Gunner Quinn
(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.)
THIRD OPTION: RECHARGEABLE LED LIGHTS
This section will be a very basic look at the broad topic of rechargeable lights. The bulk of the information and all of the many options will be presented in the next article of this series on post-SHTF lighting.
In order to use rechargeables for illumination after the SHTF three things are needed:
1. rechargeable lights
2. a charging device
3. a “plug-and-play” solar panel
1. Rechargeable lights
Rechargeable lights come in a wide variety of styles with options such as battery capacity, hi, medium, and low settings, dimmability, and quality of light among others. Some also have a USB port for charging cell phones or operating things that use a USB port. Cell phones won’t work in a TEOTWAWKI world for calling and texting but many other useful apps will. Some of them will make a post-SHTF life easier in many ways so overall a cellphone will be a useful tool. If turned on only when needed it would use very little electricity per week.
Different Types of Rechargeable Lights
There are too many options and price ranges to discuss in this introductory article but here are a few of the important things to look at when comparing different rechargeable lights:
Battery capacity – The higher the better. Capacity is generally measured in milliamp hours or watt hours.
Hours of light per charge – Rechargeable lights can produce between 2 and 400+ hours of light on a single charge. The higher the number of hours, the more expensive the lights will be. The total hours will be in the catalog or online description but generally speaking, the number of total hours per charge is exaggerated by the manufacturers.
Brightness – This is usually measured in lumens. Some lights are as bright as 1,000 lumens which is equivalent to a 75-watt incandescent bulb, others only bright enough read by or light the way to the outhouse at night. An average rechargeable light is 400-500 lumens which is sufficient for most things.
Cost – Rechargeable lights range in price from $7 to $100+. The more hours between charges, and the more functions they have such as a USB port or dimmability, the more expensive they’ll be.
2. A Way to Charge Lights
The most efficient way to recharge lights when 120-volt electricity is not available is to use a portable power station (PPS). Repurposed vehicle batteries can also be used for recharging which will be discussed in the third article of this series. PPSes are often referred to as “solar generators” which is misleading since they don’t actually generate anything. A PPS is a portable lithium battery enclosed in a case with multiple types of outlets on the front. After the SHTF, it can be recharged using a solar panel. A PPS can power lights in two ways. First, it can power lights directly by plugging them into the PPS using a 5-volt USB port, 12-volt plug, or 120-volt outlet. Second, the PPS can be used to recharge lights, typically via a USB port. Most PPS’s will also have their own built-in light.
The higher the capacity of the PPS battery, the larger the PPS unit will be. The 500-watt unit I have is 8” long, 6” tall, 6” deep, and only weighs 7 lbs. After experimenting with one for the past few years, a PPS can be one of the most useful preps we have after the SHTF.
While today we use 120-volt wall adapters to recharge our electronics, after the SHTF we’ll be using solar-panel powered chargers. During the day a solar panel is plugged into the PPS to bring it back up to full charge. Once charged, the PPS in turn can be used to charge lights and other chargeable devices, as well as run lights directly. Our rechargeables can also be charged at the same time the solar panel is recharging the PPS. When done this way, the life of the PPS is greatly extended since its battery is not being used directly. After the sun sets, we can not only have our devices fully charged but the PPS as well. Some PPSes don’t have this dual-charging option so be sure to check before making a purchase.
Before discussing the costs of rechargeable lighting, recall the costs of providing grid-down lighting for a year with candles and oil lamps:
Candles: $2,700
Oil lamps: $500-$1,000 (closer to $2,000+ for a more reasonable amount of light)
Portable power station costs — First, I’m not endorsing any certain brands or models. A typical small-end PPS is the 300-watt EBL Voyager 330. It’s currently advertised for $189 on their website and as low as $139 elsewhere online. A solar panel plugs into the socket in the upper right, multiple USB ports are in the center, and other power sockets on the sides including an AC socket.
The Voyager is one of the most basic models at 300 watts which is more than adequate for recharging lights. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend anything below 300 watts. My next article explains what can be done with these 300-watts and what the realistic expectations should be when using for other things besides lighting. The majority of the negative reviews on PPSes have to do with a lack of understanding of what the wattage means of any given PPS.
Here are a few important things to consider when comparing portable power stations.
Cost – The higher the watts, the more the PPS can do but the cost goes up as well. While some of the more expensive units cost $1,000+, a smaller 300-500-watt unit for recharging lights, phones, and laptops is an affordable choice.
Solar-panel charging option – Be sure the PPS can be charged using solar panels! Some can only be charged with a 120-volt wall adapter which of course would be useless in a grid-down world once the generator gas runs out.
Solar panel size limits – the larger the solar panels, the more quickly the PPS will charge. Most PPS’s will have an upper limit of how many total watts of solar panels they can accept. The 500-watt PPS I have won’t accept anything larger than a 100-watt panel. Whatever that upper limit is, that’s the watt size of the solar panel you’ll want after the SHTF. Based on their versatility in the home and around the homestead, it wouldn’t be out of the question to buy more than one of the smaller PPS’s, each with their own solar panel allowing them to be charged simultaneously.
A follow-up in this series on post-SHTF lighting will demonstrate how to recharge lights and other electronics using a DIY portable power station made from a vehicle battery. It will also show how to recharge electronics with just a solar panel and small $20 charge controller if no car batteries, deep cycle, or other large batteries are available. Lights can also be run directly off this DIY PPS.
