Ice Storm Tulsa... what lights/equip do you pull out?

Ice storm Tulsa, OK... power has been out since aprox. 4am this morning. running on a 2,000 watt Honda genset for 14+ hours now.

Honda sips gas while driving a refrigator, PC and few lights. taking turns running refrig or freezer, until compressor goes off.

primary light has been Surefire Titan. super handy being able to dial in just enough light to operate.

Argo HP headlamp came out at 4am unloading genset from storage shed. needed both hands free setting up genset and running cords. with ti PD doing intermittent duties.

since primary heat is from wood insert. house has stayed toasty, unlike my neighbors with no genset and no heat all day.

Surefire M6 w/M6R just came out checking out electrician crew. Packed my Surefire L6 for a backup, just for fun strapped on my new to me, Surefire Strider/M2 combo. Those boys have my total respect working in awful conditions.

word is power should be back on in about an hour!!! crew said... don't how long it'll last, with more freezing rain falling :green:

sooooo what lights/equip comes out when your power goes out?

Power rarely goes out here, YEAH I SAID IT AND I'M NOT KNOCKING ON WOOD, but if it did I'd strap on my Zebralight Q5, and I'd probably use my Fenix P2D and P3D's on their low modes. Maybe tail stand them on low where needed. I'm always amazed at how well my P2D on low can light up a room when tail standing.

Then all the other flashlights would just be extra back ups, unless I had to go outside, then I'm taking a Dereelight CL1H or Fenix T1.

I should invest in a generator sometime, if I lost power in the winter I'd have limited options for heating my home.

You're in an "Ice storm" and you need to run refrig or freezer?

glockboy said:

You're in an "Ice storm" and you need to run refrig or freezer?

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Make light of it all you want, it sucks!!! It is either right at freezing, not cold enough to keep the meat, or right below freezing, freezes you're milk and drinking water. And you never know which way the temp wil go!!
I am a fortunate soul, I have wood, means to get wood, and a good woodstove. My wife was also pregnant during our last major ice storm, no power for seven days, and she had no desire to stay with ANY family!!! So the purchase of a Hobart 10KW welder/genset was an easy sell!!! It works quite nicely!!
As for lights, I think about any light that has batteries and comes on tends to come into action in the midst of these times!!!!!
Glad to see you in such good spirits, and glad to hear you are prepared for such things!!!

We only had the power flicker a couple of times last night. Seemed you guys got all the rain that was developing overhead us last night. Been awhile since I have been in freezing rain with thunder. Unique experience for sure.

I have my Honda generator standing by too. I tried out my handywork from last night in the dark.....a 2 C M@g with Cree Q5 powered thru a VIP 700mA board. Frankly, I was surprised how well it cut through the mist and foggyness. Of course, around 2am waiting for teenager to come home from restaurant job lastnight, the old 3 D Cell M@g with Malkoff drop-in REALLY illuminated the neighborhood will. I basically brightened up the place while being amazed at the light output from one little LED.

Keep toasty and I will be thinking of you up there!! Hopefully with tomorrows round it won't get to much worse here. Hasn't been awfully bad because temp has been around 29 or so and roads doing well if they are travelled on at all.

Will try to get my Surefire 6P LED out tonight and see how that is doing.

Bob E.

Good luck, cy !

Glad to see that you have prepared well. :thumbsup:



Kinda' reminds me of the adage:

"Be careful what you wish for -- you may get it !"


_

Wayne at Elektro Lumens had some old Blaster Jr bodies lying around and a while back some of us talked him into building them into 1D-Blasters with a Micro Puck and a Seoul P4. I've got one with one puck and one with two.

The single puck version will run 24 hours a day for a whole week on one alky D cell before it really starts to dim. They are great in ceiling bounce mode and with a ~6° optic they are handy for other uses as well. They will draw a D cell down to nothing.

I got these lights for the storm kit and I'm happy with them.

1D-Blaster thread

Where I live in New Orleans an unoccupied building partially crumbled and took out my power service (and that of four other households) and it was very compicated getting it fixed. Our power was out for two weeks and the 1D-Blasters did most of the heavy lifting during the outage.

