk/budget lights. 6 feet from my edc pile. 3 feet from the light switch. Didn't matter if the power was out or not if you don't turn the switch on.

Fortunately, I managed to limp to the bathroom and contain myself until that time. It was bad, but could have been worse. Slightly.

Something to be said for nightime EDC. I bled over this once.

I soldered a USB cable into the battery box of my two Energizer lanterns. They take 4 AA batteries, IE up to 6 volts. They run fine on the 5V output of battery banks.

The KING of McGyvering flashlights is our friend reppans.
With some tinfoil, a dollar bill, and a paperclip, he can run an AA light on a C or D cell.
The MASTER, he is

:

Poppy and Reppans are my role models. 🙂

 

[broadgage]

For a long term power failure at home I have found a home made light to be most useful for a bright, long running light at low battery cost.

You will need a battery holder for 6 D cells, some twin lamp cord, an in line switch as used on a desk lamp, a miniature screw base (E10) lamp holder and a good quality multi voltage LED flashlight bulb.
Connect a couple of feet of wire between the battery holder and the switch, and then perhaps six or ten feet of wire from the switch to the bulb holder making certain that the positive wire goes to the centre contact of the bulb.

The claimed light output is 100 lumens or more and unlike a heavy lantern, the very lightweight bulb may be hung safely from an existing fixture.
The battery pack and switch may be placed wherever is convenient for ready operation unlike the switch built into a lantern.
The multi voltage bulb will give full light down to a very low voltage thereby fully utilising the energy in the D cells.
With good alkaline D cells the full brightness run time should be about 100 hours, or at least 2 weeks of evening use. When the cells are effectively spent, the bulb will remain lit at a much reduced output for many hours, no sudden darkness.
If the cells leak as they may when so deeply discharged, only a cheap battery holder is at risk, not an expensive lantern.

Flashlights will still be needed of course, but a light as described will light a main room very effectively at low running cost for many hours.

 

[dc38]

Maglite 4ever mod running lithium l92

 

[MidnightDistortions]

I did the same thing, woke up in the middle of the pitch black night with a dire need... except when I stubbed my toe on the door frame, my instinct was to bend forwards yelling "OWWW!!!"

The result is not only did I break off a toenail, but split open my forehead by headbutting the door frame in a pitch black room. This happened about 10 feet from my shelf of junk/budget lights. 6 feet from my edc pile. 3 feet from the light switch. Didn't matter if the power was out or not if you don't turn the switch on.

Fortunately, I managed to limp to the bathroom and contain myself until that time. It was bad, but could have been worse. Slightly.

Something to be said for nightime EDC. I bled over this once.

One time i woke up with the need to use the bathroom and in darkness i ran my knee into a computer tower i had left in the hallway (bad place for it) and i was doing this for about 5 minutes.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buHv1EvUHj0

Thankfully now i carry around a flashlight at night so instead of bumping into things hurting myself i now use a nighttime EDC.

 

[Poppy]

Maglite 4ever mod running lithium l92

What is a maglite 4ever mod?

EDIT:
thanks 5S8Zh5 🙂
I googled 4ever, not forever, that's why my search failed.

 

[5S8Zh5]

lmgtfy ..... 😀

 

[Poppy]

Thanks guys, for making my case for auto-ON emergency lighting... honestly I found myself laughing at your calamities, (sorry).

Not living in an earthquake zone, I hadn't considered the possibility of the room being totally disheveled nor broken glass on the floor. Pretty scary stuff.

I modified a couple of those stair-way emergency lights to turn on more efficient lighting than the incan bulbs they were designed for. One turns on a little 4 inch 6 volt florescent bulb, the other, one of those 24 LED satellite tent lanterns. They'll now give about 40 hours of 30 lumens of light vs the 90 minutes originally, and they now have an OFF switch (so the batteries can be spared during daylight hours). They have 4.5 AH 6 volt SLAs. Others now come with LED bulbs, but run on NiMH low capacity batteries and still only run for about 90 minutes.

