Actually, I do not believe it would perform too well in that role. Focused (rather than lantern-type) reflector and not enough lumens to do a decent ceiling bounce. If you want a real surprise for that function, check out the Pac-Lite. Small, no refector, easy to obtain 9 volt batteries, silly long battery life, and sits upright without tipping over. I distributed these throughout the house during the last outage and they did a great job.