Light your home through a long outage
At the bare minimum, one headlamp per person and spare batteries. Candles come last, not first.
Darkness is the first thing that makes an outage feel like an emergency. Good lighting is cheap, safe and keeps kids calm.
Skip candles. They're the top cause of house fires during outages. LED lanterns and headlamps run for days on a few batteries.
YOU'LL NEED
- One headlamp per person
- Two or three LED lanterns
- AA/AAA rechargeable batteries and a charger
- A USB power bank or power station to recharge
Instructions
- Give everyone a headlamp. Hands-free light for cooking, bathroom trips and checking the basement. Keep one at each bed.
- Put a lantern in each main room. A lantern on the kitchen table and one in the bathroom covers most needs.
- Standardize batteries. Pick gear that uses the same battery (AA is easiest) so you only stock one kind.
- Go rechargeable. Rechargeable NiMH batteries and a USB charger let a power station or solar panel keep your lights going for weeks.
- Store them where you'll find them in the dark. One headlamp in the kitchen drawer, one by the breaker panel, and glow tape on the lantern handles.
TIPS
- Lithium AA batteries last 10+ years in storage and work in the cold.
- A lantern pointed at the ceiling lights a whole room.
- Test everything twice a year when the clocks change.
Products to consider
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