Buying an Emergency Lantern: Compare and Buy before You Need Them

When do you need an emergency lantern? How many of them do you need? Safety experts often recommend that you have at least one lantern, charged and waiting as part of your home’s emergency preparedness kit. However, do not think that you only need these lanterns or kits in certain times of the year.  You also need more lanterns than you might have thought at first.

An Emergency Lantern: For Every Level of the Home Plus Every Vehicle

Safety experts advocate having one (or more) lanterns for every level of your home, including the basement as well as for every vehicle. That way, if the power goes off while you are in the basement, you know you are just a few steps away from a lantern without having to navigate up the stairway in the pitch blackness. You don’t want to be broken down on a deserted road without a working lantern and kicking yourself because the emergency kit is in the other car at that moment. Each car should have its own kit.

Make sure that every family members knows where the lanterns are and where they need to be. Consider getting smaller lanterns or flashlights for each family member, especially children who might feel safer and more secure if they have their own light to hold.

Emergency Lanterns Are Needed All Year Around

In the winter, ice and snow can break down power lines. In the spring and summer months, wind and rain can do the same. Overloads of the circuits because of too many air conditioners and fans cause rolling brownouts and blackouts. Cars can crash into a power line. There are even issues with generators being destroyed by wild animals. You can never tell when there will be a blackout. That is why they are called “emergencies” in the first place. When the weatherman calls for severe weather, certain items will disappear from the store shelves. Candles, lanterns, generators and batteries of every size are usually the first things to sell out. You don’t want to be fighting your neighbors in preparation for a storm that might or might not show up in the next few days.

Do You Trust Candles?

Candles are romantic. They smell nice. They also cause a number of the house fires that happen every year. You can’t count on the safety of a candle, especially late at night. You light 20 candles and then you fall asleep. Maybe 18 of them will just wink out on their own while the other two catch something on fire and cause a major disaster. It is much better for your peace of mind and the safety of your family to have an emergency lantern instead of relying on candles when the power goes out.