Welcome back! Today we're talking about flashlights and what to do when the power goes out. Both of my kids have a lantern that we bought and these are LED lights inside of here that holds four AAA batteries, you just turn them on. Kristine was lucky enough to get one where the top of it glows in the dark, that way whenever she turns it off, should be able to see a little while later.
Kory, we didn't mean it this way, we didn't realize that this one was glowing in the dark, when it was off, so Kory got one that didn't glow, oh! I'm sorry Kory. Okay, now, I'm going to suggest two things that you should not use under certain circumstances. One is a top Coleman Lantern, this is a Coleman Northstar -- here we go. I do not recommend this kind of time to use inside the house after the power goes out. I do recommend that you get one with an electric start and not one that you to have to light a match, and hold it up in there and light it.
The reason why I say I do not recommend this type of lantern is because they get extremely hot on the top of it, just from having it on for few seconds, you set your hand on here, it's going to burn you. If you leave it on for 30-45 minutes, you can get very easily -- get second, maybe third-degree burns from setting your hands up here.
Now with that all, that's no big deal, you should know, keep your hands off of it. But if you have children around, try to avoid using this type of lantern. The other type of lantern is a Kerosene Lantern. If you use these, keep them away from where the children cannot come over. This is literally a bomb, all top cocktail, full of kerosene.
You have these on an edge of a table, sure enough, one of the keys is don't come by and knock it over, it will catch your house on fire. If you use these, set them up half, set them up above head level where they cannot get knocked over, like on top of a bookshelf, on a dresser. If you have to use one, set it all set like on a countertop, move it all the way against close to the wall, but not so close to the wall as one catch, it's not putting the heat on the wall, basically, very, very dangerous around small children, keep away from walkways.
Cheap, plastic flashlights, do not waste your money, do not waste your time. They are junk, don't mess with them. This is a Maglite 3-Cell D, not only it's good for a flashlight, but, I give you little tip, never carry your flashlight like this. Never carry it down where it's in the palm of your hand. Always carry your flashlight like this and as you're looking around, let's say, you hear something outside. You go outside, you have your flashlight in the palm of your hand like this, you're shinning it around, if it's a burglar or prowler, it's hard to defend yourself with the flashlight in this position.
Always carry your flashlight up like this. If you see a prowler or a burglar, you hear something outside, a barking dog, if you're walking around your yard at night, you hear something outside, you have your flashlight like this and you're shinning around. If somebody comes after you, you hit him in the head. Get yourself one, sometimes lows, put these 4, 5, 6-Cell D Maglite flashlights on cell, pick up a couple of them, these make really good home defense weapons.
Weapons, it that a good term? Really good for home defense. You hear something outside, it's less lethal than the firearm, always carry it like that, if something comes at you, even if it's a dog, you're standing up, you can hit the dog on top of the head and he's going to think twice to bite you.
LED flashlights are the way to go, something like ten times a battery light, the bulb will last 100,000 hours. This is the only way to go. If you're buying small flashlights, do not waste your time with the little cheap plastic junk. These cost to be of $15 to $20, they are well worth it. Here's the other one, we've got two of these.
For a long-term power outages, hand crank flashlights should be really considered. You should already have a couple of these lying around, not just one, but say, two, three, four. Two for the adults, one for the children, so whenever their flashlights run out of juice, you can issue them these. This comes with a one or three LED option.
One thing to consider, whenever you're buying these hand crank flashlights, is the handle length, that one compared to this one. The longer the handle the easier it's going to be crank it, this right here is a crank. This has only got one LED in it, but one good thing is that this LED has like a little magnifying glass in the lens, this one does not. Whenever you're looking at these LED flashlights what they cost, look at the handle length.
Hand crank radios, very, very important. You should have at least one, maybe two of these. Go ahead and spend a little money, get you a good one, crank, turn it on, crank it up, turn this thing on. Whenever the power goes out, you have no ways of getting the news, basically very good.
As Kristine mentioned, I have here a LED Cube, two or three of these, at least one for home security. After Hurricane Rita passed through here two years ago, we went up to two-and-a-half weeks without electricity. I would have loved to have one of these, to be able to walk out, if we heard something outside, whenever -- to be able to walk out there and light up the whole street.
And why do I say LED Cube, because whenever your power is out for a really long time, for weeks on end, you're going to need a way to recharge your batteries. I recommend having several of these solar walkway rechargers. You should already have a lot of these up and down your walkways in front of your house, at your flowerbeds. Well, what a lot of people do not know is that these charge all the light batteries. Put these out in your yard where they can get the most light, they will charge all day. Whenever the sun starts to go down, go out there and collect them.
For a couple of days, take them off their little state, set them in the bathroom, perfect, for children, this is the safest way to go as compared to the other lanterns. Set a couple of these in the bathroom, if the kids have to get up in the middle of the night, take care of business, they've already got a couple of these in the bathroom off their way. Once that you don't use during the night, be sure to take the batteries out, else they'll discharge overnight. Take the batteries out, the next day put them back in.
You should only be using rechargeable batteries. We already have switched over, we've got a couple of these battery chargers. As your batteries start to go down, put them in here, put them in your generator, you should have a inverter in one of your vehicles, whenever you drive somewhere, you have any gas to go anywhere, plug this in your inverter, while you're driving, that will be charging your batteries for your flashlight, your cellphone, whatever else you've got.
Now, entertainment after the power goes out is very important. After Hurricane Rita, we played several, several hours of Rummikub. Now this is where I do not recommend these type of lanterns. You need a lantern such as Kory's or Kristine's that you can set in the middle of the table and everybody be able to gather around the coffee table and play. These do not get hot. If somebody reaches over to get a card or a towel or if you're playing a board game, these are not going to burn you, this will, this Coleman Lantern is extremely dangerous inside the house because of the burn factor.
Well, that's about it for now, thank you for your time.
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