What to Build in to an Emergency Light?

[Ken_McE]

I'm designing a household emergency light. It will be too heavy to really count as a flashlight. I expect it to be more "luggable" than portable due to large batteries. I am trying to think what I should build in to make it useful during extended power outages. What I have so far:

Case with a handle, perhaps a cubic foot of volume. (1/3rd of a cubic meter for our readers abroad)

12 volt bater(ies)

Normally sits quietly and charges the battery from 120 Ac line voltage.

Has 12 volt DC socket so you can plug in anything that plugs into a car.

Has 12 volt DC plug so can recharge from car.

Has 5 volt DC available with misc. USB plugs so you have a chance (if you have a matching socket) of recharging USB powered devices like music players and cell phones.

Cheap, tiny little inverter to provide small amounts of 120 V AC for short times.

I'm still thinking through my lighting options. I'm leaning towards high/medium/low/find me for brightness options and LED for all lights.

Maybe a beeper? Siren??

What do people think? Would this all be useful? Necessary? What else should be in there?

 

[glockboy]

For Emergency Light, I used the Rayovac Sportsman Extreme 300-Lumen 3D-Battery LED Lantern for the main room and the Rayovac Sportsman 3AA 55-Lumens LED Mini Lantern for all other room.
It last for 3 days (24/7) little dimmer on the 3th day.
Better than the 12v gel cell battery or car battery that loose power if you storage for emergency use only.
Small inverter so you can charge the batteries from the car.
Or, get a portable generators.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Make sure you can charge batteries from the setup and that should take care of all but larger area lighting like lanterns. Look into 12v area lighting solutions like 8 cell lanters that can be direct wired to the battery. make sure and include a decent 12v fan solution also in case an outage hits when it is hot or stuffy.

 

[wantsusa]

heh you mean 1/30th of a m³ for those abroad... hmm don't they make those solar 12v chargers that could be continuously hooked up into one of the marine 12v batteries that might be able to take being constantly charged? Then at least if there is any sunlight you could keep on recharging it even if everything else was dead for a longer time.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Sounds like a great light. You seem to have it pretty well covered. One thing does occur to me though. For the labor and expense involved I would look very carefully for a suitable container to build it in. There are some big, steel, gasketed containers on the surplus market that may serve you well. (Fiberglas and aluminum as well) I see them at gun shows and they are often bigger than what we normally associate with an 'ammo box.'

I suggest this because of a number of problems one always has with emergency gear over the long haul.

* I'd build it into the box in such a way that ALL of the switches, jacks, etc were protected by the watertight lid -- turn everything off, close and latch the lid and you're good to go. Your light will be protected against floods, mice and anything less than a building falling on it. Button it up, put it in a safe place and it will keep for years. One of the problems with emergency gear is that there is a tendancy to think about it less and less the more time passes.

* Having it in a well made surplus box (preferably with a good handle) also means that if things go south and you have to bug out you won't have to think much about that light -- just grab it and put it in the truck. If it's all self contained there won't be any vital piece(s) to get left behind.

* If you go the surplus box route I'd consider getting one with a 'woosh hole'. Most Pelican boxes have them as well. A woosh hole may be added to any steel box by drilling a hole in it and then covering it with a piece of high quality stainless steel tape from the outside.

* Another thing to consider might be the idea of having the batteries in a different container(s) than all of the other cool stuff. That way if one of your battery boxes went kind of creepy and you didn't notice it right away (which happens with emergency equipment) the whole works won't have to be replaced.

I'm kinda liking that idea. Put two HD boxes on the floor next to each other. Open the lids and patch them together. When one goes dead unplug it and open another box.

Whatever you do I hope you take some pics and report back on how it came out. This is a subject that comes up from time to time and it's always interesting. No matter how it comes out you're probably way ahead of the game just by thinking about it...

I'll probably never get any sleep tonight.

 

[jamesbeat]

How abut a simple built in radio?
In an emergency situation, radio broadcasts might be your only way of finding out what's going on, and if it was built into the light, that would be one less thing to think about if you ended up having to lug it somewhere other than home.