Home Emergency Lights

Does anyone else have home emergency lights? For me when the power goes out at night it becomes pitch black. It is so dark you can't even walk or find your way to the kitchen to get flash lights and candles. That movie has been lived through more than once during thunderstorms and when a car hits a pole- typically you know your in for an extended outage when the recloser trips right back out on its first reclose attempt.

To remedy this I typically buy the cheapest yet UL and NFPA 101 listed name brand emergency light. 18 AWG copper listed lamp cord bought separate, wire nuts included with fixture, electrical tape and you've got a safe, reliable emergency light source that lets you find your way to candles and flashlights.


Typically these are hardwired to 120 or 277 volts AC but I don't want to go through the trouble of adding, drilling, and fishing new electrical boxes and then having to climb ladders to test and replace these lights every X number of years. The cord makes it portable and the unit can be placed anywhere.


To anyone who hasn't done this I highly recommend you do it.


$27 commercial EM light, sometimes on sale for $20:



120 volt room circuit on:




120 volt room circuit turned off at breaker panel:



Unboxed emergency light comes with mounting screws and wire nuts. Rechargeable battery included inside. Cord sold separately:




Internals, cord hooked to unit red and white wires. Battery leads shipped disconnected, battery molex connected on wire up. I normally don't put electrical tape around wire nuts, however given loose cord scheme I don't want to run the risk of the wire nuts ever popping off and shorting out on battery operated circuitry while the unit sits on or is surrounded by flammable things.

i have a couple of those,but not in use-they are from 1985 and the 6v SLA batts are long expired I have some 12v lights in the house-several amber color LED puck lights meant for truck use at several places in basement as light lights and one license plate lamp with 24v bulb in hallway-this powered by a little 12v ac fed power supply. Moon shack is about 50% 12v with big RV batt pack and i have thought about stringing a cord to the house for power during an outage.I actually had about 5 hr outage a couple days ago when winds wrenched loose weatherhead from meter box and shorted out,blowing pole pig fuse

Neat. Do you have pics of the 1985 versions? I honestly like the look of EM lights from the 70/80s with the metal case, amp meter, protruding indicators, and parabolic beams.

Big Beam still makes units which are reminiscent of the past:

https://www.bigbeam.com/


Considering how they've got units that can run incandescent wedge base bulbs for 8 to 12 hours, I wonder how long those batteries could drive LEDs.

For those 1985 lamps,think faux woodgrain metal box about 8"square,2.5 thick,red and yellow status LEDs,test button,two beige plastic housings holding~5 watt sealed beam lights like a camping lantern would use Many years ago,had an emergency light made in 1964: it was dark gray,chrome lamps,no electronics except selenium rectifier for charger.Batteries were missing and I eventually parted this one out about 1987...The shorted utility feed incident was at a nearby house and knocked out power to 3 houses.

I've luckily only had 3 or 4 "blackouts" over the 20 years I've lived in this house.
The longest one was maybe 5 years ago, lasting about 45 minutes.
That one was in the dead of summer at night, and indeed the bedroom window AC was down while I waited for PECO to restore power.... ugh!
However, I keep a flashlight in my bedside table just in case for such things.
Oh, and of course a 3D cell MagLite in the kitchen pantry.

cfz2882 said:

For those 1985 lamps,think faux woodgrain metal box about 8"square,2.5 thick,red and yellow status LEDs,test button,two beige plastic housings holding~5 watt sealed beam lights like a camping lantern would use Many years ago,had an emergency light made in 1964: it was dark gray,chrome lamps,no electronics except selenium rectifier for charger.Batteries were missing and I eventually parted this one out about 1987...The shorted utility feed incident was at a nearby house and knocked out power to 3 houses.

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The ones without electronics have always fascinated me. The Lithonia light I have now has a switch mode power supply and an extensive low volt circuit on the secondary of the high frequency transformer. Way more complicated, but at the same time it appears to be of quality components and design.

Glad the incident was taken care of relatively quickly. 5 hours still sucks though.

The last power outage we had was back in 2003. So it's extremely rare that we loose power citywide. Nevertheless I do keep a series of emergency lights throughout the COOP. For the past few years I have 5 Eaton Red Cross power outage lights that you plug directly to the wall. They come on automatically in the event of a power failure. However I am going to supplement the Eaton Red Cross lights with Tanlux wall mounted power failure lights soon. I also have two 700watt solar power stations on standby. Add to that various LED lanterns, flashlights and crank radios/phone chargers. My ultimate goal would be a 2400watt power station with solar panels that could be mounted in the terrace on a emergency basis. Enough to power the refrigerators for a day or so. As I mentioned before, it's very rare we loose power citywide, but its not a question of if, but of when.

