Category: Lighting

Letter Re: The Disappearing Road Quandary

Mr. Rawles: I own a pretty densely-wooded 40 [acre property] in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) [of Michigan]. The land on 2.5 sides of ours belongs to a timber company, and the land across the road belongs to the state. We live in a typical “stick built” house. It was built in the 1980s, with lots of big windows and two double-glazed sliding [glass] doors. We are four miles out of a town (about 2,000 population) but our house is only 60 feet from a somewhat heavily traveled county road. So our house is what you would probably call a tactical …


Letter Re: Battery Options for LEDs and Small Electronics

Jim, I have read and enjoyed both your books. I have told all my like minded friends about them. Regarding LED flashlight batteries: I have a flashlight from Sportsman’s Guide that uses two of the CR123 batteries, it will also use the #18650 lithium ion battery. One of these takes the place of two of the CR123 batteries, and last much longer, and is rechargeable. The charger can use either 120 VAC or 12 VDC input voltages. I have a system set up that uses the Harbor Freight 45 watt solar panels. I bought mine on sale for $149 and …


Letter Re: LED Lighting Discount for SurvivalBlog Readers

Mr. Rawles,   I have been a follower of SurvivalBlog for about a month now and have found great resources, deals and most importantly, useful information with your blog.   As a business owner that has a focus on lighting (and energy efficient lighting of all sorts), we would like to offer SurvivalBlog readers a 20% discount coupon on any purchase from us for LED Lighting.  This discount does not apply to already discounted or clearance products.   Pretty simple – on any order of 10 bucks or more, your community can use coupon code: prepared-sb20 for 20% off their …


Letter Re: Forever Preps – Preparations You Can Buy Once, and Have Forever

JWR, Thanks and God Bless for your wonderful blog. You do mankind a great good every day your site is up and passing information to the masses. Please keep it coming. I find it a rare and surprising occurrence when my real world work experience and professional knowledge actually prove some use to the on-going threads found at SurvivalBlog. Since I’m a career Maitre’ de in fine dining restaurants, it really isn’t surprising; I seriously doubt anyone will be worried about wine vintages or the proper service of escargot after TSHTF. However I was pleasantly surprised after I read Andrew …


Three Letter Re: Using Tea Candles for Urban Low Light

Dear Sir,   I’ve been making “permanent” candles for years, using empty cat food cans, pipe cleaners, and store-bought paraffin wax. The cans are quite stable and, because of their volume, the wicks don’t “float” until they’ve been burning a long time. Rotating candles solves that problem. The wicks don’t burn up – they wick – unless you touch them and knock the built-up carbon off them. If that happens, you can easily repair them using lint from a clothes dryer – a good thing to have anyway. The candles must be fed to keep ‘em burning and to adjust …


Letter Re: Night Defense on a Budget

Mr. Rawles:   I ran a recon/sniper unit in Viet Nam.  We had first generation starlight scopes and tweaked M14s and we shot the dickens out of the bad guys.  I was tasked with keeping a critical part of Hwy 1 open and would often do road security taking a jeep with a borrowed xenon searchlight to provide additional infrared (IR) support for my snipers. It would cast shadows at 500 plus meters and you could not see it with the naked eye.   Many of us have more prep to do than budget to spend… but being able to …


Letter Re: Using Tea Candles for Urban Low Light

I have learned WSHTF, that after dark, subdued lighting is mandatory. A complete conversion of a home into a cave is not my idea of living so my thought is to choose one often used room and black out the windows with black plastic, duct tape and heavy curtains. Hang a thick blanket in front of the room’s door and specify bright lights out before any one enters or leaves that room. The rest of the home would be dimly lit. With preferably one, no more then two at a time candle-like devices behind heavy lined curtains. The thinking behind …


