Power went out, Suggestions for "emergency lighting?

[CalG]

The electric lines in my area are very vulnerable to fallen tree related outages.
My estimation is NO LESS than 10 outages per year, but you know how "inconvienience" seems more than less.

This evening, when the weather changed from warm and rainy to cold and clear, it was a strong wind that did the changing. It's howling out there right now, and the wind chimes are making music.

The wife and I sat in the front room fending off darkness with a combination of Kerosene lamps, candles, the flame of the wood stove, and a solar lawn lamp.

I was thinking that what I really want is some light source that could be distributed around the house that offered (1) motion sensing, (2) dark activation, and (3) rechargable batteries.(5V USB?)
(4) easy mounting for stairs etc.

I've seen lots of motion sensing devices, but not many "darkness activation".

That is, I don't want the lights to turn on in the daytime whenever motion is detected, and I do want the lights to only turn on when it's dark (power out at night) and there is motion. Does that make sense?

I don't want to run wires for these emergency lights!

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Look on Amazon for battery-powered motion sensor stair lights. We have some, we charge them about once a month.

 

[ponytug]

We tend to have a variety of headlamps and flashlights cached around the house and an LED camp light to get us through until I either fire up the generator or pull out the white gas mantle lamps and candles. It is an intentionally redundant set up that will stay fresh as we do use the various lights, and have it in reserve against earthquakes as well as snow or wind outages.

I'm not a big fan of rechargeable lights for emergencies as keeping the batteries charged and good health has for me always turned out to be an issue. YMMV...

All the best,

Peter

 

[Jstpssng]

This is my solution for the rechargeable part
.
I have about 1/2 dozen Dewalt batteries so it made sense to have a light or two to run off it. The one pn the left also has USB and USB-C charging points.
The headlamp does take batteries so I keep a few on hand.

 

[Hay Dude]

This is my solution for the rechargeable part
. View attachment 4618454
I have about 1/2 dozen Dewalt batteries so it made sense to have a light or two to run off it. The one pn the left also has USB and USB-C charging points.
The headlamp does take batteries so I keep a few on hand.

Yep. And you can recharge batteries in your car/truck.

 

[bdhsfz6]

During a major week long outage here a few years ago, I discovered a neat trick.
I went to my local Home Depot that was running on generators. There wasn't a battery, flashlight or generator to be had. Quite by accident, I went through the outdoor section and found these solar walkway lights:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Bellingrath-10-Lumen-Bronze-LED-Weather-Resistant-Outdoor-Solar-Path-Light-with-Plastic-Lens-4-Pack-P3100-01-12/319876384#overlay

I bought 12 and set them out in the yard to charge. At night, we brought them inside and put one in every room. We just stick the mounting post in a vase or jar to hold them upright. They are bright enough to read by and last all night. In the morning, they turn off automatically. It really doesn't matter that they aren't motion activated since we put them outside to recharge during the day.

Cost less than $40 and now, 5 years later, we're still using them to light our walkway.

 

[Torvy]

We had outdoor versions of this idea on our old house. The security lights had motion sensors, but also a daylight sensor, so they wouldn't go 'on' during the day. Point being, the concept exists.

Frankly, I'd go the generator route. In fact, that's a budget item for next year. We have the tree problem, but considerably less ice than up there.

I wish they would bury more lines to reduce the outages. The good news is that our co-op is pretty quick about restoring power.

 

[Jstpssng]

I'm dealing with the same storm as the OP, but so far still haven't lost my power. The lights did flicker a few times as I was filling the percolator which made me nervous. Breakfast without coffee is like a day without-
COFFEE!

I'm on the end of the line on a gravel town road and when I moved here expected to lose power constantly.
Every fall I'd change the gas in my generator, run it for 1/2 hour and put it away. The next year I'd do the same but the power was never out long enough to run it. I keep 5 gallons of water on the wood stove for those few times when it is off temporarily.
About 8 years ago I yanked the starter cord out of the recoil and never got around to fixing it. I suspect that it needs more than a rope now.
It's sitting next to the 1973 Panther that I plan to get running someday and the old Ariens snowblower which somebody gave my father years ago.

 

[Torvy]

I'm dealing with the same storm as the OP, but so far still haven't lost my power. The lights did flicker a few times as I was filling the percolator which made me nervous. Breakfast without coffee is like a day without-
COFFEE!

I don't like coffee, but I drink tea most days. One big advantage of a gas cook top. I can heat water even if we lose power.

 

[Oaktree]

We only lost power for an hour and a half Friday afternoon. Between a woodstove, propane cookstove and hot water, gravity spring well and an assortment of LED lanterns and free HF flashlights we're in pretty good shape for an outage.

Generator is mostly for summer outages, used to power refrigerator & freezer.

 

[Oaktree]

Yep. And you can recharge batteries in your car/truck.

Assuming you have a 12v charger.
A colleague of mine once tried to run a tool charger off an inverter and somehow all the magic smoke got out. He didn't elaborate, but apparently the two devices didn't play nicely together.

 

[Jstpssng]

Assuming you have a 12v charger.
A colleague of mine once tried to run a tool charger off an inverter and somehow all the magic smoke got out. He didn't elaborate, but apparently the two devices didn't play nicely together.

I suspect that his Ram has 120 volt power ports.

I used rechargables for my GPS for a while and had a charger which plugged into the cigarette lighter. One day it got rather hot... luckily while I was in the truck.

One problem with inverters is that the adapters don't seem to fit the outlets very well. I've thpught about hardwiring mine to the battery... fused of course.

 

[ponytug]

There is also the issue that many 120V chargers are not happy with cheap inverters (e.g. square wave, aka "modified sine wave"), and magic smoke tends to get emitted.

All the best, Peter

 

[Hay Dude]

I recharge DeWalt batteries in my Ram every day.
Works flawlessly

 

[4570Man]

I recharge DeWalt batteries in my Ram every day.
Works flawlessly

What is the plug in your Ram rated for? The plug in mine says 150 watts which is pretty useless. Dad’s Ford is rated for 450 watts and we tried a dewalt fast charger in it and it trips the circuit. I’ve never tried a regular speed charger to see what happens.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

Interestingly enough, we lost power Friday 10 - 3pm, same storm as OP. Winds were swift, but at night, they came ripping through. It moved anything not nailed down. Very surprised we didn't loose power. I was up at 245 to mitigate some damage, spent the rest of the night/early morning by the woodstove.

 

[Hay Dude]

What is the plug in your Ram rated for? The plug in mine says 150 watts which is pretty useless. Dad’s Ford is rated for 450 watts and we tried a dewalt fast charger in it and it trips the circuit. I’ve never tried a regular speed charger to see what happens.

I don’t know, but it’s a lot. I will look. I have the big charger and 60V batteries rotating through the charger all the time. never one problem.
Best truck I ever owned.

 

[Oaktree]

I suspect that his Ram has 120 volt power ports.

Never owned a truck that had them, how does that work? Do you have to turn the built-in inverter on manually or does it somehow sense that something's plugged into it?

 

[Jstpssng]

Never owned a truck that had them, how does that work? Do you have to turn the built-in inverter on manually or does it somehow sense that something's plugged into it?

You would have to ask somebody who has it. I just have the old fashioned plug in inverter which sort of works with a cigarette lighter.

 

[IXLR8]

Wife found some plug-in night lights that come on at night, not motion detecting. They have a battery in them that will keep them lit for several hours when the power goes out.