3. A Solar Panel
Lastly, a solar (photovoltaic) panel is needed. Don’t panic when you see “solar panel.” It’s a plug-and-play solar panel with nothing to set up and no experience with electricity required. It’s as easy as charging a cell phone or laptop. All you do is plug the solar panel into its outlet on the front of the portable power station and you’re ready to start charging.
Generally speaking, PPSes don’t come with a solar panel included but are sometimes available as an option. The ones they offer are generally flexible and portable, nowhere near as durable as a rigid solar panel, and can cost more than twice as much.
100-watt solar panels are so common they’re often cheaper than 60-watt panels. A rigid 100-watt panel costs between $60 and $100 and in my opinion is the best way to go for keeping the PPS charged. It’s durable, can be permanently mounted if desired, and is more windproof and weatherproof than a flexible model.
Solar panels generally come with a standard plug type which matches an adapter that comes with the PPS. It’s all “plug and play” so using solar panels to make electricity has never been simpler. Mine, using a rigid but portable panel, takes literally 60 seconds to set up and start charging.
Total Cost for Lighting With Rechargeable Lights:
$180 for a portable power station + $60 for a solar panel + $100 for two high-end rechargeable lights totals $340. This examples uses two high-end lights to light the same two rooms in our candle and oil lamp examples. For the same $100, several lights with shorter battery capacities can be purchased. The higher-end lights have larger batteries which provide light for a longer time before they need recharging. They generally have a USB port as well for charging phones and other uses.
To Summarize:
Candles for 1 year — $2,920
Oil Lamps for 1 year — $500-$1,000
Rechargeable lights for many years — $340
Since rechargeable lighting is relatively inexpensive to begin with, for $200 a wide assortment of less-expensive lights, flashlights, and lantern-style portable lights could be bought in addition to a few nicer lights for the main areas of the house. Best of all, with this kind of collection every room in the house can be lit at the same time instead of just the two rooms used in the candle and oil-lamp examples. New total for a PPS and lights: $500-$600. An even less expensive option would be to buy USB and/or 12-volt lights which run directly off the PPS as discussed in the next article in this series.
While the dollar amounts for candles and oil lamps only cover lighting for the first year, rechargeable lighting can be used for years with no additional cost. Not only do they provide the same bright light we’re currently accustomed to, but they allow members of the household to spread out with their own chargeable light instead of having to group together in two rooms to conserve candles and lamp oil.
CONCLUSION
I think it’s safe to conclude that candles aren’t a remotely feasible source of lighting after the SHTF. Aside from the annual cost and substandard light, the petroleum-based fumes are unhealthy to breathe on a long-term daily basis.
While oil lamps are a less expensive but viable lighting option for year one, the cost increases rapidly once you start adding more realistic multi-wick lamps and enough oil to keep them burning for that first year. Like candles, the fumes they produce are unhealthy.
Rechargeable lighting on the other hand, and that which can run directly off a PPS, offers enough high-quality light to more than adequately illuminate rooms and outdoor areas such as shops and outhouses. It also uses a renewable resource at a fraction of the cost of candles or oil lamps. There’s also the added health benefit of no harmful vapors or soot to deal with. A PPS and LED lights offer the best of all worlds.
For those making the argument that an EMP strike could render all their PPSes and solar panels useless, for the total cost of $590 you can afford to buy double of everything and keep half in a Faraday cage. It would still be less expensive than a year’s worth candles or oil lamps. For others worried about solar flares or EMPs, since lamp oil has an indefinite shelf-life there’s always the option of including some lamps and oil in your preps and pray you’ll never have to use them.
A parting thought on having a portable power station in our preps. In addition to lighting our homesteads an important TEOTWAWKI use of a PPS is for charging laptops. Learning how to cope with the new normal of a grid-down world will require a lot of knowledge and we’ll have to develop a long list of new skills. In too many cases, some of the options on how to approach a problem won’t even occur to us. For those who do, trial and error is a waste of precious time and resources. We’ll need to get up to speed as quickly as possible in some areas so it’s best to learn from others’ mistakes when we can, and then use their ideas which were successful. The eighth item on my top-ten TEOTWAWKI list is the SurvivalBlog archive stick. Beans, bullets, band-aids, and blog archive stick.
An archive stick will be one of the most valuable resources to have on hand after the SHTF. If you haven’t seen one and looked through its contents, there isn’t an information source for prepping and living a self-reliant lifestyle more complete anywhere on the planet. Without a way to recharge those laptops we all own, all the information on the archive stick will be useless little electrons stuck on chip inside a flash drive. $180 for a minimal-sized PPS to charge a laptop to access that archive stick is a pretty inexpensive investment for the potential it will have if the SHTF, or even if that hurricane or ice storm comes roaring through next month and we need light.
Like everything else that we’re prepping for, be sure to test your lighting preps in a very realistic way to be sure your choice of lighting will work in the long run. Light is a more important resource than we’re perhaps thinking of, or more likely haven’t given enough thought to. My own preps test (later in this series) of my lighting was such an eye-opener I was already online ordering better lights and components by the second day.
Life without adequate light would be one of the hardest things to adjust to after the SHTF. It’s right up there with running out of thin mints so be sure you’re prepared!
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