Disclaimer: Links are for information purposes only. I receive no compensation from Amazon.

Cool idea, but I'd want it mounted in the wall.
Why do you tape the wire nuts though?

william8 said:

Cool idea, but I'd want it mounted in the wall.
Why do you tape the wire nuts though?

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Normally I never tape a wire nuts because it is not only of no advantage it leaves black goo on everything.

However in this case being that I have a loose 18 AWG lamp cord coming in what is basically a hard mount unit turned portable I want absolutely no chance of a wire nut somehow rubbing loose and popping off. I don't know how on of these units would react however worse case can imagine a big bang and possible fire if the line voltage went through the low voltage DC components of the fixture. Call me embarrassingly paranoid here, but I really am. In some places I put these EM lights on night stands or wooden tables which might also inadvertently end up with paper or a box of tissues placed beside the light- hence the concern of fire.

Ultramatic said:

The last power outage we had was back in 2003. So it's extremely rare that we loose power citywide. Nevertheless I do keep a series of emergency lights throughout the COOP. For the past few years I have 5 Eaton Red Cross power outage lights that you plug directly to the wall. They come on automatically in the event of a power failure. However I am going to supplement the Eaton Red Cross lights with Tanlux wall mounted power failure lights soon. I also have two 700watt solar power stations on standby. Add to that various LED lanterns, flashlights and crank radios/phone chargers. My ultimate goal would be a 2400watt power station with solar panels that could be mounted in the terrace on a emergency basis. Enough to power the refrigerators for a day or so. As I mentioned before, it's very rare we loose power citywide, but its not a question of if, but of when.

Disclaimer: Links are for information purposes only. I receive no compensation from Amazon.

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I am very, very envious of you lol. You are served by one of the worlds if not thee worlds most reliable power system. Con Edison spot and secondary grid networks can typically loose multiple primary feeder cables without any customer outages. Substations and transmission supplies have multiple redundancies and fail safes designed in and around. High winds, and ice storms typically do not effect underground power lines. Except for the 1977 blackout, all other city wide blackouts were triggered by events outside of the Con Edison system. You are very lucky compared to those living out in woods were the power goes out every-time it rains.

I say this because you are very, very lucky.

We're lucky I suppose.When we do loose power, 2 additional events happen. One, we loose the elevators. Two, we loose water. Any floor beyond the seventh will loose water pressure. After the seventh, we need pumps to keep the rooftop water tanks full. Once those tanks empty, that's it. Not a drop until power is restored. I was lucky in 2003. I remembered the seventh floor rule. I started filling everything with water. Tub, buckets, pots, bowls, everything. Within an hour we were dry. And no elevators. Just fire stairs. I'm on the 19th floor. The only utilities working was gas, telephone (copper wire back then) and the cellphone. After that fiasco, the COOP board supposedly approved emergency generators to cover the water pumps and 2 elevators (we have 4). It was never done due to budget constraints. I think because it's such a rare event, it's been placed on the back burner indefinitely. I just hope the next blackout doesn't catch me outside.

IIRC NYC now has a law that elevators have to have some type of emergency release or backup - at least that what was originally proposed after the west side Manhattan outage.

Homes on well water also have the same problem, when the pressure tank runs out post power outage no more water.

Standby generators are becoming increasingly more common outside cities.

Emergency home back up lights, good idea however I don’t like the idea of plastic housings sitting on a carpeted floor. I think that’s looking for a possible fire risk. If something goes wrong. Those lamps are designed to be used. That way they’re normally installed over a metal outlet box up on the wall.

Living on the 19th floor there certainly must be a requirement that at least some of the elevators keep working. You may wanna look into that Louie.

I know the large buildings I’ve worked with in the DC area. I’ll have backup generators for the elevators and emergency lighting in the hallways, etc.

A rechargeable torch, that switches on when the power goes off, might be more useful, preferably one with a motion detector so it doesn't wake you up.

I think we last had a power outage in the 1990s, when the transformer/substation that powers the estate, broke down. I was told by a neighbour that it had caught fire and blown up and would have to be replaced, but seeing as it is only about 120 feet off to the side of the house, behind our garage, we heard and saw nothing, and the power back up within a few hours, that was probably a slight exaggeration. Prior to that there was the miners' strike in the 1970, when we still ran on coal.

I have had blackouts when the RCD has tripped (the consumer unit I installed about 25 years ago only has one RCD as the main switch) or the MCB for one of the two lighting circuit has tripped, which I don't think has happened since we switched to LED bulbs.

