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Emergency Lighting for Your Home

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It is early summer, and things are beginning to bloom and come alive. This is a beautiful time of year. Unfortunately, it also means monsoons and other types of storms are brewing and will cause power outages and other types of devastation.

If you have read many of my other articles you will know that I maintain the necessity of being prepared at all times, this includes being prepared for power outages. One of the things that you can do to prepare for a power outage is to have at least three different types of emergency lighting in your home. To some lighting may not seem that big of a problem, to others it can mean the difference between comfort during a storm or fear. In reality, electrical power as we know it has only been in most homes for about the last one hundred years, maybe less. In those days when it got dark people lit a candle or a lantern for a while and then went to bed. However, in today’s society we have become a different culture, we are used to having power when we want it and things do not shut down because it is dark. In this article, we will look at three different sources of emergency lighting for your home and the pluses and minuses of them.

The first form of emergency lighting for your home that I will discuss is a battery powered Colman lantern. Most battery-powered lanterns are rechargeable; this is very helpful, as it saves on the necessity of buying batteries. Battery powered lanterns make such good emergency lighting for your home because they are bright and they are safe to move around. The down side to battery-powered lanterns is that they do run out of power and need to be recharged. If your power outage lasts for more than a couple of days then you may be in some trouble if that is your only light source. Another down side is that if you fail to keep it charged when you need it you might find that your lantern will not work.

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The second form of emergency lighting for your home that I will discuss is a good old-fashioned candle. Candles are an inexpensive form of emergency lighting for your home. You can use candles by themselves or you can mount them on your walls on special platforms with reflective material to help radiate the light. Other options for candles would be a candle lantern, candle lanterns work similar to a regular lantern. Candle lanterns can be purchased online anywhere from 12.00 to 60.00 so there are choices. My recommendation for burning candles is to use a candle lantern, for the fact that you can hang them up if, you wish. The down side to using candles for emergency lighting for your home is that they are not safe to move around, so if you intent to use candles you should have some in every room, and remember to keep them away from flammable objects and keep them away from children. Candles are an excellent source of emergency lighting for your home; you just need to have respect of fire.

The third form of emergency lighting for your home that I will discuss is an oil lamp. Oil lamps are still in use today by the Amish and in other countries where electricity is either not used by choice or simply not available. An oil lamp has a bowl or reservoir where the fuel oil is housed and it has a wick directly in the oil. You turn the light either up or down by raising or lowering the wick with an adjustment knob. I like the oil lamp as a source of emergency lighting for your home because of the light that it puts out. It is important to remember that if you plan to use this type of lamp for emergency lighting that you have a couple for each room, because they are not safe to move around once they are lit. You can buy them with carry handles, but just like the candles, you need to be aware that you are dealing with something that will burn your house down.

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It is surprising to me the number of people that do not even have a flashlight in their home. Emergency lighting for your home should not be something that you think about purchasing, emergency lighting should be something that you make a point of purchasing. In many parts of the country, it is common for power lines to be taken down in a storm, or even electricity shorting out from flooding. You may have to wait for several days before the power is restored in your area. You should have at least three sources of emergency lighting for your home.