With hurricanes, tornados, flooding, earthquakes and other natural or even man made disasters becoming more frequent, the need for high quality emergency lighting has only seemed to grow in recent years. Whether it's at your home, at work, in the car or just walking around, you have many options for emergency lights that will work in just about any situation or emergency. Here's an overview of some popular emergency lighting options.
Battery Powered
There are now many options for battery powered lights, especially with the invention and widespread use of LED light technology. LED's are brighter, lighter in weight, smaller in size, cooler to the touch and more durable than old fashioned lighting options. LED's have also come down in price significantly in the last decade, and are being manufactured in great amounts in Chinese factories. With LED's you have the option of having smaller and much more portable flashlights and many other types of lights, all powered by smaller batteries such as AA or triple A, rather than the larger, much heavier batteries like C and D, making LED battery powered flashlights, camping lights and emergency lights a great option to have around.
Solar Powered
There's a wide array of solar powered lights available these days. There are many large camp lights, flashlights and small portable solar flashlights that are easy to carry around. This type of light usually has a solar panel on the top of the light, so you can just leave the light out in the sun for a few hours to generate a certain amount of light at night. Solar powered emergency lights make a lot of sense, especially in areas where the weather is good most of the year. Solar powered emergency lights also tend to be quite light in weight, therefore are ideal to carry around instead of battery powered lights. Going to the desert on a camping trip? Solar powered lights are a must to have for emergencies.
Kinetic Powered
By kinetic power, we mean the power of your hand cranking or your foot pressing repeatedly. You'd be surprised at how many options there are in this area. With kinetic power, you don't need to have the sun, wind, electric or even batteries to generate light, it's all done with a crank or pedal. One option that is great to have in your car, home or workplace is a portable all-in-one emergency light. This type of light runs on a hand crank. You typically have to crank a lever around and around for a few minutes to generate a certain number of minutes of light, power or radio. These emergency lights also usually have a portable radio, siren and a charging port for USB to charge your phone or tablet just with human power. Another option in this area is a hand crank flashlight. This is a much smaller light that fits in your hand, and has a small crank to turn to generate your light. As you can imagine, this type of light is perfect to store in places like your purse, a bug out or emergency bag and to keep in your car, truck, camper or RV.