 

[kaichu dento]

In the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the power was knocked out at 4:30 am in large areas of the city. Waking rather abruptly to a total blackout, we had to navigate through all the stuff thrown onto the floor. Everything that WAS in the cabinets, on the shelves, or attached to the walls (in some cases) is now on the floor.

There was a lot of broken glass in certain areas, bookcases knocked over, doors blocked or jammed shut... even if you knew where everything was BEFORE things started rocking and rolling, it was now new terrain.

Maybe it goes without saying, but not all blackout scenarios are going to be benign. In a situation like above, you really need a light immediately at hand if you want to be able to quickly assess the situation, get to the kids, move around safely, or get out ASAP (think gas leak, fire, or collapsing buildings).

I've been wearing a light on a neck lanyard for several years now and though I seldom use it there have been a handful of times that made me very glad to have the always-there light.

Hence why I mentioned the poster sleeping with a tiny flashlight on a loop around their neck. Anyone who wears anything around their neck (I know some folks can't get used to having anything at all around their necks) could probably clip on something like a Photon or Nano/Pico light without being bothered by it.

If there are other folks living with you though, the emergency auto-on lighting in key areas can be extremely helpful (in an earthquake zone with the setup pictured in Poppy's post above, I'd tape/secure the battery and USB light in place so they can't separate from falling or being shaken in an earthquake).

+1

 

[MidnightDistortions]

Emergency lighting is useful if done correctly, but i don't think it should be an excuse not to carry a light with you wherever you go. EDC'ing a light will be able to help you navigate through any dark areas. Heck, the other day i pulled mine out because the walk in freezer at my store is really dim and can't really see much of anything without a flashlight.

 

[jorn]

The power went out today. The only thing i saw was some glowing trits on the table. My keychain light the tain preon p0 to the rescue, did not need any more light than the 20-30 ish lumens.

 

[bluemax_1]

Thanks for bringing that 8 AA Energizer lantern to my attention. I finally got around to ordering one and here are my initial impressions:

- It wasn't as large as I thought it would be (a good thing)
- It's only a fraction of an inch longer/taller than the height of a Siege or UST 30-day lantern, but being flatter, it's easier to stuff in a pack (though as yet, I don't know how tough/resistant to cracking or breakage it is)
- It's a little lighter with 8 Eneloops than the Siege or UST with 3 D-cells.

The BIGGEST advantage of the Energizer lantern though, is that it creates SIGNIFICANTLY less glare than the other lanterns (as long as you don't position it so the bottom edge of the acrylic diffuser is aiming at your eyes).

With either of the D-cell lanterns positioned next to the sink or on a kitchen counter, the lantern itself is a bright light source that you need to avoid looking at to limit its effect on the irises.

With the Energizer lantern, the diffuser works so well that it lights up the kitchen equally well, but looking at the lantern itself, it doesn't appear as bright/glaring as the smaller concentrated light source of the D-cell lanterns.

The flip up diffuser also allows 'aiming' the light to throw more light on a specific area.

One thing I noted was that the Energizer lantern produces a textured wall of light (no doubt due to the acrylic diffuser), but I only really noticed this on the white walls as the light is being moved. When it's stationary, I don't really notice it, but the Siege and UST lanterns don't really exhibit these 'textured' artifacts as much.

The Siege lantern does of course, have the advantage of being waterproof and submersible to 1 meter (and it will float in water in its complete form). It also has the red LED (although the usefulness of that will depend on the individual).

All in all though, if anyone is thinking about getting a lantern for emergency/area lighting especially indoors (or anywhere submersion is not a factor. Energizer claims the lantern is water resistant and will function fine in the rain), I would definitely recommend considering the Energizer lantern.

If you have other AA lights, the Energizer lantern's ability to run on either 4 or 8 AAs makes it an even more attractive option as you could use the spare AAs wherever they're most needed.


