Gunner Quinn
(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.)
HOW TO POWER LIGHTS USING A PPS
Now let’s take a look at various ways to power lamps, lights, and flashlights.
1. Rechargeable Lights
There are lots of options with rechargeable lighting so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find something that appeals to you.
Here are some things to look for when buying rechargeable lights. These features will be listed on the box or in the product description if shopping online.
Battery capacity – The higher the better. The larger the battery capacity, the longer it can provide light without needing to be recharged. The capacity is usually listed in milliamp hours and abbreviated mAh. The mAh can range anywhere from 1,500 on the low end to 10,000+ on the high end. For those who prefer working with amp hours, Ah can be determined by dividing the mAh by 1,000. A 1,500 mAh capacity = 1.5 Ah. In comparison, the deep-cycle 12-volt battery I use for various projects has a 123 Ah capacity. As mentioned, rechargeable lamps and lights having a USB port can be used as mini power bank. Their battery capacity can be used to determine how long various USB devices can run, or whether or not it can be used for things like charging cellular phones.
Hours of light per charge – total hours depends on the battery capacity and the brightness of the light. Some lights list numbers for low, medium, and high. Some rechargeables claim to provide up to 400 hours of light on a single charge. Depending on usage, a light that will discharge after just a few hours can often discharge too deeply and harm the battery before we’re able to recharge them. These lights are best suited for areas where only intermittent light is needed for short-term uses, then topping off the battery at every opportunity. One of the rechargeable lantern-style lights I have only lasts four hours on the high setting but 8 hours on the low setting. While not the best choice for a lamp that will be constantly lit in a post-SHTF kitchen or living room, at $20 for a two-pack it’s inexpensive and adequate enough for providing lighting for those short-time uses such as the bathroom, bedroom while dressing or getting ready for bed, or that quick trip out to the privy at night. Be aware that in most cases, manufacturers will exaggerate the battery capacity and hours of operation per charge.
Light intensity/brightness – light intensity is often mentioned in the description as lumens. Some lights are as bright as 1,000,000 lumens which is equivalent to a 75-watt incandescent bulb. The 12-volt light I am writing this article by is 240 lumens and more than bright enough to read, eat, or play a board game. Some of the adjustable types go as low as 75 lumens which saves battery power and are just enough for activities such as reading. Keep in mind the closer you can get the light to the area where it’s needed, the fewer watts it will take to light the activity. A light over the table for that nightly Scrabble game will provide four times as much light if it’s 2½ feet over than table than it will if it’s on the ceiling 5 feet above the table, meaning it will only require a quarter as much electricity to provide the same amount of light.
Battery included – When a price seems too good to be true check to be sure the battery is included. With some lights you have to provide your own rechargeable batteries which aren’t cheap or convenient so be sure that the battery is part of the lamp. Also, check to be sure it is a rechargeable light in the first place. When doing an Internet search for rechargeable lights, you’ll get non-rechargeables intermingled with the results as well.
Hanging hook and/or magnetic base – Lantern-style lights will have a wire bail for carrying and hanging the lantern. Some will also have a magnetic base and an additional light on top of the lantern. The two I have with magnetic bases have a warm LED on top, suitable for using at a table or other location where overhead light is desired, while the main ones are white light. The magnetic base not only holds the light steady on a metal surface, but also allows the light to be hung upside down over a table or other location. When hanging upside down with the top light in use, there’s nothing to block the light so a shadow is nonexistent. I attached a large mason jar lid to the beam over my kitchen table and its just the perfect diameter for the magnetic base of this light.
When hung from the top-mounted hanger most of these lanterns have, or even when resting on a table, a shadow is cast. The higher the lamp is raised off the table, the more the light is blocked underneath. Any sort of a light sitting on a table, including candles and oil lamps, is going to have a shadow around the base — sometimes a large one. This not only decreases the amount of usable light but with high-lumen white lights, the glare at table level quickly becomes overbearing. I highly recommend if lantern lights are going to be in your preps that you make sure it has a top light and magnetic base so it can be hung upside down in situations where it’s warranted.
As with all preps, it’s very important to test each item to be sure it will fit our needs. We don’t want to start Day One only to find out in the first 24 hours that our room lights are too dim, cast too large of a shadow, have unbearable glare, the wrong temperature, or a battery that doesn’t last anywhere near as long as the manufacturer said it would. A lantern-style light which is suitable for a temporary situation like a power outage or for camping where we’re “roughing it,” may not be a satisfactory permanent light source inside the home for the duration of our post-SHTF life.
