Hurricane Sandy's darker side: Looting and other crime

Battery operated lanterns

What a great lead in! “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away”.

Not to worry about now but, as another Freeper noted there are Nicad Dwells nowadays.

I have two 300 lumen Sportsman lamps by RayoVac. these things are awesome and light up a room for hours and have hanging hooks. I have twenty or so Dcell Nicad so I can run just these lamps for a long time and not worry about fire from candles, which I have plenty of as well.

I also several Cree flashlights. 5 or 6 of the 800 lumen and one 3600 lumen.

They are super cheap and put out tons of light. The 800 lumen Cree cost only $12. they take either two 123 batteries or one 18650.

123’s are very expensive to use and aren’t rechargeable .

I have around 40 18650 and they are rechargeable. you can pick up two and a charger for less than a pack of 123’s.

They run 1-1.5 hours on a full charge and have 5 settings. I think I let one on to find out long they really last and on the lowest setting, which would be fine in the house or for handwork, it stayed on almost a week.

The 3600 lumen is for frying eggs and the retinas of looters or smart ale neighbors who demand you help them. It’s that damn bright and not real usable in a house. You could use it on the lowest setting inside but it’s a waste if you have the other lights.

Use this if you need to light up a stadium.

It takes two 18650’s and runs 45mins to an hour on high.

I have 7-8 charger that came with batteries so I can stick them on a strips and recharge off one of the four cars we have, repuurposed charging my brother made that enables me to pop my Ryobi batteries for for power tools into it and it will recharge just about anything. Pretty keel. I have no idea how he did it.

I also have two Goal Zero solar chargers. Seems like on an overcast day they can recharge a cell phone in about 5-6 hours.

I also have a couple other solar chargers from 10 years ago but don’t have a clue as to how they would perform for my needs today. They did charge my Rhine 530 gps/radio by Garmin just fine.

I also have two 300 lumen headlamps. Badazz!!! they throw a kind of square light field but for the amount of lighting they give and how darn cheap they were I’ll totally live with it. they were only $12 bucks each.

They take AAA’s. I don’t have many rechargeabless in that format but I probably have 100 + duracell and I’m not going to worry about it.

Besides, the 800 lumen flashlights are easily attached to my baseball cap and can be attached to the straps of my backpack and other nifty areas I need it.

On to the more expensive lights.

I have two Fenix TK22 and one TK 35.

We are talking high quality but expensive lighting.

I like the TK22 because they take two AA batteries which I have ton of. Maybe hundreds to run things like remote control, Xbox controllers and various consumer devices we have here in the house.

This light packs 200 lumen and I am always confident in its performance.

I also have 6 packs of Eneloop AA batteries. each pack holds 10 batteries and they guarantee the charge to hold at 75% of charge for three years from the date of purchase. I bought them last November and still haven’t used them, because I already had so many other AA batteries.

They are rechargeable and I have two Sony chargers just for them

I also have but plain AA rechargeables by CVS Pharmacy(OEM by Duracell). I’m guessing I have maybe twenty of these.

I also have Fenix TK 35. Solid and throws 900 lumen. It takes the 123 batteries but I use the rechargeable 18650’s. It lasts about 45mins - 1 hour at full brightness.

None of for each of these lights i bought a couple lens cap accessories. These nifty additions turn your flashlights into lamps when you need a different kind of lighting.

I also have a bunch of other flashlights.

I collected all the above over the course of two years and because they provided so much light I just threw the Mag lights in the drawer. I can put them to use if I ever have to or give them out in an emergency.

Just some options to consider when you get back on your feet.

Let me know if you’d like me to put together a list with parts, cost and source.

Good luck, stay warm and we are praying for you.

Awesomest post of my year ! Thank you.

Like I said, not trying to impress you but wanted to let everyone know there are excellent and inexpenive tools that are completely reliable.

ON the 800 Lumen Cree’s I use one almost every night. I walk 3-5 miles a night and I probably turn it on and off 30+ times as I look for skunks, so I can walk around them.

I also take time to observe the deer, they are everywhere and the occasional fox.

This light is really reliable. I’ve dropped it and the heavy use of the button with no failure leads me to believe it’s completely reliable.

Cost was only $12 bucks. $100 less than the Fenix.

Get some when you can. They are just a great inexpensive alternative to other brands.

Have you looked at the LED lights? The light is slightly different of course but you get about 1000 hours out of a set of batteries.

I have several LED lights. But, you do not get 1,000 hours out of them for a set of batteries.

The most I have every seen them go was 10 days.

I buy tons of stuff to play with, experiment, etc.

I have the usual Mag lights, Petzl, Corona, Cree, Fenix, Streamlight, etc. It goes on and on.

I would love a light that throws 200 lumen and would last 1,000 hours on one set of batteries but, I’ve never seen one.