Dedicated to Personal - Family Safety and Preservation

When something goes bump in the Night!

Putting some light on the subject just may make you feel better

Article: M.R. Hilton, Cool Cop Gear 11-22-2006

In the past many of us would pick up a $3.00 or $4.00 flashlight at one of the Mart-Mart stores right after we experienced a power outage. Swearing that we would never be caught in the dark again only to find that the 2 D- cell flashlight's batteries or bulb are dead. With the education around the "Y2K" time and 9-11 many people started to think more about family emergency preparedness, only to be reinforced by natural disasters such as Katrina and California wild fires.

Law Enforcement officer's mind set and flashlight needs have changed over the same period of time. Officers have added weapon lights and tactical flashlights to their personal flashlight equipment bag. The variety of weapon lights has improved over the years to include Insight Technologies M3 and the Surefire tactical flashlights. You would be hard pressed to find an officer without a personal sized pocket flashlight as well a back up flashlights in their cruisers. In addition to seeing in low light they are now utilized as a weapon by blinding the subject. When asked most would wonder how they got thru everyday life without having a small bright light at hand. Can you image your everyday life without a cell phone or automobile? Have you ever used the light of your cell phone to search for a key you dropped in the grass or to see the key hole in the dark when your outside light is out. Have you searched for the kid's dog or cat in the middle of the night - experienced Power outages- auto breakdown at night - looking for something in the low light corners of your garage? I can go on and on about everyday uses for a quality personal flashlight. Our site is about being prepared in the event of an emergency - you may never need any of this information or suggested products. However they are just like car and health insurance, it seems to be waste of money until you need it. Then it is the best investment of your life.

Their are many manufacturers of personal sized flashlights available to the consumers from cheap flea market copies to high quality flashlights. The availability and variety of full size flashlights and emergency lights can be whelming.

We as many other emergency preparedness professionals will recommend that a family should have a number of flashlights available to them in the event of an emergency. They do not all need to be high end flashlights, however you should have at least one quality rechargeable emergency light and a rechargeable personal flashlight. Obviously if your budget allows, you should purchase the best lights to meet our needs.

Personal Flashlights: The new super bright personal Surefire flashlights is considered to be the light to have started the personal flashlight industry and the lights to which all others had been compared to in the past. There are now a number of superior quality personal flashlight manufacturers that include: Surefire-  Streamlight - Pelican - Camillus - NexTorch and many more. In the past the Xenon Bulb flashlights had the market, however now with advances in technologies, LED flashlights have gained popularity with many people. It is recommended that you have at least one rechargeable light such as the Streamlight Strion and a couple of Lithium battery powered such as the Surefire G2. Flashlight products

Home Flashlights: You can use almost any type of flashlight - lantern for home emergency lighting. A number of companies produce a fluorescent bulb lantern that have a good battery burn time, as well as rechargeable lights. The new led lanterns/ lights are readily available, however in order to get equal brightness of a Xenon or florescent bulb the cost is much greater. The advantage of the LED bulb is the super long battery burn time - the life and durability of the LED lamp over all the other alternatives. It is all right to have a few of the Dollar store quality flashlights for the home, however have at least 2 or 3 quality flashlights/lanterns for emergency use. Do not forget to keep a good supply of batteries on hand. An excellent personal size search light is the rechargeable 24W from AE Lights. This light rivals the spot light on a police cruiser and has a burn time of approx. 2 hours per charge.

You might look at a couple of the cheap squeeze handle flashlights or wind up flashlights that do not require battery purchases. In the past you had to purchase a Russian surplus, however there are many manufacturers of this type of light. Go on line and type in Squeeze flashlights and you will see that there are a bunch of them.

 The combination light - radio - CD -TV units also deserve a second look. Most are not very costly ranging from $39.95 to $150.00. I received one as Christmas gift last year  (I'm really hard to buy for) and I use in my work shop as a CD player and occasional light.  If you look around you will find these units at Automotive parts stores, Mart-Mart stores or Sears with  battery chargers and Automotive jump starters in them.

Emergency Kit:

Flashlight Suggestions:

LED?

Low wattage LEDs
In general, low wattage LED's (less that 1 watt) are good for close range and walking (10 feet or less). More specifically, most low wattage LED flashlights do not give a "beam" of light; instead they give a volume of light - like turning on a lightbulb. In addition to eliminating the need for replacement bulbs, most low wattage LED flashlights offer extremely long run times - in some cases up to 30 days of continuous use.

High wattage LEDs
Most high wattage LED flashlights (1 watt or more) do give a beam of light. It is generally a smooth circle of light with no clearly defined edge and does not feature a true center "hot spot" when compared to a standard non-LED flashlight. Because of the increased brightness, the run times of high wattage LED flashlights are usually significantly shorter than low wattage LED flashlights. High wattage LED bulbs also offer a 10,000+ hour life eliminating the need for costly replacement bulbs. (LED bulb life varies depending on model.)

Color temperature of LEDs
The color temperature of white LED light can look noticeably whiter, closer to sunlight, when compared to the light from a standard non-LED flashlight. In fact, standard non-LED light often looks yellow in comparison. However, the color of white LED light will vary from flashlight to flashlight and sometimes has a slight blueish or greenish appearance.

What is Xenon Technology?

The Xenon Bulbs utilize a specially designed filament to with stand the high pressures of the Xenon gas in the mini bulbs used in Xenon flashlights. The combination of high pressure resistant filaments and Xenon gas increased the brightness by approx 180% of standard incandescent light bulbs. The Xenon Light bulbs offer the whitest light available in modern flashlights. Super bright white light, however shorted bulb life and battery burn time.