Flashlight lessons from a 4 day blackout

A few things I learned during the 4 day blackout we had due to the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

1.All our fun superbright flashlights are useless and waste batteries. Just like camping flashlights with long runtime and about 10-20 lumens were ideal for the situation. No need to carry spare batteries and you can leave them on without worry of saving the batteries. In complete dark with no light pollution the 10-20 lumen lights were like 150 lumens on a regular night with outside lights.

2.Batteries are wiped out on store shelves especially C and D cell. However you could find AA or AAA alkalines. I am glad many of my flashlights run on them


3.No matter how much I love flashlights. When it came time to sit inside and read or play board games, Candles or coleman lanterns are the way to go. The warm glow just feels nice!

4.Glow sticks and colored LED toys for the kids to play at night are a huge huge hit! Matter of fact the whole neighborhood full of kids moaned when the lights came back on last night!!!!

1. Thank you 2. Thank you 3. Thank you 4. Thank you I thonk this info all CPF memebers should read. Valuable info. We take for granted the technological marvels we have. I think we all should take refrence all that others have observed. Of course this doesnt stop me from considering the next long term 20lm ( I prefer 1lm at night) torch with ultra long run times. Hope you are safe.

dd61999 said:

A few things I learned during the 4 day blackout we had due to the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

1.All our fun superbright flashlights are useless and waste batteries. Just like camping flashlights with long runtime and about 10-20 lumens were ideal for the situation. No need to carry spare batteries and you can leave them on without worry of saving the batteries. In complete dark with no light pollution the 10-20 lumen lights were like 150 lumens on a regular night with outside lights.

2.Batteries are wiped out on store shelves especially C and D cell. However you could find AA or AAA alkalines. I am glad many of my flashlights run on them


3.No matter how much I love flashlights. When it came time to sit inside and read or play board games, Candles or coleman lanterns are the way to go. The warm glow just feels nice!

4.Glow sticks and colored LED toys for the kids to play at night are a huge huge hit! Matter of fact the whole neighborhood full of kids moaned when the lights came back on last night!!!!

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I lost my power for about 30hrs,you are right on the money,did not need any high powered lights in the house.Lanterns and headlights came in handy,my Mag-XL50 was almost overkill outside at 8:30pm.My whole neighborhood was dark,no lights,every one went to bed early.

3D M@glite with a Nite-Ize 10mm drop-in...perfect power outage light...runs weeks, costs around $25-$230...and doubles as a "tire checking" tool...:devil:

Awesome story, and thanks for sharing...I have plenty of low lumen long runtime that can get the job done...especially my L1-RD that will go 2000 hrs (plus) on one CR123 :0)

Good info from your experience! I had the same when our lights went out but, nowhere what you went through. The Arc AAA, E01, Gerber Infinity & lights like them are run time Champs IMO. The Coleman florissant lantern saved the day for us when eating supper & other lighting tasks also. I am glad you pulled through OK.

No more CR123s

Great info, and I couldn't agree more. I was in a similar situation this past spring when a tornado rolled over our neighborhood knocking out the power for a spell. The super bright settings on my lights were used more for fun, and the lower settings were really the way to go & used way more. I had flashlights (mostly quarks & zebralights) tailstanding around the house set on low or medium which lit up the whole room comfortably. Moonlight mode was perfect for my kids as a night light when they slept, but we already knew this from camping trips. My neutral tint lights were much more pleasing than the cool white lights. Because I'm a flashaholic I had lots of lights on hand to share with some friends and for our kids to play with. The lights turned a tough time into something fun plus it was a good lesson for us.

dd61999 said:

1.All our fun superbright flashlights are useless and waste batteries.

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We knew that all the time:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?317065-.18-lumens-is-too-bright!

Nap.

Glad to hear it all worked out too.
At our "cabin" we have no electricity, so it's only lanterns & flashlights. We put one ona stand, on a fairly low level, and it is enough light for the whole living room.

However, it is still FUN to have tall that power in your hand, just for the fun of it.

I only buy AA lights. All those "cheap lights" usually takes C or D cells; that might explain why those batteries were gone so quickly.

BTW: We all glad that you, your family, and friends are safe.

- The only batteries guaranteed in stock are the ones in your stock.

- Warm emitters for living spaces, cool for bathrooms and nightlights.

- Get glow sticks for the kids, because that's pretty much all they're good for.

