I don't like flammable liquid or even open flame lighting solutions where there may be unsupervised children or animals. I discovered the Pak-Lite a couple of years ago and have not looked back. Small, super lightweight and good basic (non-task oriented lighting). Best of all is the battery life. 80 hours on high, 1,200 hours on low and 10 year shelf life using a lithium battery. Now the down-side is that lithium 9 volt batteries are not cheap and somewhat hard to find. But a regular alkaline 9 volt will work just fine with reduced battery life, but still darned good at 20 hours on high. As others have suggested, use a good headlamp from Petzl, Fenix, or Princeton for your task oriented lighting.

I was was thinking that the quantities listed were easily enough for a year or more worth of hurricanes, winter storms, what-have-you. In those amounts two nights without power would be a good thing. A short run for testing and turnover.

On the other hand I'm always worried that people just casually looking at laying a little something in for a rainy day will see a huge list and get scared off. That seeing the mountain will keep them from climbing the hills. That they will see preparedness as an all-or-nothing exercise where you either spend lots of time and money or you do nothing at all.

Having more is often better, as long as you don't have to move it or neglect other issues, but a lot of good can come from people making sure that they have a flashlight, spare batteries, and a few candles. That $2 LED light I reviewed would be suitable. Mine are still kicking. A minimalist kit could get people on a shoestring budget through a couple of days without power if they are miserly and careful.

NightHiker, I think your lighting arrangements are exemplary for a single home, and entirely suitable for a group shelter. Well done.

I don't have one yet, but how about the Indigo LED Lantern?
http://www.freeplayenergy.com/product/indigo

Hmmm... you made me curious




It uses old fashion (not low self discharge) nimh battery pack. Not really well suited for long term storage. And it does take some soldering skills to replace the internal battery with something else and more capable. If they had used low self discharge nimh the thing would have been much more interesting. Or why not an open 3*AA battery compartment instead of a dedicated internal 3*AA battery pack?


However, the thing is a really simple design that should keep on working as long as you're willing to give it some cranking now and then.

An interesting, low cost and safe alternative to candles are the many "flame-less candles". Otherwise known as electric, fake, candles. These are usually a simple battery pack and one or more LEDs. These usually don't provide task lighting and really aren't suitable for use as a flashlight but for low ambient lighting, enough light to comfort the kids and avoid bumping into the furniture, they are good.

I've seen them selling for around $7 but on sale for around $2.

For a cost effective light source with good performance the Coleman 8D LED lantern is keenly priced @ around $30.

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_id=4345-701&categoryid=1045

Cree XLamp® XR-E LED 175 lumens on high (enough to light a medium sized room in an emergency)
Run time: 66 hours on low, 32 hours on high (good run times) i.e. about 5-10 days at 6 hours per day

4 packs of twin LR20s D cells typically costs around $7-8.

http://www.thomasdistributing.com/GE-Sanyo-D-Alkaline-Battery_p_1767.html

So for around $40 outlay good performance portable LED lighting for 5-10 days use is available.

Rechargeable LSD NiMh LR20 D cells are now available with capacities of 10,000mAhrs (around 12 Whrs), just slightly less capacities than fresh Alkaline D cells, though they are much more expensive initially to purchase.

http://www.thomasdistributing.com/Accupo...ies_p_1034.html

These would be excellent for a much longer term power outage especially if used with a 12V capable battery charger such as the Ansmann Powerline 5 LCD Intelligent Battery Charger for a Solar Power setup with a 30W Solar Panel kit setup.

http://www.tantronics.co.uk/acatalog/Info_chg-ans-pl5-lcd.html

http://www.thousandsuns.com/30_watt_solar_panel/p432875_1536885.aspx

I own two. They are pretty rugged for being made out of plastic. The crank works well and doesn't feel like it will break anytime soon. I really like mine and would consider buying additional units.

I have an LED torch that will run for 50 hours on a single AA. And I have lots of AAs. I can recharge from the car, and potentially solar power if it's summer. I see light as pretty much a solved problem.

I also have some candles and tealights, but they date back 10 years or so, to before LEDs got so good. Tealights I've found are especially poor, putting out about 1/3rd the light of a proper candle. Candles aren't especially good either, being rather bulky. (They can also melt in hot weather, but that's not an issue in the UK.)

Candles are also a fire risk. If you use them, make sure you have a good candle-holder. Regardless, during a black-out don't be surprised if your neighbours have fires.

I guess the main advantage of candles is they are immune to EMP, if you see that as a serious threat. And they do have a long shelf-life.

I totally forgot about Olive Oil lamps. A glass jar, some wire, cotton string, and olive oil. Burns a long time, emits 360deg. of light due to the clear glass jar, and will extinguish itself when tipped over. And speaking of lanterns, has anyone tried out the SnowPeak Hozuki lantern? Pricey, but looks neat. First LED lantern I've seen with a warm emitter.

I've been replacing my single-mantle gas lanterns in my camping/bug-out kits with these Apollo LED lanterns from Black Diamond. I now have two of them and intend to pick-up more as I find them on sale locally (usually around $35). They are pretty rugged, put out a decent amount of light with good distribution, run for over 50 hours with LSD NiMH rechargeable batteries, and are lighter and more compact than the gas lanterns.

I still keep the gas lanterns in my storage room with some 16oz. propane canisters. These are actually my go-to lighting during a power failure, as they put out much more light than LED. I have an adapter to refill the 16-oz canisters from a bulk LP tank, and usually have two full 20-lb tanks at home.

Being a flashlight junky, I have a large assortment of Maglites (all converted to LED), Fenix, Maratac and other brand flashlights, with a supply of LSD NiMH batteries.

Finally, I have two generators: a 6,000 watt unit and a 2,000 watt portable unit, with a 55 gallon drum of gasoline. Yes, I am that neighbor who's house is all lit-up with the TV going during a blackout. (Of course I'd maintain a lower profile during an extended disaster to avoid attracting attention.)