I usually have a small single cell LED torch in my pocket powered by an AA Eneloop type battery, so it doesn't go out suddenly. Or at least a mobile phone in easy reach, and have a few torches around the house.

Power outages occur occasionally but I don't consider them as frequent ... although there have been a few in the past 9-ish months. The recent one a couple/few weeks ago was a problem (fuse?, I watched from a window the two-man crew replace it) on the main circuit pole at the corner of the street, affected only the 11 houses on this street. The previous one was a problem at the nearby substation which affected a larger area.

It was out for ~8 hrs (4am to 12pm) when Hurricane Beryl passed through last July. I was lucky being on a main circuit that apparently was an easy fix. Other areas were out 4 to 7 days.

I have six of these.

DADoES said:

I have six of these.

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I've got a couple of those LED "switch lights" too!
The "Nebo" brand.
Great for sticking to the wall in dark closets. (velcro strips)
But cheap, of course.
Toss out the "included" cheap batteries and put in better ones, and check for leaking ones.

combo52 said:

Emergency home back up lights, good idea however I don’t like the idea of plastic housings sitting on a carpeted floor. I think that’s looking for a possible fire risk. If something goes wrong. Those lamps are designed to be used. That way they’re normally installed over a metal outlet box up on the wall.

Living on the 19th floor there certainly must be a requirement that at least some of the elevators keep working. You may wanna look into that Louie.

I know the large buildings I’ve worked with in the DC area. I’ll have backup generators for the elevators and emergency lighting in the hallways, etc.

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In a properly wired reputable, listed light I don't see much of a fire hazard. If the plastic casing emits sparks or catches the risk would still be there mounted on a ceiling tile or wall as anything could be underneath it like an office desk and catch fire. These are commercial units listed to several life safety codes and intended for places like schools, hospitals, libraries, offices, ect so I doubt anyone would be willing to tolerate these units readily bursting into flames.


The light does have what appears to be a fusible resistor on the line voltage primary and a fuse on the DC secondary circuitry. Should something fail internally either one of those should open before the unit catches fire.


However I do share your concern, I like to think about every possible worse care scenario.

I was tired of the seemingly constant outages we experience here. I do have flashlights throughout the house. But after the big ice storm of 1998. I bought o portable generator, but it was a pain to fill, pull cord etc. 8 years ago I installed a Generac whole house generator and never looked back. Power goes out and 10 seconds later, everything is normal.

Chetlaham said:

In a properly wired reputable, listed light I don't see much of a fire hazard. If the plastic casing emits sparks or catches the risk would still be there mounted on a ceiling tile or wall as anything could be underneath it like an office desk and catch fire. These are commercial units listed to several life safety codes and intended for places like schools, hospitals, libraries, offices, ect so I doubt anyone would be willing to tolerate these units readily bursting into flames.


The light does have what appears to be a fusible resistor on the line voltage primary and a fuse on the DC secondary circuitry. Should something fail internally either one of those should open before the unit catches fire.


However I do share your concern, I like to think about every possible worse care scenario.

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The plastic case may contain bromine if it is ABS, to inhibit flame.

Here in the UK, both figure '8' cable and wire nuts are not permitted for mains use. I had a bedside lamp with figure 8 cable when I was a kid and I noticed the wire had got wrapped in one of the castors, which stripped about an inch of insulation exposing the conductors, somehow without shorting them so it didn't blow the fuse, or burn the carpet. Fortunately, I was old enough to know to unplug it, when I noticed the bare wires.

That is good to know. I'd imagine there is some form of flame inhibition. At least I would hope. This is one reason I buy name brand lights instead of all the Chinese knock off available on Amazon.

Chetlaham said:

That is good to know. I'd imagine there is some form of flame inhibition. At least I would hope. This is one reason I buy name brand lights instead of all the Chinese knock off available on Amazon.

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Yes, there's some pretty terrible electrical stuff that crops up on the likes of amazon and ebay uk sites, despite our regulations.

Here's a good example of a mains extension, for the shear number of breaches of British Standards and CE regulations, I think they may have been trying to break the record.. It's off ebay, but I'm sure I've seen them for sale on amazon a few years ago, when it was posted on a "bargain" deals website, until the product listings all got pulled.



It also proves the earth is hollow ;O)

I saw that video. Scary thing is, it is more of a norm than an exception on Amazon and Ebay. I've purchased hair dryers off Amazon that literally not only lacked a thermal fuse and high limit thermostat, but the fan motor would not turn right out of the box. Lamps cords with what had to be 28AWG aluminum wire. Live 120 volt cords that have popped out of appliances. Fake NRTL listings. It goes on and on.

