Emergency Lighting

The Problem with Candles

I can’t believe in the modern age of infinitely rechargeable USB batteries and portable solar battery banks agencies like Norfolk County are still giving advice for using CANDLES during an emergency.

There are objectively bad ideas, and bringing something flammable like a candle into an environment that may have combustible gases floating around that you aren’t even aware of certainly meets the criteria for an objectively bad idea. Moreover, you’ll need to have something to light the candle and when it’s expended it cannot be renewed almost infinitely, like a battery pack with a solar panel can. 

Lastly, walking around while holding a candle, like a character in a Gothic novel, means that at least one of your hands is preoccupied. In a disaster, you would likely be exposed to unfamiliar environments with unknown hazards. If you trip, the problem is not only that you will likely instinctively drop the candle to catch yourself, but also that the candle could fall on a carpet, drapes, bedspread, or something else flammable. And if you have to carry an injured child or pet, it would be far superior to have both hands free than to juggle a lit candle in one hand while you carry the casualty.

Fortunately some innovative inventions have come along since the first candle was invented some 5,000 years ago. I will discuss a few of my favorites below.

The Problem With Standard Flashlights

When I am doing an emergency preparedness home-audit for clients, one of the tests I start with is “show me your flashlights.”

What clients frequently retrieve (at least, the ones they can locate) is a pile of mismatched halogen and LED flashlights, mostly powered by a variety of non-rechargeable batteries. 

Next, I test to see which ones actually turn on. It’s uncommon to find a home where all of the flashlights they bring out are charged, functional and capable of their full illumination.

As you are already aware now, dead, non-rechargeable batteries are no more useful than no batteries. And the same goes for the devices that depend on them when you have nothing else to power them.

Lastly, the problem with candles applies to flashlights, namely, holding a flashlight will take away at least one of your hands that you will need for other tasks. 

Having to carry an injured child or pet while juggling a flashlight in one hand (or a candle!) should be an easily foreseeable and avoidable problem. 

A USB-rechargeable, LED headlamp is far superior to a handheld non-rechargeable halogen flashlight. 

Start With A USB-Rechargeable LED Headlamp

An absolutely essential item is a very high quality, water-resistant, LED headlamp that is rechargeable either through a built-in battery pack or via individually-USB rechargeable batteries. You should at least have one of these in your main emergency kit, in your car, and next to your bed. 

Two Is One, One Is None

Another technique I learned in the Navy was “two is one, one is none.” What this means is that by relying only on one person, place, or thing, you are putting 100% of your faith in it. If it fails then it’s as if you didn’t have it at all.

Applying this principle to headlamps, you would always carry two. And to take it a step further, carry one that has an integrated USB-rechargeable battery pack and another that uses individually rechargeable batteries. 

Why LED is Better Than Halogen

Most residential LEDs use 75% less energy than their comparable wattage halogen counterparts. Energy savings is even more important for emergency survival when your ability to generate and store energy is far less certain than it is during a normal environment. During the former, you’ll want your watts to go as far as possible before recharging. To put this in context, because a standard incandescent/halogen bulb will lose 80-90% of its energy to heat, the avoidance of this inefficiency translates to more valuable energy being converted to usable light. 

Next, LED bulbs can last up to 25 times longer than normal lighting. This solves a problem that plagues most halogen flashlights: burnt out bulbs, which will of course be in short supply during an emergency.

LED lighting units also tend to be lighter than their halogen counterparts, and a lot more durable. 

Part of preparation for emergencies - or life in general - is with a continued identification of critical points of failure. With flashlights, the two most obvious points of failure will be the batteries and the bulb.

Rechargeable batteries control for the point of failure of dead batteries by providing the ability to be recharged through household, automotive, portable or solar power. And if you were thinking, “ok but what if your built-in rechargeable battery fails?” then you are advancing quickly in your emergency preparedness mindset and starting to think through first and second layers of contingencies. And in this case, one answer to the concern of a defective built-in rechargeable batteries is to opt for devices that use individual batteries and use USB-rechargeable individual batteries instead, such as Pale Blue Earth. Even if these individual batteries were to fail you, you can just replace them with a different set.

And since LEDs are inherently more rugged than filament-based bulbs, the other critical point of failure of flashlights - the bulb - is largely controlled for (unless you plan on keeping the same LED light for more than 25 years).