Found out most of my superthrowers were about useless inside, due to the throw and intensity. had better results using candle lamps, and 2 small coleman looking lanterns that burn tealights. Also, I have been making the switch to AA powered lights, due to availability. I do have a stash of 18650s for a couple of lights, and playing around with my big jump pack, I could power the 18650 charger with the built in inverter. Oh yea, my generator crapped out, it only has like 10 hours on it. Not sure if I want to get it fixed or wait for the "after Irene" sales where people bought them, didn't use them and now want to sell them. We had several cases the night before the storm where people bought them, were told they were non returnable, and arguments started.

+1 to what Starhalo said- Stock up now. Energizer Lithiums are more expensive than alkalines, but the shelf life is the same as Lithium 123's... Bought in bulk the price per cell goes down, and not having to scramble to find them at the last minute is good peace of mind. As countless others have suggested, a good headlamp is invaluable for anything requiring the use of both hands, and there are plenty of good ones available.

PhillyRube said:

Oh yea, my generator crapped out, it only has like 10 hours on it. Not sure if I want to get it fixed or wait for the "after Irene" sales where people bought them, didn't use them and now want to sell them.

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I live in Houston. Ran my generator for 11 days 24/7 after Ike hit. Get quality or get nothing. Buy once cry once. The only new never used generators I see are no name junk.

Thanks for this post... I sometimes buy lights that don't tailstand, then the lights go out, and I wish I had gotten something else. I also agree that the 3D mags are great for power outages with the cheep drop in LED "bulbs" but the color of the light could be used as an appetite supressant.

Outdoorsman5 said:

...Because I'm a flashaholic I had lots of lights on hand to share with some friends and for our kids to play with. The lights turned a tough time into something fun plus it was a good lesson for us.

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Two years ago my neighborhood was surprised by a wind storm packing 70 mph winds. The entire area lost power for four days because of downed power lines and lots of blown transformers. The October weather was mild, so nobody complained about having only window ventilation. My elderly neighbors however were completely unprepared for the loss of power. I must have loaned seven lights that week, all 1xAA or 2xAA. Lots of good will accrued from that one gesture. Perversely, only two of these folks later bought their own lights, which proves the Zen koan, "The event will be repeated until the lesson is learned."

After 4 days of run time, my 6-year old generator is going to be replaced. 5000rpm for 100hrs will do any engine in. Still starts/runs great but just don't trust it for the 'next event'. It never had to run more than an hour here/there over the past 6 years. I was tired of topping off fuel every 12hrs.

My fancy flashlights, with multiple modes, were usually left on the 'lowest setting' when needed. All those useless (3xaaa and 2xaa) generic multiple-LED flashlights worked the best since no C or D cells were available. Some were 'free' from harborfreight or local store purchases. I'm also lucky that all my better flashlights had LED bulbs and NONE killed the batteries since I don't have too many 'mega-lumen' LEDs. The 'decoration candles' were put to work too. And, all those solar lawn lights found usage inside. Those solar lawn lights can also charge nicd/nimh AA and AAA batteries. Lighting was definitely not a problem. Water was!

Those 1/4w to 1w PR2 pr bulbs last a seriously long time on a set of batteries, and an easy upgrade for almost any PR equipped lantern, flashlight, light.....

Since the generator couldn't power the well, time to go 'hands off' and get a whole house Generac/Briggs or equivalent 15kw system.

Can't wait for the D-cells to show up at the local stores. Most of my 2d, 3d, 4d flashlights have energizer and duracell batteries that were 1-3years old and worked great. Time to replace those batteries and toss the flashlights back into the glovebox, trunk, kitchen shelf, garage toolbox....

In the past 2 decades, we've never had an outage this bad. Lucky for me, I was 'passively' prepared. Many here definitely weren't prepared at all.

Glowsticks, glow necklaces/bracelets...left over from 4th July, were a blast with the kids, worked as nightlights, and provide plenty of light to maneuver in the dark.

I give you a lot of credit for having a generator in the first place. I've always wanted one to hook into the heating system but just too expensive .

First sign of bad weather, all my B65's and Duraloops get a good top off...I want a good power source (generator/battery pack), but I don't need it. I have enough cells to last me months, and can even charge Ipods/Cell phones off my hefty stash of Duraloops and my solar charger. Did I ever mention Nicads and Duraloops rock???

Throwers are kept in the vehicle (with at least one as a traffic cone light).

Multiple AA and AAA lights are EDC's and also kept in the vehicle as well as inside. Those around me have learned why I gave them pretty good LED lights over the years.

Really like the Glorb and the old Energizer AA LED folding lantern for sitting around and/or reading (headlights have their place for that too, but...).

Got to dig out or replace the Krill and Glo Toob lights (nice to have lights that are unobtrusive to light the way to the bathroom and such. Also, chem lights make for too much garbage when they get used up).

Let's face it -- obviously kids aren't the only ones who like to play with various lights in the dark.