You cannot get much more basic when it comes to preparedness supplies than the flashlight.
Flashlights have come a long way over the past few decades. I can remember as a child my dad having a silver flashlight that ran on 2 D-cell batteries. This silver flashlight had an external slide switch to turn on and off with a button on top of it to turn it on momentarily.
Not particularly bright by today’s standards but lit up the dark whenever the power went out.
A decade or so ago the legendary Maglite was the flashlight to have. Large, bright, machined aluminum – a beautiful creation. I had several as well as the AA smaller version. These worked good and were standard issue at my job. Only problem was I went through bulbs like a mouse goes through a hunk of cheese.
Over the past 5 years or so flashlights have gotten brighter and lighter. Some might say more expensive and in many cases that would be correct. I now own LED flashlights almost exclusively. Conventional bulbs work just fine but have a much shorter lifespan and consume much more energy, thus I prefer LED flashlights.
If you go to any Wal-Mart or Target you can find quite a few LED flashlights to choose from. Prices vary greatly from under $10.00 to over $30.00.
A couple things to consider if considering picking up a new light:
- Lumens – the measure of how bright the flashlight is. The higher the lumens the brighter the flashlight.
- Battery Type – AA and AAA batteries cost the least and are easy to store.
- LED – again, make sure he flashlight states it is LED. I also prefer one which has a single LED lamp rather than a collection of LED lamps. Both will work fine but the latest technology uses the single lamp.
- Run Time – some packaging will state how long the batteries will last. I do not concern myself much with this as all LED flashlights have an excellent battery life.
Streamlight Stylus Pro LED Flashlight and Holster – under $20.00
Streamlight PolyTac LED Flashlight – 130 lumens – approx $35.00
So – get yourself a few flashlights along with a bunch of extra batteries. You will be much better off than most to handle a power outage.