Torches, Lanterns and Power
Lighting is where emergency kits fail most quietly. Not because people forget torches — most households have three — but because of three specific mistakes: buying for brightness instead of runtime, owning four different battery types, and treating candles as a legitimate backup.
A 1,000-lumen torch with two hours of runtime is worse than a 100-lumen headlamp that runs for forty. After dark, in a house, you need enough light to move and work, for a long time, hands free.
The 10-minute version
- Runtime beats brightness. For household use, 50–150 lumens for many hours is far more useful than a searchlight for two.
- Standardise on one battery size. A house with AA, AAA, C-cell and 9V devices has four separate ways to be caught out. Pick AA and buy one bulk pack.
- A $10 battery lantern beats candles, which cause house fires in exactly these conditions — a dark house full of people carrying things.
What to own, in order
1. A headlamp per person. The single most useful lighting item, because everything you do in an outage needs two hands: cooking, finding things, carrying a child, fixing something. A basic model is $10–20.
2. A battery lantern for the main room. Diffuse light for a whole space, so the household can be together rather than each holding a torch. $15–25, and this is the item that makes an evening bearable rather than merely survivable.
3. A hand torch in the car and by the bed. For the specific job of pointing light at something distant.
4. A power bank, 10,000 mAh minimum. Two to three phone charges. Your phone is torch, radio, map, contact list and payment method, and this keeps it alive.
5. Bulk batteries in one size. AA is the most widely available in Australia and works in most devices.
6. Optional: a small solar panel or a second power bank for outages beyond two or three days.
The numbers that matter
| Item | Useful spec | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Headlamp brightness | 50–150 lumens | More than enough indoors. Higher settings drain fast |
| Headlamp runtime | 20+ hours on low | Runtime on the low setting is the number that matters |
| Lantern | 100–300 lumens, 20+ hours | Diffuse, warm light for a room |
| Power bank | 10,000 mAh | ≈ 2–3 phone charges. 20,000 mAh for a longer outage |
| Phone runtime | ~2 h screen-on, much longer in low power mode | Airplane mode transforms this |
| Battery type | One size across all devices | AA preferred for availability |
| Solar panel | 20 W folding | Charges a power bank in a few hours of good sun |
On rechargeable devices: built-in USB-rechargeable torches are convenient and fail badly in a long outage, because they need a power source you no longer have. A mix is right — rechargeables for daily use, plus at least one device that takes ordinary batteries you can buy anywhere.
Why not candles
Candles are the traditional answer and a genuinely bad one.
- They cause house fires, and the conditions of a blackout — dark, unfamiliar movement, tired people, curtains, children, pets — are exactly the risk profile.
- They produce very little usable light.
- They cannot be carried safely while doing anything else.
- They are a burn risk for children.
A battery lantern costs about the same as a decent candle set, produces far more light, and does not burn the house down. If you do use candles: hard surface, away from anything soft, never in a bedroom, never unattended, and never with young children in the room.
Battery discipline
- One size. This is the highest-value rule on the page.
- Store batteries separately from devices for long-term storage, so a leak does not destroy the torch.
- Check them at daylight saving, twice a year, along with the water rotation.
- Lithium AA batteries cost more, last much longer in storage, and tolerate heat better — worth it for the kit box and the car.
- Rechargeables for daily use, disposables in the kit. Rechargeable cells self-discharge in storage, which is exactly the wrong property for something you need after two years.
- Keep a bulk pack unopened in the kit box. Opened packs get raided for the TV remote.
Phone battery, treated as fuel
Your phone is the most useful device you own in an outage and the one most likely to die at hour six.
- Low power mode immediately.
- Airplane mode between check-ins. Hunting for signal in degraded coverage is the biggest single drain.
- Brightness down, no video, no scrolling.
- One phone active per household, the rest powered down as reserves.
- Screenshot what you need while you have signal: the plan, the map, policy numbers.
- Car charger, which turns a car into a generator for phones.
What actually goes wrong
The torch is in the shed and it is dark.
Dead batteries, or leaked ones that have destroyed the torch.
Four different battery types, and you have spares for one.
A hand torch as the only option, so nothing can be done with two hands.
A single bright torch with two hours of runtime as the whole plan.
Candles, and occasionally a house fire.
All lighting is USB-rechargeable, and there is nothing to charge it from.
The power bank was never charged. It has been in a drawer at 20% for a year.
No light by the bed. Most outages start at night, and finding the kit in the dark is the first problem.
Thresholds
| Situation | The rule |
|---|---|
| Per person | One headlamp |
| Per household | One battery lantern for the main room |
| By the bed | A torch or headlamp within arm’s reach |
| Battery types | One size across every device. AA preferred |
| Power bank | 10,000 mAh minimum, checked and charged twice a year |
| Phone | Low power mode immediately, airplane mode between check-ins |
| Candles | Avoid. If used: hard surface, never unattended, never in a bedroom |
| Maintenance | Test everything at daylight saving, twice a year |
What it costs
| Tier | Spend | What it buys |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Charging the power bank you already own, moving a torch to the bedside, standardising on the battery size you already have most of |
| Solid | ~$60–90 | Two headlamps ($30), a battery lantern ($20), a bulk AA pack ($10), a 10,000 mAh power bank ($30) |
| Better | ~$150–250 | A headlamp per person, two lanterns, a 20,000 mAh power bank, lithium AAs for the kit and car |
| Long outage | ~$250–400 | A 20 W folding solar panel and a second power bank — indefinite phone and light charging in sun |
The drill: the twice-yearly ten minutes
At daylight saving, with the water rotation.
- Two minutes. Turn on every torch, headlamp and lantern in the house. Note which ones fail.
- Two minutes. Check the power bank charge. Top it up and note the date.
- Two minutes. Open the battery drawer. Bin anything corroded, and check the bulk pack is still unopened.
- Two minutes. Confirm there is a light within arm’s reach of every bed.
- Two minutes. Turn off the main breaker and check you can find and use the kit in the dark. This is the test that finds the real problems.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best light for a blackout?
A headlamp per person, because everything you do needs two hands, plus one battery lantern for the main room so the household can share diffuse light rather than each holding a torch.
How many lumens do I need?
Far fewer than marketing suggests. Fifty to 150 lumens is plenty indoors, and runtime on the low setting matters much more — aim for 20 or more hours.
Are candles a reasonable backup?
No. They give little usable light, cannot be carried while doing anything, and cause house fires in precisely the conditions of a blackout. A $10 battery lantern is strictly better.
What size power bank should I get?
At least 10,000 mAh, which is two to three phone charges. Twenty thousand is better for outages beyond a day, and a 20 W folding solar panel makes it indefinite in good sun.
Should I buy rechargeable or battery-powered torches?
Both. Rechargeables are convenient for daily use but need a power source you may not have; keep at least one device that takes ordinary AA batteries you can buy anywhere.
Why does standardising batteries matter so much?
Because a household with AA, AAA, C-cell and 9V devices needs four kinds of spares and will inevitably have the wrong one. Pick AA, buy one bulk pack, and keep it unopened in the kit.