>Preparing Your Home for a Power Outtage

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LED Emergency Lanterns: Preparing Your Home for a Power Outtage

A LED emergency light is a portable light that burns cool, lasts longer than typical bulbs and uses much less energy than typical bulbs. The light produced by these lights is also significantly brighter than typical bulbs. In most cases, a LED emergency light is a flashlight, torch or lantern – all quite useful in the event that your home or office loses power or you are faced with an emergency or disaster situation.

If you have LED emergency lights there are a few things you need to know about storing them and the types of scenarios that you could consider using them for. Let’s look at ways you can get the most out of your LED emergency lights at home.

To store your emergency LED flashlight, torch or LED lantern, you should ensure that they are kept without the batteries installed in them. Batteries can leak and corrode with age and time and this leakage can completely destroy the light source and its casing. Keep two fresh sets of batteries with your LED emergency lights at all times.  Make sure that the batteries are stored conveniently close to the light, either taped around it or kept inside the same box or survival kit so that you or your family will not need to hunt for them while under duress.  Once every month or two, you should check to see that the batteries are working, that they haven’t corroded in their packaging and that they work with the LED emergency lights you own. If your batteries are not working, replace them with fresh ones. Mark your calendar at regular intervals to check the batteries.

You want to make sure you can find the things you need in case of an emergency.  Store your LED emergency lights conveniently – somewhere that is easy to get to, even if it is very dark in your home. It won’t be convenient if it is in your junk drawer with many other items, some of which may be sharp or dangerous. Remember, if there is an emergency, the last thing you need is to compound the problems you have with an injury that could have been prevented by choosing to store your equipment in a more convenient and safe place.  It’s best to keep your LED emergency lights in a place that is easy to reach and easy to find – and in more than one place.  In the case of a disaster, you may not be able to get to one location in your home so it’s best to have some backups in other areas as well. Consider keeping a primary kit or light on the main floor of your home and smaller kits that include a flashlight or torch on the other levels for easy access. A few good places to keep your LED emergency lights are hanging on a peg near an entry way door or a window, near the front door and/or back door, in the first aid kit (that is also somewhere safe and easy to find), in your garage, with your emergency kit (that is somewhere safe and easy to find – usually a bag or backpack that has emergency supplies in it), and in your bedroom close to your bed.  Regardless of where you choose to store your LED emergency lights, they should be easy to find, easy to reach and conveniently located in your home.

You never know when you or your family may get caught without power or light.  Taking the time and steps needed to plan for an emergency can help keep you and your family safe and calm during a difficult event.

LEDs ...The Technology That Will Soon Light Our Planet.

With energy waste on the minds of many Americans these days, high gasoline prices to run the inefficient engines that power our vehicles help move the majority of us to cut energy costs in as many areas as possible, some of us are even beginning to ration our lighting usage. Is there an answer to our increasing lighting costs ? Granted, much of the cost is being passed on by the utility suppliers and with recent increases in oil prices, this amount is being noticeably felt in each of our monthly utility budgets. Energy costs are governed by the varying costs of fuel and with our major source of lighting today being the incandescent light, our lighting bill is much too high. Is there a developing technology today that shows a promising hope for our immediate future ?

We must roll back about 35 years and refresh ourselves some history when a small pea size lamp was introduced to the America's. It was the Light Emitting Diode, more popularly known as the LED, a lighting source that emitted light through a clear molded plastic housing using a small current flow between two solid state junctions that were extended to facilitate an electrical connection. At the time of its introduction, the LED did not emit very much light, as a matter of fact in normal daylight, some were barely visible. At the time of its release to the world, the LED efficiency to produce light was very low. In the early days of the LED development, their use was fairly limited and sold for use on instrument panels where light intensity was not an issue. It would take the better of 20 years of gradual development before they began to find their way into the main stream of use in areas where contemporary lighting was truly dominant. The LED would eventually begin to show its uniqueness for applications in our lighting world.

The LED found its prime application in our traffic lighting system in the late 1990's, where it began to replace the totally dominant use of the incandescent lamp that had been used for decades and since the inception of the system. Soon, LEDs were replacing the original incandescent lamps in many parts of the world. The electric power energy savings have been extremely high...in a few cases an average of 90 %. We must also keep in mind that there is also the ongoing savings from a much lower upkeep because the LEDs will last as much as ten years(when running 24/7). LEDs will not shatter under high vibration as do the incandescent lamps, negating their need for replacement from these causes of failure. With much of the world looking for ways to save our remaining fossil fuels, this lighting source has the definite ability to show us the way. We could say, "what about the CFL(fluorescent) lamp ?" Couldn't they become our knight in shining armour ? The question ? Can the CFL emit an infinite number of colors ? Negative...and they are far from shatterproof. Their longevity is also several times less than the LED.

Having praised the LED for just a few of its merits, it can be seen that it is totally practical for the world's present needs and many believe all our needs in this field in the years to come. Even in its present stage of development, It is well suited to lessen our present energy consumption overload. At the present time, the nations of the world must adopt methods of lighting which are the most efficient to lower energy use, but unless the consumer follows this same trend, our nation and the world's efforts will be in vain.