Cost – Rechargeable lights with built-in batteries range in price from $8 to $100+. Having a lot of hours between charges (some make a highly dubious claim of 400 hours) is a good feature, especially if it can be used as a mini PPS to power lower-wattage lights as mentioned above.
OPTION 2: PLUG-IN USB LIGHTS AND LAMPS
Some USB lights aren’t rechargeable and work only when directly connected to a USB port. Since a PPS is portable, this is not necessarily an issue and USB extension cords (25+ feet) are available. USB ports put out a maximum of 5 volts so USB lights are different from the other lights which plug directly into the various types of the PPS’s 12-volt outlets. Most PPSes come with a minimum of 4 USB ports. Inexpensive hubs (splitters) and adapter cords are available which will split each of those ports into as many as 5 or more USB’s.
Again, in a TEOTWAWKI situation most of us will need to be energy misers. We’ll need to keep the wattage in mind when choosing which types of USB lights to use with our PPS. The lowest wattage that will get the job done will help conserve battery power.
Search “USB lamps” and click on “images” for a glimpse of what’s available. Be aware that many of these refer to 120-volt AC lamps which have a USB port for charging phones so be sure the lamp you’re looking at has a male USB plug and not a 120-volt AC plug.
OPTION 3: 12-VOLT LIGHTS PLUGGED DIRECTLY INTO THE PPS 12-VOLT OUTLETS
The only commercially-available lights I’ve seen with a 12-volt plug of any sort are those with a cigarette lighter plug for use in a vehicle, or in our case, a PPS. These will be explained in more detail in the third installment of this article series, since they’re more practical with a do-it-yourself PPS. Also, I’ll provide more details about how to use a plug-and-play solar panel to recharge a PPS. The majority of that article will show how to improvise a PPS for powering lights and charging phones and laptops after the SHTF. This do-it-yourself PPS is made from various components most of us already have on hand, together with all those post-SHTF vehicle batteries which will be serving no other purpose if the Schumer ever hits the Fan.
CONCLUSION
A PPS can be one of our most useful tools before and after the SHTF. Today, a PPS has many everyday functions. They’re useful for activities such as camping, jobs where we don’t want to deal with an extension cord like vacuuming the car, hours- or days-long power outages, powering medical devices, or turning various power items into portable items. Most of us have bought something for a certain purpose, then later discovered many other uses for it. A PPS is one of those kinds of items.
While most of my country friends and neighbors own a generator, I’d guess that nationwide there aren’t that many people who have one. For those who’ve never owned a generator and have no use for one in everyday life, a PPS is a much friendlier, quieter, easy-to-use device with a multitude of uses. And unlike a gasoline-powered generator, it can be stored in the house. While a PPS has a different purpose and could never completely replace a gasoline-powered generator, after the SHTF a PPS will still be providing electricity years after all the generators have run out of gas.
There’s no question that one of the things people would miss most after the SHTF is electricity. Having something as inexpensive and simple as a PPS can create the minimal amounts of energy that will save us so much time and labor after The Day. As such, I strongly recommend at the very least that preppers acquire a 500-watt PPS, plus a $60 100-watt solar panel to recharge it. One of the most important post-SHTF tools we’ll need is a laptop to be able to read all of the contents of the SurvivalBlog archive stick, one of the most valuable tools we’ll have when trying to adjust to the whole-new world of self-reliance.
Until then, have some fun researching the things you can do with a PPS as well as the many types of lighting you can power from one. And at the very least, test your lighting preps over a reasonable amount of time if you’re currently planning on using candles and/or oil lamps. As part of your test, do the math to see how many candles and how much oil you’ll need for the first year as well as what the cost and storage space will be. Our pioneer ancestors could hitch up the ponies and head to the mercantile in town to buy more candles and lamp oil when needed. It’s not a luxury we’ll have if the grid ever goes down for an extended period so all those candles and barrels of oil would all have to be stored ahead of time. Your extended lighting preps test will almost certainly convince you they’re an impractical way to provide the 24/7/365 lighting you’ll need in order to carry out the daily chores and tasks we do today.
Then, perhaps consider buying a PPS.
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