What is your Emergency light?

[divine]

The light you carry for: if a critical situation arises.

The light you carry, but avoid using because there might be a time when you REALLY need light.

I carry an EX10 GDP for this. I guess my ARC AAA Snow is also this type of light. I don't use it much and it can be depended on.

 

[Christoph]

Jil Cr2 DD simple nothing to fail other than the battery or the emitter.

 

[tango44]

NOVATAC 120P IS MY EDC.

 

[scottaw]

All depends on the emergency, if an emergency just happens out of nowhere, it's the light in my pocket, normally a 120P.

If i'm in my car I have an L1 in my console and a 6PL in my BOB.

If i'm in bed, there's another L1 on my nightstand, and that's usually where the 120 sleeps.

 

[BlueBeam22]

My AmondoTech Titanium N30 HID.
It has LED's that run for days continuously without completely draining the battery.
It has a super powerful 3000+ lumen beam of light capable of lighting up objects over 1/2 a mile away, which could be very useful in any emergency.

 

[rotncore]

I EDC a Surefire E1B, so that is always on hand. In my messenger bag I have an L1, and a Gerber Infinity Ultra, along with spare cells.

At home, I have a Brunton AA LED lantern, and several headlamps (Petzl, Zebra, Princeton EOS) for power outages/bug in situations, along with the rest of my light collection, and LOTS (60+) of primaries, both AA, AAA and CR123.

If I had to choose one light to have for emergency use, G2 w/ Malkoff M60LL, 80 lumens constant for somewhere around 10 hrs. is a great balance of output and runtime, in a bombproof package.

 

[RWT1405]

Besides my EDC light, I carry a Fenix L1T v2.0 w/ a L91 for emergency "back up" and with my keys I have a Fenix E01 with a L92.

My BOB's all have SF G2's (yellow) with Malkoff M60LL's in them.

My .02 FWIW YMMV

 

[metlarules]

Edc: Olight T-10 soon to be replaced with a Surefire 1 cell.
Home use: Mag4d led. Long runtime,proven,bright enough.

 

[CostcoAAcells]

Nitecore D10, holstered, is my EDC. This would be used first if I had an unexpected critical situation.

Gerber Infinity Ultra is my emergency backup that I never use but always carry in the cargo pocket of my trousers.

 

[Lee1959]

I carry two Photon IIs on my keychain and a Fenix L0PSE, they are thelights with me constantly, they would be my emergency lights. I use my Stylus Pro and red Photon most often, saving the white Photon and Fenix batteries.

 

[Sgt. LED]

Milky is making me a super long runtime project M based on a 6D Maglite.

Like a Milky candle on steroids!

 

[Rossymeister]

Surefire E1B Backup.

A Light That Is Always On Me, And Always Has A Fresh CR123A Surefire Primary.

 

[shomie911]

What light would I chose if I had to rely on it in an emergency in any kind of conditions?

My Peak Kino Bay SS P4 for sure, runs for 5.5 hours on an Alkaline to 50% and another 5 hours after that and it puts out ~45 lumens of light.

If I needed even more runtime than that, and I didn't have any spares around, I would probably choose my new Inova X1 Gen.2.

More throw? My Inova X03.

A long running, indestructable floodlight? My Peak McKinley SS 7 LED.

Actually now that I think about it, I buy most of my lights to be emergency, ultra-reliable lights.

 

[bigfoot]

Actually now that I think about it, I buy most of my lights to be emergency, ultra-reliable lights.

Same here. A nice long runtime with good output is what I try to go for. I've pretty much gone completely to LED, except for a SureFire G2 w/P60 that sits on the shelf.

The Pak-Lite Super, Arc AAA-P, and SF E1L (dual output) would most likely be my first choice(s) in an emergency. And out of those the E1L is at the top of the heap.

 

[divine]

But like... if you use the light everyday, and something god forsaken happens... How do you know you're going to have the runtime to get you through?

I was hoping to see a little bit of different ideas, like if you carry one light, how to keep it at least 80% charged. I suppose the "two edc's with the same battery" idea kinda works. I am thinking that if things get bad, I might need to carry two spares cause someone I'm with is probably not going to have a light and I don't want to be the one with the light that fails. So, when I carry might nitecore extreme, I usually clip the streamlight next to it so that is the "loaner" light.

I was watching that battery carrier thread waiting for a nylon 2x123 or 3x123 or 4x123 carrier similar to Fenix's holster design that wasn't much wider than a belt.

For work, I carry a Streamlight Microstream and my EX10 GDP. I use the Microstream for everything, so I don't use the EX10. It is reserve.

For out of work, I carry a Nitecore Extreme and my EX10 GDP. I use the Nitecore Extreme for everything...

 

[etc]

right now, Princeton Tec Apex headlight.

I keep one in the car and one by the bed.

I figure if there is an emergency, I probably need my hands available.

Like car breakdown, or something in the house.

Although I EDC SureFire 9P with Malkoff.

 

[Marduke]

But like... if you use the light everyday, and something god forsaken happens... How do you know you're going to have the runtime to get you through?

Easy. Once you find out how long your EDC lasts on a charge on average, cut that time in 1/2 or 1/3 and top off the cell on that schedule, or when you know you used a good bit. Whichever comes first.

But two EDC's with compatible batteries is a good idea. For a while I carried a LOD w/NiMH plus an E0 or E01 with a L92 as a spares carrier.

 

[ooE1Boo]

my one and only light, surefire e1b

 

[ozner1991]

that lightbulb that apears above my head when ever i get an idea

i use my edc fenix l1d-q5

 

[OceanView]

...if you carry one light, how to keep it at least 80% charged.

I have opted for a combination of using lithium ion, with primaries as backup. In my Cree-modded HDS EDC, I keep an RCR123. I can use the light as often as I want, knowing that I can quickly and easily top it off at night since lithium ion cells are fine with frequent recharging. This way, I can start each day with a topped off battery. In my commuting bag, I'll keep a couple CR123 primaries. With their long shelf lives, I don't have to worry about them just sitting in the bag for a long time so they are reliable replacements for some extended incident.

Having a light with multiple levels is useful, too, to extend runtime. Since our eyes are wonderfully adaptable, just use the lower levels and only use the higher settings when you really need it to reach our farther or light up a larger space.

However, for really long outages, I prefer to keep lights that use common alkaline batteries rather than keeping a big stock of CR123's at home. My designated home emergency lights are UK 4AA eLED's or Streamlight 4AA Propolymers. Not the brightest, but I have found them reliable and if the power is out and its actually dark, you really don't need 200+ lumen lights 99% of the time.