Alternative Energy Sources For Emergencies, by Smiledr

Being in preparedness mode opens your eyes to a number of factors, not just Beans, Bullets and Band-Aids. As a battalion coordinator for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s CERT program, I was asked to give a presentation on Alternative Energy sources for an emergency situation. My research into this was very enlightening, and I found a number of great ideas. This does not encompass everything available, but it is fairly thorough. So, why Alternative Energy? In an emergency, such as a major earthquake, there can be a loss of power, gas and water. If it is a short-term problem e.g. …


Returning to My Retreat After a Three Year Absence: Lessons Learned, by C.J. in Montana

My wife and I own  a 50 acre place in Northern Maine that was originally intended to be a home-building site.  It is remote, quiet  and off-grid.  Along with an outbuilding/bathhouse I constructed,  there is also a 40 foot shipping container I set up as a  secure storage building/shelter.    The land  has  plenty of water nearby  and the entire property is wooded in White Cedar (weatherproof/rot-proof) Balsam Fir , Birch and Spruce.  Unfortunately over the years the location has became less ideal for us.  The  political climate (until very recently) is unfavorable ( taxes, government regulation, overall policies).   The economic …


Preparing for the Aftermath–Lessons from the 1930s, by J. E.

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It’s one or two years after an EMP attack and you are safely tucked away in your retreat somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  Your storage foods have mostly been used and your high tech electronics is useless.   The really bad stuff is mostly past.  Now it’s try to stay fed and alive and pray that civilization as you know it is coming back.  You’re going to have to work your environment to live.  Ever wonder what life might be like?  What would it really be like to have no running water, electricity, sewer, newspaper or Internet?  No supermarket or …


Letter Re: Low Power D.C. Lighting

Awhile back I put up several strings of same color strings of  LED Christmas tree lights from Inirgee. They have been just wonderful to deal with over the years. The blue strings work great in the outhouse at night because you don’t lose your night vision. Outside around the house, I tried the cool white but the warm white strings worked much better outside under the eaves. They make a very nice non-obtrusive lighting around the house at night and they are extremely conservative on power. They really make it nice on the driveway and walks. Then I found a …


Letter Re: Low Power D.C. Lighting

James Wesley; Vlad wrote at the end of his piece, “Wish I had a better closing line but it is getting late and I need to go dig up a potentiometer for this lamp.”  Unfortunately, that isn’t going to do a lot of good.  Because an LED is a diode (the D in LED) it is pretty much on or off.  Dimmable LEDs are usually dimmed via Pulse-width Modulation — essentially, turning the LED on and off very quickly.  This doesn’t harm the LED, but it needs a particular circuit to do it.  Reducing the voltage will dim it — …


Letter Re: Lower Power DC Lighting

James Wesley: I am writing by the light of a post-apocalyptic reading lamp I just constructed. From a string of LED Christmas lights, I removed two sections of just three LEDs each. To each of these I attached in series a single 100 Ohm resistor from the parts bin at Radio Shack. A goose-neck work light provided a good reflector and glare control. I cut the plug off the other end and crimped on the connectors appropriate to my battery. The battery was salvaged from a defunct computer UPS. They are common to alarm systems and are not expensive new. …


Letter Re: Priority and Redundancy in Retreat Electric Power

In an attempt both to think through the issue and to stimulate other to do likewise, I present my personal analysis of our family’s current and future electric power usage. First some background: We live in a 2,400 square foot two-story home the suburbs of a southeastern city. Currently there are 3 of us, with one child away at school. Our summer temps are as high as 95F and winters can drop to the 20s. Currently is is between 50 and 80, which is great – windows often left open.   We have grid power, for which we pay $150-300/month. …


Letter Re: Garage Sale Prepping

This has been covered before, but I’d like to reinforce that use of garage sales for low-key cash purchases of essential survival items. In the past two months I’ve been making weekend trips to various community garage sales – spending an average of less than $20 per weekend. Most of the items cost me less than $10 each and I often only paid $1 or $2. The following is a partial list of the haul: 2 – Complete dissection kits with scalpels, forceps, etc 1 – Craftsman toolbox, steel, in good condition 1 – 19th Century wrench 1 – Drawknife …