Max

 

[more_vampires]

EDIT: I have the flip-up Dx4 Energizer "Weather Ready LED" folding lantern. Flat for what it is, multi-mode, but my favorite feature is odd (because I'm odd.)
http://www.energizer.com/flashlights-lighting/weatheready-led-folding-lantern

The yellow "locator beacon" is a useful (to me) firefly/moonlight with 100% night-adapted vision. Strangely, I've used this locator for light more than any other mode it has. The result is I'm still on the original set of batteries. They're still 90+%-ish after probably a year of playing with it.

It's rapidly becoming one of my favorite lanterns as it's the only lantern I've got with a firefly mode that I like. Wonderful diffuser, low glare in any mode.

I rarely turn on the white flood modes.

Edit: Sorry, forgot to say what it was! Maker says it can run on 2 or 4 D batts, but I've never used up the first set!

 

[Poppy]

Thanks for bringing that 8 AA Energizer lantern to my attention. I finally got around to ordering one and here are my initial impressions:

- It wasn't as large as I thought it would be (a good thing)
- It's only a fraction of an inch longer/taller than the height of a Siege or UST 30-day lantern, but being flatter, it's easier to stuff in a pack (though as yet, I don't know how tough/resistant to cracking or breakage it is)
- It's a little lighter with 8 Eneloops than the Siege or UST with 3 D-cells.

The BIGGEST advantage of the Energizer lantern though, is that it creates SIGNIFICANTLY less glare than the other lanterns (as long as you don't position it so the bottom edge of the acrylic diffuser is aiming at your eyes).

With either of the D-cell lanterns positioned next to the sink or on a kitchen counter, the lantern itself is a bright light source that you need to avoid looking at to limit its effect on the irises.

With the Energizer lantern, the diffuser works so well that it lights up the kitchen equally well, but looking at the lantern itself, it doesn't appear as bright/glaring as the smaller concentrated light source of the D-cell lanterns.

The flip up diffuser also allows 'aiming' the light to throw more light on a specific area.

One thing I noted was that the Energizer lantern produces a textured wall of light (no doubt due to the acrylic diffuser), but I only really noticed this on the white walls as the light is being moved. When it's stationary, I don't really notice it, but the Siege and UST lanterns don't really exhibit these 'textured' artifacts as much.

The Siege lantern does of course, have the advantage of being waterproof and submersible to 1 meter (and it will float in water in its complete form). It also has the red LED (although the usefulness of that will depend on the individual).

All in all though, if anyone is thinking about getting a lantern for emergency/area lighting especially indoors (or anywhere submersion is not a factor. Energizer claims the lantern is water resistant and will function fine in the rain), I would definitely recommend considering the Energizer lantern.

If you have other AA lights, the Energizer lantern's ability to run on either 4 or 8 AAs makes it an even more attractive option as you could use the spare AAs wherever they're most needed.


Max

blueMax_1,
Thanks again for a terrific post!

Regarding that Energizer "300 Lumen folding lantern with light fusion technology", it does have a "lifetime" warranty, but I question how well it might handle a fall if the diffuser was open at the time. Otherwise, I think it appears to be fairly durable.

One consideration about relying on AA batteries for a power outage, is their somewhat limited capacity, and whether or not a person has enough charging slots to recharge all that are used each day. For example, my nitecore intellicharger i4 takes 6 hours to charge 4 eneloops, that would be 12 hours, to recharge the 8 eneloops that could possibly be used up each day if this lantern was set on HIGH (300 lumens) for 8 hours or so.

I have two four slot chargers, and a two slot charger, that can be plugged into my car (or neighbor's car) considering that I may be loaning batteries, and lights out to others.

 

[more_vampires]

Regarding that Energizer "300 Lumen folding lantern with light fusion technology", it does have a "lifetime" warranty, but I question how well it might handle a fall if the diffuser was open at the time. Otherwise, I think it appears to be fairly durable.

I quit using an old Energizer AAx4 flip-up lantern because I loaned it to my wife, who used it for bed reading until the flip-up wouldn't stay flipped up any more. The switch started getting flaky. I didn't know at the time that they had a "lifetime warranty" and it was retired for other options. Man, that thing kept going and going! Checking the Energizer site, they don't offer that model anymore. Too bad, it was pretty good.

