Interesting use of lights - I don't think I have ever used lights for that purpose. I would much prefer to use heat tapes, or let the faucets drip....

I don't recall where it was but I've seen an article about a city that replaced their traffic light bulbs with LEDs. The next winter, they found that they had a problem with snow & ice build-up on the traffic lights. The new LED bulbs didn't generate enough heat to keep them melted off.

If you experience an EMP that wipes out your LEDs, wouldn't that same EMP also wipe out the electricity generation devices (generators, etc.) that you would depend on to power your backup incandescents? I think candle lanterns would be more useful after an EMP.

Good point. Forgot my electronics training from 30+ years ago that I haven't used in 25+ years.

Hahaha! Of course not- you live in California! Don't you folks panic when it gets down to 45?

LED vs. incandescents? Carbide lamp, boys! It's tried and true!

I haven't always lived in California. I have spent time in Illinois, Ohio, and Arizona. I think the coldest spot I have lived is Flagstaff, AZ- nothing between Flag and the north Pole but a barbed wire fence. We saw -40F routinely....The plumbing was installed for those conditions.

And, yes, nowadays in coastal Cal, anything below 50F is severe winter......

I figured you had, Hikermor. I have a buddy in Mountain House, CA that [censored] every time it gets under 50, though. Typical!

during ten years without electric lights we tried numerous methods and eventually went back to candles. if used inside a glass chimney they were pretty safe, easy, didn't smell, quick and simple.

we really came to hate wick and mantel oil lamps. too smelly, too hot, fragile, and a pain to be constantly refilling.

generally candles aren't cheap, so we'd go to large stores that sold candles and offer the management to buy the ones they'd pulled off the shelves due to fading/warping/damage/season. we'd get boxes full for pennies on the dollars.

these days we're on a solar system running the last of our compact fluorescents until they need replacing by LEDs, so candles are left to back-up.

re: EMP - in case that should ever happen, we keep a couple/three spare LED flashlights in a padded metal military ammo can, along with a solar battery charger, a few sanyo eneloop batteries and a tiny AM/FM radio.

I was thinking of flashlights that were immediately rendered useless due to the solid state junction of the LED getting blown, as opposed to an incandescent flashlight which would last as long as the batteries held out.

Having an hour or so of usable light that you might otherwise not have could be an important consideration, especially if the emp drove the start of a SHTF situation.