Some of the top selling electrical devices are adapters and surge strips without a functioning ground. I'm not kidding, the power strip literally comes with a 2 prong plug, but with 3 prong receptacles on the body complete with shiny metal tongs in each earth slot.


https://www.amazon.com/live/video/091c07691b254a6a8cd32c3be46ee48f?ref_=dp_vse_lbvc_1





An Edison lamp screw shell does not offer or make a ground-






People brag online about how they can now plug their 3 prong AC and what not into a 2 prong ungrounded outlet with few even considering that a danger exists.

Mine was a flashlight which plugged into an outlet we'd had for years...

However it had gotten outmoded enough that I probably just threw it away upon its inability to provide that "portable lighting" in the pitch darkness when we'd had that last recent (night time) power outage...

So it'd just better be candles, though, there I'd been doing the Sabbath Thing lighting too of them every Friday night and Saturday, it's Havdala (beginning of the new week--Shavuah, in Hebrew, it's called)...

Looks like I will have to look into a generator, at least if I want lights, and a working fridge, if I must choose the most important things to keep running when the juice goes out...



-- Dave

Chetlaham said:

I saw that video. Scary thing is, it is more of a norm than an exception on Amazon and Ebay. I've purchased hair dryers off Amazon that literally not only lacked a thermal fuse and high limit thermostat, but the fan motor would not turn right out of the box. Lamps cords with what had to be 28AWG aluminum wire. Live 120 volt cords that have popped out of appliances. Fake NRTL listings. It goes on and on.

Some of the top selling electrical devices are adapters and surge strips without a functioning ground. I'm not kidding, the power strip literally comes with a 2 prong plug, but with 3 prong receptacles on the body complete with shiny metal tongs in each earth slot.




View attachment 316814



An Edison lamp screw shell does not offer or make a ground-


View attachment 316810

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Chet, I fully agree with you.
As much as I dislike "modern" consumer products, the one thing that really burns me up is the lack, the ignorance, of the manufacturers making these non-compliant hazards.
They're certainly not up to current Electrical Code Standards, and should be banned.
But what do you want from China, eh?

China is just appealing to a vapid consumer demand. If there is a market for it, they will build it.

Chetlaham said:

China is just appealing to a vapid consumer demand. If there is a market for it, they will build it.

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One thing that particularly amazed me was that somewhere in china, a factory churns out fake 3 core flex using substandard (non-copper) conductors, with an empty earth sleeve, as if it is going to fool anyone, for the sake of saving a small amount of cheap aluminium. Mind you seeing as we are taking china, I wouldn't be too surprised if someone is actually paid to pull the earth conductor out of the cut lengths of flex, for the scrap value. Of course there's no point in having the earth wire, when the sleeve on that stupid plug's earth pin will insulate it from the earth receptacle in the socket.


At least in your extension, they got the shape of the plug holes right ;o) But, I guess there's a fair chance that they've reversed the polarity on inverted row of sockets, as they have with Clive's.

We also get a lot of chinese products like USB power supplies that were designed for the US market, where they'd just about function moderately safely at 120V, and they do a version with a UK plug, without making the modifications for 240V, such as increasing the creepage gaps between AC and DC etc, so the DC side can go live, or they may just catch fire or blow up.

me said:

One thing that particularly amazed me was that somewhere in china, a factory churns out fake 3 core flex using substandard (non-copper) conductors, with an empty earth sleeve, as if it is going to fool anyone, for the sake of saving a small amount of cheap aluminium. Mind you seeing as we are taking china, I wouldn't be too surprised if someone is actually paid to pull the earth conductor out of the cut lengths of flex, for the scrap value. Of course there's no point in having the earth wire, when the sleeve on that stupid plug's earth pin will insulate it from the earth receptacle in the socket.


At least in your extension, they got the shape of the plug holes right ;o) But, I guess there's a fair chance that they've reversed the polarity on inverted row of sockets, as they have with Clive's.

We also get a lot of chinese products like USB power supplies that were designed for the US market, where they'd just about function moderately safely at 120V, and they do a version with a UK plug, without making the modifications for 240V, such as increasing the creepage gaps between AC and DC etc, so the DC side can go live, or they may just catch fire or blow up.

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My understanding, from what I've heard, been told and found out from research is that Chinese companies will build code, brand specific or listed products for a major reputable company for a period of time. Once the contract runs out, the tooling, workers and intellectual property will stay, whereby the Chinese manufacturer starts producing knock-off, counterfeit or dangerously cheapened version of the previous goods with the same manufacturing equipment.