What with their aversion to model numbers on their website now? It makes it hard to talk about them. Will the new model be called "Energizer lantern that makes light?" Right.

 

[bluemax_1]

blueMax_1,
Thanks again for a terrific post!

Regarding that Energizer "300 Lumen folding lantern with light fusion technology", it does have a "lifetime" warranty, but I question how well it might handle a fall if the diffuser was open at the time. Otherwise, I think it appears to be fairly durable.

One consideration about relying on AA batteries for a power outage, is their somewhat limited capacity, and whether or not a person has enough charging slots to recharge all that are used each day. For example, my nitecore intellicharger i4 takes 6 hours to charge 4 eneloops, that would be 12 hours, to recharge the 8 eneloops that could possibly be used up each day if this lantern was set on HIGH (300 lumens) for 8 hours or so.

I have two four slot chargers, and a two slot charger, that can be plugged into my car (or neighbor's car) considering that I may be loaning batteries, and lights out to others.

Good point. That's one of the benefits of a selectable charge current charger like the Maha C-9000 (I think that's the model). I can set it to charge at 2000 mA and since it charges each cell individually, it can charge 4 AA's much faster than the i4.

Under those conditions, I'll take the slight hit in overall battery life vs the quicker charge times.

It's also why I have the Xtar single-bay charger (SP1 or SP2?). Where the i4 and many chargers can only charge at ~500 - 750 mA, the Xtar can be set to a 2A charge current. Useful for fast charging the single 18650 lights I have, AND it has the USB port allowing me to use an 18650 to charge a cellphone or other USB powered device. It's basically an amped up version of the other white colored single Li-Ion charger available through Fasttech.

I figured that charging a 3800mAh 18650 with a 500mA current would take far longer than I'd prefer in anything other than leisure situations.


Max

 

[more_vampires]

Ummm... speaking of chargers, my favorite lion charger is about 50 ma and works without breaking spec of any USB...

...just saying. I like battery life and tend to keep a batch of NiMH for over a decade unless I give them away. I have yet to discard a lithium ion because I treat my cells like supermodels: Gently, darling. It's the best way.

"Patience? Yeah, yeah, yeah, how long is that going to take?"
Ed Gruberman, The Frantics, Boot to the Head, 1987.

 

[Poppy]

Good point. That's one of the benefits of a selectable charge current charger like the Maha C-9000 (I think that's the model). I can set it to charge at 2000 mA and since it charges each cell individually, it can charge 4 AA's much faster than the i4.

Under those conditions, I'll take the slight hit in overall battery life vs the quicker charge times.

It's also why I have the Xtar single-bay charger (SP1 or SP2?). Where the i4 and many chargers can only charge at ~500 - 750 mA, the Xtar can be set to a 2A charge current. Useful for fast charging the single 18650 lights I have, AND it has the USB port allowing me to use an 18650 to charge a cellphone or other USB powered device. It's basically an amped up version of the other white colored single Li-Ion charger available through Fasttech.

I figured that charging a 3800mAh 18650 with a 500mA current would take far longer than I'd prefer in anything other than leisure situations.

Max

I'm not all that informed about different chargers, it is nice to know that some can be set to higher charge rates.

It's true, MOST of our charging situations, are leisure situations, I thought that it was important to drive home the fact that in an outage situation, (especially if you are helping others) the we may not have the charging capacity to keep all our cells fresh.

My Xtar WP6-2 can do 6 - 18650 cells at a time, and will be finished in about 7 hours, but considering that each cell has about 3-4 times the capacity of an AA Eneloop, that's equivalent to 18-24 cells!

Recently I picked up about 5 6600mah power banks, they were on sale locally. What I like about them is that most people now have cars, that have a USB output, and if I loan it out, they can charge it themselves. I have so far, modified three 6V lanterns (by adding a USB cable) so that they can run off of a battery bank's 5V USB output.

I like flexibility.
🙂