In the months right after I bought them I actually felt kind of guilty for getting them -- but that's all over now that we've already pressed them into duty for two weeks. Wayne probably still has a few of those Blaster Jr bodies somewhere...

power just came back on!!! Yaaaaa!!!

edit: just heard two explosions... fuses blowing... power is still on for now..

just turned genset off and replugged everything back into wall sockets.

freezing rain turned into plain rain. starting to melt existing ice, just a little. sure hopes it doesn't stick when it turns colder tonight.

16 hours continuous duty for Honda 2,000 watt genset. used aprox. one gal fuel. VS my 5,000 watt Honda would have gone through 3+ gal.

hard learned lesson of buying smallest genset that will do the job.

bottom pic is my JUCA custom fireplace insert roaring....

sawlight
I'm just having fun with CY.

glockboy said:

sawlight
I'm just having fun with CY.

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It's all good!!

I have so many lights around the the house it's hard to say which I would grab.The light that always comes to my mind for these situations is a 4D Mag.

:huh2:

Well a slightly modified one at least.I have a 4D mag with a TerraLUX module and D to AA adapters.The D to AA adapters allow me to use Energizer lithiums or Nimh rechargable AAs.In a pinch I can remove the adapters and use 4 D cells or 5 C cells without modification.With 3 different common batteries to choose from I can almost always find enough batteries to run the light.I like the lithium batteries for their performance but the D cells probably offer the best runtime.

My streamlight headlamp....CPF VB16 light....fenix LOP SE and the Mossberg 12ga.

The forecast calls for that weather to hit here so between that and this thread, I nosed around. A couple of old Tektite 7-LED lights, an old Black Diamond headlamp (still my favorite), various and sundry lights with LEDs or incandescents stuffed with extra cells, a fluorescent lantern, oodles of batteries. And a PM6. Light won't be a problem.

I might charge up a small 12v to run the laptop just in case. Otherwise, I'll be sure to have the sterno stove, nachos and coffee.

Whats the temp outside?

nitesky said:

...A couple of old Tektite 7-LED lights...

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I forgot about that one. I keep NiCDs in mine and it sees lots of use during outages.

nitesky said:

...I'll be sure to have the sterno stove, nachos and coffee.

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We have a folding 'clamshell' style stove from Coleman for serious blackouts. It has push button igniters and is a joy to use. We also have 100 lbs of propane...

Looks like my turn is coming tonight!! (South central KS) I am geting ready to head off to the gas station, I hope fiften gallons is enough gas to last out this one!! 30-32 deg. right now, and rain is coming down with a LOT more coming!!! New batteries in all my lights today!

Glad to hear your Titan is proving useful, cy Nice choice of lights there, I like the look of the Strider M2.

Regards,
Tempest

Glad the power is back on and you all are ok cy, ice storms are not fun, there is NO humor in them that I have seen in my experience. Be careful if you go outside, ice falling from the tree limbs or other heights can be deadly and walk carefully.

As for lights, we normally use our Brinkman headlamps, the SMJLED converted AA and AAA Minimags and the X5, all for their long run times. AAA pucklights and a couple LED lanterns find use when pat and I eat or play games to pass time. The Inova AAA Bolt is often carried in my sweat pants pocket when wearing the headlamp.

You will be surprised at how little light you actually need in such indoor situations, powerful lights are way overkill, and can actually bother the eyes.

Nice M2 and Strider knife you have.
Its icy in OKC too!
Tim
:thumbsup:

cy said:

Packed my Surefire L6 for a backup, just for fun strapped on my new to me, Surefire Strider/M2 combo. Those boys have my total respect working in awful conditions.

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We have a fair amount of ice here in Charlotte so I try to keep some supplies on hand. I have a small Coleman generator that will run the refrigerator and another small appliance for about 14 hours or so. Not terribly efficient but not bad.

As for lights - LF5 and LF2 on low low modes to tail stand. I have a few Energizer AA folding lanterns for general lighting and illumination. Niteize drop in Minimag for the wife to carry about and I'll throw my HDS B42XRGT in my pocket for general utility use and low modes.

All the digital lights run for a long time on low....