Keep incandescents as a backup

In this age of LEDs, it might be worth reminding that in the event of EMP, an LED is just another solid state device that is susceptible. Having one or two incandescent bulb flashlights would be advisable.

Or keep some LED flashlights in a lead-lined box?

EMP is controlled by a Faraday shield. Any box made of a conductive material should do the trick. Radiation itself is mitigated by lead but since light bulbs are not significantly affected by any reasonable doses, there is no need for lead lined boxes.

Newcandescent.com sell some very HD incandescent light bulbs. Various wattage bulbs available, all designed for "rough service".

Good riddance to incans. LEDs are vastly superior in every meaningful way.

Except color rendition, for the vast majority of bulbs (though gradually improving).

How well do they warm your pipes if you put them under your house in a severe freeze?

LEDs are actually quite tough little solid state devices being essentially Diodes even when compared to very fine tungsten filaments. During an EMP the driver circuitry may become damaged but if they fail the LEDs can be removed from the housings and 4 LEDs can be arranged in series with a 12V battery such as an SLA to produce some light. Getting light out of an incandescent bulb even if perfectly functional might be a little more tricky during an EMP as access to a working inverter may prove a little more difficult. A butane gas powered soldering iron might be worthwhile purchasing. Repairing a vacuum tungsten filament is virtually impossible at home.

The LEDs will also typically last 5-6 times that of incandescent if using a limited power setup such as a DC battery (not including the inverter losses) before the battery dies (assuming that the battery even has the load capacity to even run a 40-100 Watt incandescent).

A backup butane gas powered light source/latern would also be a worthwhile having for an EMP event.

http://www.gasproducts.co.uk/acatalog/Bullfinch_1616_Handilight_Gas_Lantern.html

For general purpose lighting, a lantern or similar gas powered light would be suitable. The only alternative I know of besides rare bullseye lanterns would be a carbide lamp as a flashlight type replacement.

I marvel at all the comments about color rendition on candlepower forums - sounds like a bunch of wine connoisseurs comparing vintages. I am quite content to simply have adequate light when I mash on the button. Nuances of color are rather peripheral.

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.

IIRC most of the energy in a nuc weapon derived EMP is in HF to low VHF radio spectrum, The EMP is captured and concentrated in long wire antennas such as power lines. I am not very concerned about LED flashlights being knocked out by an EMP. Anything powered through a wall outlet however...

You got that right PSM! When I was a teenage driver with a junker mobile, an old wool blanket and a strategically placed 100 watt bulb under the hood kept me mobile in the wintertime.

Agree, I suspect that an LED flashlight would survive an EMP event.
I would however still urge that incandescents be stored just in case, and do not forget some low powered flashlight bulbs for extending battery life.

But just to make sure during a HEMP E1 nanosecond pulse, these might help

http://techprotectbag.com/

to protect those valuable electronics such as SW radios/Funcubes/GPS/notebooks/cameras/watches etc including LED flashlights/Bulbs

then place in a good quality sealed Aluminium Breif Case Aluminium Brief Case.

Forgive me my ignorance, but if a faraday cage is a metal box, is my vehicles trunk adequate or do I need to research the matter more thoroughly? I ask this question for the benefit of others as well as my own stupid self

The Vehicle trunk will make for a Faraday cage but a electronic leaky one for the higher speed pulse effects such as intense X-ray induced Crompton electron cascade from a High altitude nuclear EMP (HEMP). It will be perfectly OK for the natural EMP such as SME's interaction with the earths magnetosphere and geomagnetic effects, which changes the impedance from the Power station Source to the distributed loads to induce high currents in long line transmission lines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse

This may have even happened yesterday as 1/3 of the Scottish main land electricity supply failed to a cascading failure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-27058766

In that vein, how about the mylar bags that electronics are sometimes shipped in? I have some laying around. Would they offer any protection at all for radios and other electronics?

I was going to say tea lights are cheap, but they aren't that cheap anymore.

I bought these in bulk 10 years ago for about $2 per 50. I guess I'm sitting on a small fortune. lol

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Light-In-the-Dark-Unscented-Tealight-Candles/22697463

even at 10-20 cents each, they're still a heck of a deal.

we found tea candle only useful for slightly illuminating the darkness, but weren't worth much as task lights, like reading/cooking. they start off bright for a minute or two but once the pool of wax forms around the burnt-down wick, its more like moonglow.

better than nothing, and in an emergency like a black-out they do help keep fears at bay.

thnx for the comment (and reminder), ireckon.

My wife just told me those tea lights are $2.25 for 50 in the store at Walmart. That's 4.5 cents per candle, and even less if you buy a bigger bag. I don't know why the online price is so much higher.

Mylar by itself is not conductive, and therefore cannot be a Faraday cage. Some of the bags used to protect electronics have metal shielding in the Mylar. Those may work.

Tealights and mylar. At work we call this scope creep. But at the shooting range, that term means something completely different, and disturbing.

There's always the microwave theory -- good at keeping energy in, thus good at keeping energy out, too. Besides, if we get hit with an EMP, it's not like you will be needing the microwave to make popcorn.