Emergency Lanterns/Flashlights

We lost power in the last bad early evening thunderstorm the other day.

Losing power in Maine happened all the time. I had a very effective and big generator there which came on automatically. The Maine house ran on propane, so it was fairly easy to add a generator to that system. I’m not sure how easy or necessary a generator would be here. Generators are also noisy. And the houses are close together. The electrical grid here is much better than Maine. This is the first time in this house that I have lost power–for about an hour. The outage covered a pretty big area apparently.

But, we have hurricanes here. And that season is coming.

When the power came back, the refrigerator power didn’t. Fortunately I found that it hadn’t and checked the fuse box. Yes, the outage had triggered the refrigerator electrical switch. Whew! I had just stocked up on freezer items, like meat. One neighbor had to reset her dryer at the electrical box.

So, a learning curve there. More importantly, I realized I was NOT prepared for power outages. My flashlights were old and not very powerful. I found candles, but didn’t have matches. (Movers won’t move matches.) Eventually I found a hand-held pistol type lighter that I must have bought early on here–like you’d use to light a stove top or a bbq grill. Or, a candle.

Later, a neighbor told me about emergency lanterns that pack a real punch. I ordered three and the two smaller ones have come. Upright this little guy becomes a lantern. Sideways, it can be a flashlight or can run a ring of red emergency lights. The bottom has magnets if you want to put it on something metal.

Here it is opened as a lantern. Yes, it throws a powerful light that is much better than a candle. And it is safer than a candle.

Here’s the top, with the flashlight portal.

This one can run on a rechargeable battery or with regular batteries. It comes with a cable that can recharge it or can be used to charge something like a phone.

The big one I’ve ordered can run for 150 hours on medium settings and a combo of the rechargeable battery and regular batteries. All three units can run as long as you replace batteries as needed.

I charged both of these two smaller units. And I went shopping for back-up batteries yesterday. I also bought a new flashlight and junked the old one that wasn’t working well. And I got a back-up hand-held pistol type lighter. The local grocery store does not sell matches. But I’m good with the pistol lighter.

I really like these emergency or camping lanterns. Fully charged, they can run until the rechargeable battery gives out. Then they can run on batteries. As I’m on the mainland, in a hurricane, I may get family from Isle of Palms here, so I want to be ready.