Your power goes out unexpectedly. Or the community was warned. Whichever the case, power grid outage and the resulting lack of essentials is one of the most disrupting aspects of a weather emergency
Your power goes out unexpectedly. Or the community was warned. Whichever the case, power grid outage and the resulting lack of essentials is one of the most disrupting aspects of a weather emergency.
Stating the obvious: you need to see to move around. You’re going to struggle to get around your house, especially if you live in a house with very poor natural lighting.
If you have stairs in your home, without being able to see where you’re getting around at night, these stairs can be an obstacle if you’re unable to see where you’re going. Of c course, this can have dangerous consequences.
Preparing for grid power outage
You never know when it’s going to happen, so to be prepared for extreme weather grid power outages. You need to have multiple sources of emergency lights available to you so that you can easily navigate around your home.
⇒ The most common option is a flashlight.
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- easy to store
- easy to use, and
- run on batteries, so you don’t have to worry about them not working without power going to the house.
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However, if the flashlights in your house are old, it might be time for an upgrade.
Old incandescent bulbs found in older flashlights can burn out and are also comparatively dim when they do work.
Instead, upgrade to a nice LED flashlight.
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- LED lights are much brighter, and
- they last for a long time.
- Since they don’t use a filament like an incandescent bulb, there’s no chance of them burning out, but rather they simply stop working after a much longer time.
- An LED light running 24/7 can last for over 2,000 days, while a filament bulb would run out much faster.
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⇒ You can also get LED lanterns, which are more helpful for lighting up rooms or living spaces.
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- LED lanterns have foldable handles, which can be used to suspend it from your ceiling, lighting up your whole room a little bit instead of just having the little handheld beam from the flashlight.
- These are also great options, being battery powered, so they’re helpful to have around.
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⇒ A solar lighting kit, the best option, and the costliest
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- Solar lighting kits can be set up in such a way that you have solar panels on your roof or balcony, which charges up a battery box that you can charge your devices from or attach USB powered lightbulbs to.
- These lights can be set up ahead of time to be organized in different rooms, so that when the power cuts out, all you need to do is go switch on the emergency box and you’ll have light.
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This is a great option, since it lights up multiple rooms with the same brightness as a standard lightbulb, and the solar panel should keep it charged up year-round.
Being prepared with the right lighting for a grid power outage is critical to your safety.
Since many people likely will opt for the easiest choice, having even a small flashlight can make a difference. And having more than one is recommended.
Smarter yet, is to have one in each room. Just make sure you check them occasionally to make sure the flashlight batteries are not dead.
Whether you select any of the above, just know that you should have emergency lighting on hand for a grid outage.