Category: Lighting

Living Like TEOTWAWKI Could Come at Any Time, by Mrs. C.J.

If you even so much as glance at the news or if you’re like me and check out The Drudge Report every morning, you can’t help but realize the world is becoming more and more uncertain. It seems that anything could happen at the drop of a hat and without little, if any, fore-warning. Volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods seem to be changing or taking the lives of unsuspecting people almost daily. The threat of nuclear warfare is always just beyond the horizon. If we ever experience an EMP, we could be without power and [utility-supplied] water for months. Most …


Letter Re: You May Not Need to Buy New 12 Volt Batteries

Jim: The 12 volt DC lead-acid batteries employed in most readers’ vehicles, power storage systems and backup supply systems are expensive, have finite life spans and are a critical link in the timely operation of equipment required to respond to short term and long term grid-down situations. Aged batteries become unreliable, but are difficult to keep in a state of readiness and when deemed “spent” their replacement puts a drain on already limited financial resources. Most people have battery chargers and the know-how to use them in an effort to keep older – or infrequently used – batteries in a …


Suburban Survival, by The Suburban 10

I am a public school teacher with five kids and one income. There is little in the way of extra cash to protect the family, but I will do my best to prepare for TEOTWAWKI. If you want to plan well; plan as if it was a lesson plan and you are going to teach it to a class. My class is my family the the goal being not to get anyone panicked (Refer to # 9 below). Having a receptive audience is difficult, because of what I deem…complacent comforts. These are built into the core and routine of our …


Letter Re: A True TEOTWAWKI Flashlight

Hi Jim, I just heard about this, and although expensive it sounds like the perfect long term TEOTWAWKI light: The 5.11 Tactical ‘light for life’. It is a Capacitor/LED flashlight. Here are the basic specifications: 90 second recharge time 12 VDC recharging 2 hour run time (step down 90/60 lumen – 1 hour each) 270 lumen peak (90 normal) 135 year life span 100 yard throw Thanks, – Greg W.


Four Letters Re: Survival Fire Safety

Sir, Mr. F. has written a very good article on a subject often neglected by many. As a fire service professional working for one of the largest municipal agencies in the country, I must warn against the use of candles whenever possible. Paranoid? Not after seeing burned up children, loss of property, etc. If you must, please place them well away from any combustible materials, and never carry one when lit. – SplitHoof. JWR Replies: I generally discourage the use of candles, but if and when they are used, my advice is to: 1.) Never let them burn unattended, and …


Three Letters Re: Some Real Life Battery Data

Dear Jim, I have some comments on the comments regarding batteries: Nickel Iron (Ni-Fe) batteries do indeed have very long shelf and operating lives. But they also have some significant downsides. Similar to NiMH cells (they are not the same) they have a very high self-discharge rate. In some cases approaching 40% per month. If you have a large solar array that is always making excess power, you are all set. But if you are charging with a generator, and have a large bank to keep power available for extended periods, you will waste a lot of the generator’s output …


Letter Re: A Shortage of Mantles for Aladdin Kerosene Lamps

Dear Jim, There is new info on the Aladdin Lox-on mantle shortage that was mentioned in SurvivalBlog. The new post on the Aladdin site is dated February 10, 2010. It indicates that there are still a number of issues to overcome before production can begin. According to Aladdin’s web site pre-production is possible at the end of February with production runs in March and deliveries in April. I hope they have solved their issues and can get this important component of their wonderful kerosene lamps back on the shelves. Thanks for getting this news to those who need to know. …


Letter Re: Some Real Life Battery Data

Jim, I have been following with interest over the last several days this thread on batteries and feel I have some information to share. To begin with, the only solution to a long term lead-acid battery bank is to make your own cells. Lead has a perpetual shelf life and oxidizes very little over time if protected. Contrary to the confusion established by the battery manufacturer cartels, both plates begin as simply pure lead (Pb). It is only after the initial charge is applied that the positive plate changes chemically due to the sulfur ion action. While home made cells …


Letter Re: Some Real Life Battery Data

Hello Jim – I took interest in your response to the post by Steven J S “Letter Re: Some Real Life Battery Data” and the concept of storing “dry batteries”. From my long and intensive research on this, you are absolutely correct. Finding a true dry battery (one that was not flooded and then emptied) is nearly impossible. Perhaps some other SurvivalBlog readers can provide some help on this topic, but I have found that in order to truly get a dry battery – one that has never been flooded with acid – one would almost have to work at …


Letter Re: A Shortage of Mantles for Aladdin Kerosene Lamps

Dear Jim, I was trying to buy an Aladdin Loxon Mantle #R-150 for my Aladdin kerosene lamp and found that all suppliers seemed to be out of stock. Even Lehman’s Hardware here in Ohio was out of stock and showing an April delivery. I spent some time searching and found some very expensive ones on eBay but that was all. I then did a search for “Aladdin mantle problems” and found a cached press release from the Aladdin company. It looks like we have a major problem for Aladdin Lamp owners. From a loyal reader, – Jay H. JWR Replies: …


Some Real World Battery Life Data, by Cactus Jim

Battery technology has come a long way in the last 10 years since Y2K. Back in the late 1990s, I stocked various types and brands of batteries for long term storage or use. Batteries ranged from store purchased alkaline, rechargeable alkalines, NiCd, generic deep cycle marine batteries, gel-cell sealed lead acid, lithium and even the ubiquitous flooded lead acid Trojan T-105 floor scrubber batteries. I wrote dates on all the batteries and rechargeable batteries had logs kept of use and maintenance. In most cases enough batteries were purchased to allow for a reasonable statistical sampling, thus providing a real level …


Three Letters Re: Lessons Learned From an Ice Storm

Dear Editor: With regards to the battery powered carbon monoxide (CO) detector, I just want to second that. When my family went through the Nov. 2007 ice storm that took out the power to half of Oklahoma, we were running off our generator for two days. The first night I put it outside, but close to the house to help shelter it from winds. Our CO detector went off in the middle of the night. We ended up having the fire department come out and check things. It was determined that the CO came in through either the dryer vent, …


Two Letters Re: Lessons Learned from the Oklahoma Ice Storm of 2010

Dear Editor: The Oklahoma Ice Storm of 2010 is now melting away and as usual there were lessons learned.   Many of these should have been “known” before but we are never as prepared as we should be.  In that vein I am going to rehash several things that went right, a few that went wrong, and others that we can improve on the next time that “life as usual” is not. First, the setting: I live in Southwestern Oklahoma and have been here for almost three years.  About January 22nd we started getting word of an impending ice/snow storm scheduled …


Lessons Learned From an Ice Storm, by G. in the Zarks

While watching the local weather over the last few days, it has become apparent that a winter storm is heading for our part of the world, bringing with it the distinct possibility of not just snow, but significant amounts of ice. As I pondered this, it brought to mind our recent experiences with ice storms over the last few years, most notably in January 2007. I thought some of our “lessons learned” were worth sharing with others. We had been blessed with several years of reasonably mild winters leading up to the 2007 storm. Unfortunately, the good times often seem …


Letter Re: I Thought that I Was Ready!

I have just returned to my house after 6 days without power. I Thought I was ready. I had plenty of beans, Band-Aids, bullion and bullets. What I didn’t have was the stuff I needed to get through the first week of a massive power outage. We still had water, even though I had an additional 50 gallons of fresh, treated water for myself, The Beautiful Wife (TBW) and the pets. We had enough short term food that we were able to provide a chili meal for some of our friends and coworkers that were doing without. We had more …