Preparation or paranoia?

Power outages seem to be an increasingly frequent occurrence. With the power grid in need of a lot of maintenance and updates and news of hackers trying to access the network online, being prepared for a power outage in the medium to long term is a very good idea. The preparations necessary to have adequate lighting in any setting are very easy and very affordable.

The most important thing to remember is that it is very unsettling, especially for children, to be without electricity for an extended period of time. The tranquility that settles in a house without electricity is something that we do not usually experience. While an emergency backup generator and plenty of gasoline to run it would take care of things quite well, this requires an investment of several hundred dollars and the hassle and dangers of gas storage. It is much cheaper and easier to focus on alternative lighting.

Candlelight is not a good idea for anything other than a romantic dinner. They present a fire hazard, especially if you have children in the house. They are not very cheap and they are not very portable. Small oil lamps have the same drawbacks.

Kerosene lamps are much better than candles, and if you don’t like the smell of kerosene, you can buy lamp oil for most good lamps, although it is much more expensive. A good hurricane lantern is durable, safe (they go out if tipped over), and costs about $30 each. While campers love them, there’s still a better way.

Enter the LED flashlight

With LED flashlights, gone are the days of having to rely on bulky D-cell flashlights that require a new set of batteries every day. Instead, a lightweight LED flashlight will serve you night after night on a couple of double-A or triple-A batteries. So, it’s as easy as taking a trip to Walmart to make sure your family has lighting during an extended power outage? Not quite.

First things first: standardize

A typical American home search for flashlights will produce a number of different devices that use a number of different battery types. This is NOT the way to prepare for an extended power outage. Trying to stock up on several different types of batteries is frustrating and expensive and inevitably someone’s flashlight will run out of batteries while someone else’s will not. The smartest thing to do is to collect all the lanterns and then get rid of them! Then choose flashlights and a table lamp or two that use the same batteries. Flashlights must be strong and waterproof, if not waterproof. Get a light color that’s easy to find in the dark – black isn’t what you want.

worth its weight in gold

In addition to flashlights and one or two table lanterns, get a headlamp for each adult in the family. Trying to do any task while holding a flashlight, which any camper will tell you, is very frustrating and difficult. A headlamp, on the other hand, is lightweight and automatically illuminates whatever you’re looking at. Resist the temptation to buy the smallest and lightest headlamps, as these use special button cell batteries. Get headlamps that use Double A or Triple A batteries to standardize with your flashlights.

About the battery

If you want the best batteries in your lights that will give you the longest lasting light and perform better than any other battery in very cold weather, then lithium batteries are for you. They’re not cheap – they’ll cost you up to $2 per battery, so if your flashlight uses 3 triple A batteries, that’s going to cost you more than the flashlight!

If you want to be prepared for a prolonged blackout, perhaps due to a terrorist attack or societal collapse, recharging your batteries is the best option. A small solar powered battery charger can be purchased for as little as $35 and will make it truly self sufficient. A note of caution about rechargeables, though: They don’t hold a charge very well in storage. Keep rechargeables on hand, but keep good batteries in your flashlights so they will work when you need them.

one final word

Equipping yourself with at least one flashlight in every vehicle, more at home, and a headlamp for every adult, with all lights using the same batteries, is a quick and easy way to be prepared for an emergency. Do not think that if something happens, you can run to the store and buy flashlights. The store may also be without power!