That might explain the hollow earth. They previously manufactured compliant copper flex only to then re-use the same equipment for manufacturing two core aluminum flex. The extruders and jacketers not being able to handle a core missing.


It is just a guess, I am just as curious why they left the earth wire hollow.


Regarding reversed polarity I heard a rumor that in some parts of China they just don't earth the neutral of the 380Y/220 volt supply. Line and neutral are left floating above earth under normal conditions so polarity would not matter with sockets and consumer goods. No idea if true but it does explain the carelessness in polarization.

Since this thread is mostly about Chinese Manufactured products, I'll toss in my own findings, which shouldn't surprise anyone.

China manufacturers rely on superficiality - the "visual effect", to increase the desire for unsuspecting customers to purchase something.
They also enhance things in "sneaky ways", fooling the potential customer.
For instance, they add weight to products, in order to claim something is more expensive, or "High End". - which, of course, it is not.

In my repair shop over the years, since outsourcing of products increased, I've seen these "effects" quite a lot.
A "Hi End" brand of CD player, Yaqin brand, housed in a heavy thick aluminum cabinet with visually stunning styling, and sold for $700, was basically a lie, pure junk.
In fact, when I opened it up to troubleshoot it, the actual CD mechanism was a cheap plastic mech, a leftover stock model used in common Sony boomboxes.
The internals of this CD player were also adorned with vacuum tubes poking out of the top of the stunning cabinet, which basically was "for show", nothing more.
And of course, when I attempted to aquire any Service Manuals for it, they were unavailable. - "secret documents" I was told.

Another piece that came in was an "Emerson" branded clock radio, styled in a "vintage" 1950s design.
It was hefty when picked up, and at first I thought it felt "beefy", but the superficiality kicks in with that one, because once opened up it contained a common cheap clock mech, and cheap transistor radio guts.
Oh, and the weight? - it had a substantial brick of cement glued inside to the bottom of the case. - and even the brick was crumbling due to poor manufacturing.

As I've stated, superficiality sells preoducts, always did, but the Chinese have taken it to new heights.
A pretty dress for appearance, some fancy dazzling LED lights, makes you want to buy it.

Chetlaham said:

I saw that video. Scary thing is, it is more of a norm than an exception on Amazon and Ebay. I've purchased hair dryers off Amazon that literally not only lacked a thermal fuse and high limit thermostat, but the fan motor would not turn right out of the box. Lamps cords with what had to be 28AWG aluminum wire. Live 120 volt cords that have popped out of appliances. Fake NRTL listings. It goes on and on.

Some of the top selling electrical devices are adapters and surge strips without a functioning ground. I'm not kidding, the power strip literally comes with a 2 prong plug, but with 3 prong receptacles on the body complete with shiny metal tongs in each earth slot.


https://www.amazon.com/live/video/091c07691b254a6a8cd32c3be46ee48f?ref_=dp_vse_lbvc_1

View attachment 316814



An Edison lamp screw shell does not offer or make a ground-


View attachment 316810



People brag online about how they can now plug their 3 prong AC and what not into a 2 prong ungrounded outlet with few even considering that a danger exists.

Click to expand...

Before the pull chain light socket with 3 prong receptacles, people would use one of those grounding adapters to plug a 3 wire cord into one. For some reason, my mom thought it was OK to plug a dehumidifier into one in my bedroom closet (she was usually much smarter than that). I came back, went down to my room (in basement), and there was a strong burned smell. The dehumidifier had stopped, and the light socket was blackened. I unplugged the appliance, inspected its cord and plug, which were not damaged, and removed the destroyed pull chain socket and ground adapter from the ceiling fixture. I then removed the porcelain fixture to inspect it for damage, and it was OK. I reset the tripped breaker, and the lights were back on. I called my mom down to show her what had happened, and chastised her greatly for doing something so stupid. When my dad returned from playing golf, she heard the same from him. It easily could have caused a major fire, as the closet and side wall had wood paneling.

I'm not sure about the actual current capabilities of pull chain sockets or medium screw base sockets but they are typically listed at 660 watts at 120 volts. So 5.5 amps max, if that.

If you ever need a plug receptacle at a light socket, go this route:


https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-9726...90-8e8a-5b731ae66d3b&pd_rd_i=B00002N5FR&psc=1

These are often used in attics and closets with HVAC equipment where a separate 120 volt outlet isn't present. It satisfies both having a light source and a place to plug in tools when the equipment needs service/repair.