My thoughts on light sources for emergency and long term use

[filibuster]

I started out a dozen years ago as I began my preparations looking for a good alternate light source and settled at the time on a few different kerosene lamps and pressure lanterns. Kerosene worked well because it was my long term storage fuel choice which was also used for heat and cooking needs.

However, during one power outage about 5-6 years ago, I took the opportunity to pull out a lantern and fire it up inside to see how it would work, well... I quickly found that kerosene can be messy for the unpracticed and a little bit of spilled fuel on the lantern added a lot of much undesired smell to the occasion. The lantern though bright was a pressure lantern and was very loud to use inside, and even though we cracked a window, I wasn't all that sure I was safe to just let the lantern run inside while we did our evening activities, not just because of the fumes but also because of the heat and fire potential it was. A lamp might have been a better selection for use that night than a pressure lantern but the experience got me looking again for a light source that could be much easier, less problematic and more safe for my young family to use.

At the time white LED's were just coming onto the scene and I tried a few of the early attempts to use them as lights and lanterns. Those early models however left a lot to be desired. They were dim, more blue in light color than I liked and weren't all that sturdy in construction and expensive. However, over the past few years some models of lanterns have come out that have really proved themselves as alternatives to fuel based light sources and I've made the switch from lamp oil to battery power and haven't found a good reason to look back yet.

The lantern that made the difference for me was the Rayovac Sportsman xtreme 3D LED lantern
It used 3 D cell batteries and a 3 LED cluster to output a good amount of light for over 50 hours on high. If you run it on low you can get upwards of 150 hours of run time. The runtime is nice but the quality of the beam and light is what sets it apart from the others. It has a very smooth beam with no artifacts because of an excellent diffuser with none of the sharp piercing glare produced by some other high output LED lanterns that have a clear diffuser. It's made of plastic but of a grade that looks and feels of good quality. I've had mine taken apart to look at the innards and I like that the LED's themselves sit on top of a good sized peace of aluminum which acts as a heat sink to protect the LED's from getting too hot. Most other LED lanterns just embed the LED's into the plastic which doesn't do anything for thermal heat transfer and you'll see the LED's burn out after continued constant use. It sells generally between $28-32 but is currently listed on Amazon.com for $25 (but this price is likely to be very temporary)

A good review and comparison of the Rayovac lantern to another good LED lantern can be found here:
http://www.ruscelli.com/flashlights_lanterns.htm
Here's a video review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKNlyB0XTYQ

I also like the little brother to the above lantern the Rayovac Sportsman mini 3AA LED lantern which is the perfect size for a personal lantern for an individual. It provides descent light, enough to read by and work on non detailed tasks. It will run 60-70+ hours on 3 AA batteries on high so a Costco pack of 48 batteries would run the mini lantern for a year. It generally sells around $13-$15.

The biggest issues I have with these lanterns are actually shared by both that is they both have little green "locator" LED beacons that flash intermittently when ever there are batteries loaded. This is supposed to make them findable in the dark, but generally it's just a waste of battery power in my mind, and there's not an easy way to stop the beacon unless you take the lanterns apart and snap the LED off the circuit board, or unload the batteries when not in use. It's actually a good idea to take alkaline batteries out of the device they are in when not in use because alkaline batteries can leak which can damage a device. The second issue is a hard to close battery cap. It's hard to close only because it requires you to line up a little notch with a groove in the cap which takes some practice. Once I got the hang of it, it hasn't been a big issue but it could be better.

There are some newer LED lights out that I've only read the reviews on but I'll mention them here because they use some of the newest and brightest LED's:

One of the brightest if not the current brightest LED lantern is the Coleman twin high performance LED lantern. Here's a comparison video between the Coleman and the Rayovac.

It has a less bright brother just known as the Coleman Family size twin LED lantern:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JHa7zL2Ig8

They both use 8 D cell batteries which makes them heavy and with a bigger appetite for batteries.

On a different but related topic is the use of rechargeable batteries with LED lanterns. I have a solar powered backup battery system that I can use to recharge a number of AA NiMH batteries and can use them in my LED lanterns, even those that take D cell batteries.

Sanyo currently makes the best of the NiMH rechargeable batteries in their "eneloop" branded cells.
This eneloop pack of batteries is currently one of the best values to buy them in. In it you get 8 AA cells and 2 AAA but you also get 4 AA to D cell adapter sleeves which will let the smaller AA cells work in devices (such as the Rayovac lantern) that take D cell batteries. The AA cells don't have the same quantity of power as a full sized D cell but it does a good job if not for a shorter time powering the device, and with a solar charger you can have 500-1000 recharges using the same batteries. That would work out to about a 5 year supply of light using one Rayovac 3D LED lantern and 3 rechargeable AA cells and a solar battery charger.

Note: the battery charger in the eneloop power pack works off of AC power so you would need a DC to AC inverter to use it. The better bet would be to find a top notch DC battery charger such as the Accumanger 20 charger which is geared to work better with solar panels or 12v DC power sources. The Accumanger 20 is also rated as one of the best chargers to both take care of the batteries it charges and charge them up the fastest. You can find faster chargers but you start sacrificing battery life when you start to charge them too fast. The Accumanger strikes a good balance between the two options. It will charge four 2000mAh AA batteries in about 4 hours which should cover a good day of sun. You need a 20 watt solar panel (minimum) to make this charger work the best in the most conditions. Smaller wattage panels would work too but when the sky is cloudy etc. you may not get enough power out of smaller panels to charge 4 AA cells in one day.

One of the better all combined AA solar battery chargers is the Powerfilm AA Solar Charger It can charge 4 AA cells in about 7 hours of full sun which will spill over into a second day.

[Northmountain]

I picked up Energizer Compact Folding LED lights for our CERT, HAM and BOB's. They are compact and bright. Apparently, I haven't run them enough yet to burn through the 130 hour rating on 3 AA's. See that series on the Energizer product site I've shortened the long URL.. http://bit.ly/aBUkKk

You may want to try one and see if it will fit a need in your kits.