fundamentals-post apoc lighting

FRIDAY FUNDAMENTALS-POST APOC LIGHTING


Survivalists everywhere should be thanking their lucky stars that the Soviets didn’t start a nuclear war with us a few decades ago. Okay, they’re lucky that WE didn’t start a war seeing as how we have been a bit more aggressive expansion wise than the Reds who placed a slightly higher priority on a defensive zone rather than true global domination ( funny how losing twenty million citizens might bring about a slight amount of paranoia, or distrusting the US after we let the Russians take the brunt of German induced casualties ) but let’s not quibble. The reason that they were lucky that no one started a war was that back then all the options for post attack illumination really and truly sucked giant inflated monkey balls. If you wanted to see in the dark, always a good idea while huddled in your concrete underground bunker listening to the soft pitter patter of fallout particles accumulating several feet above your head, you only had a few options. You could have used car batteries and the auto bulbs that ran off of then, limiting your lighting to only a few hours a day and that only lasted a week or two. Or, you could have lit candles and worried about killing yourself from lack of air flow or ventilation ( you could have also used kerosene but those had the same problems as candles, but multiplied ). If you thought about a windmill or a solar panel, and could actually afford them, you had the issues of the panel being covered with fallout, the windmill being chocked to a standstill by the same, and/or the obvious security issue of advertising your location.

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Today, thank all the gods and especially the DARPA money being funneled into technology ( okay, counting that might make solar cost $1,000 a watt instead of the claimed $4, but it was money going to support the military sector anyway ) we now have LED lighting. I have no idea how the stuff works, and it doesn’t matter. Just keep it shielded in a Faraday cage ( a metal cookie tin on the outside, the lights on the inside wrapped up so they don’t touch the metal ) in case of EMP or solar flare, have plenty of back-ups and barter units, and you should have enough light for your own personal use the rest of your life. Your unworthy descendents can suck it up with smelly bear fat candles. I’ve lived with candles before when I first moved to the Bison Compound. I only had one solar panel out rather than my current three, and was using incandescent bulbs rather than my current LED’s. After a week of clouds I drained my battery ( which also killed them, but only because I had abused and neglected them for going on five years- I’ve learned to be more kind at $150 a pair ) and it was a month later until I could stop using handheld flashlights and candles. Try cooking while holding a flashlight, and try doing almost anything with candles. As I said, unnaturally sized primate testicles.

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LED’s are just like your personal computer in that over time they get cheaper while at the same time giving off more light for less energy. LED lighting is almost ready to go mainstream in home lighting, it is getting so good. But for now just get them from RV places, camping supplies and dollar stores. My personal strategy is to go with quantity rather than quality. But you might actually put some serious bucks into it. Stockpile plenty of flashlights, ball cap hat attachable lights if desired, mini-lanterns or what have you. If you want to power your 12v lighting, go to http://www.superbrightleds.com/ and order the auto bulb replacement. For instance, if you are using #1138 auto bulbs in your RV lighting, the LED replacement for that is $13 ( it dropped over the years from $30 a bulb ). The incandescent you are replacing used 18 watts- the LED uses 3. The problem with 12v of course is that you must rely on a marine/RV battery. Only about 20% more expensive than a car battery, the price isn’t an issue ( a car battery won’t take repeated deep cycle draining whereas a marine battery will- spend the extra ). Rather, the lack of longevity is. A 12v battery won’t last but a few years. Maybe as long as five to seven, but it still will eventually quite on you. Replacements are a bother ( storing without acid ) and expensive. Which is why my back up lighting is handheld LED’s with AA or AAA batteries. And a solar battery charger. I use the better RV lights while times are good and the 12v battery lasts and I have longevity in the smaller units for long after the collapse.

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You can buy your rechargeable batteries at Amazon, and you will have purchased my undying love if you do so. But it seems like http://www.all-battery.com/ is about 25% cheaper ( although compare both shipping costs before you decide- something I didn’t have time for ). Prices are from All Battery. The C battery was $4 apiece, the D’s an insane $6. The AAA batteries were only 90 cents each and the AA were $1.50. I would stay well clear of any electrical devices that needed the two larger batteries and stick with the A’s. These were NiMh recharchables which advertised 500-1000 recharges. They are also memory resistant. Memory is when you discharge your battery, say 10%, continuously and over time the battery won’t hold more juice than that 10%. If you fully discharge your batteries every time, even though they say they are resistant to developing a memory, there should be no problem in performance. Also, only count on 500 uses. But if a set of batteries ( and you will be buying more than one set ) lasts a week in your LED light, then it should last ten years. Obviously to provide a lifetime of light you will need a few sets of batteries and the most current LED’s manufactured to make sure they are the most efficient ( use the older ones for back-ups and barter- it is a continual expense upgrading the lights but they are so cheap it barely matters ). My brand new bike lights ( okay, not the best indoor light, but just used as an example ) get 75 hours of steady light or 150 hours of blinking light. My bike light from the late 90’s only got about twenty hours of use.

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LED’s are one of the few true advances in the equipment we survivalists stockpile. Kerosene is great for putting out a few BTU’s on a cold day, plus can also be used as cooking source, but to get ten years light out of it you need stacks of fifty-five gallon drums of fuel and yards and yards of wick, as compared to a couple of bucks in recharchable batteries for a LED light. The choice is obvious.

END FUNDAMENTALS-SCROLL DOWN FOR NORMAL DRIVEL
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Merry Friggin Christmas! I won’t give you a gift of weekend guest articles. Rather, I’m hogging them for my own use by posting Monday. I’m here Friday but only for a few hours to pick up the donated food, then I’m going home. If I don’t get sunshine to write this weekend you’ll get guest articles on Monday. If I do get solar juice you’ll get both. That will be your gift. A thanks to Mohave Rat for picking up my Grinch Baton I dropped for a few days.
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Brother Creekmore has a new service for lonely preppers. You know, those personal ads were women look for guys with enough cash flow to buy them fashionable post-apocalypse shoes, or militia members look to initiate new members if they pass the semi-auto ownership test.
 http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/find-likeminded-survivors-area/
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Thank Goodnes!!!! You'll notice that the links to Amazon are working for me again.  Before, I had to put the link in seperate and it was usually long and distracting.  But now we are back to the old "one word hilghted" type of links.  Much nicer.  Now go buy lots of crap before your first credit card bill comes due.
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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail ( please, label as “guest article” so I can find it easily later ). Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
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