Emergency & Home
What to keep in a power outage lighting kit
A lighting kit fails in three ways: flat, unfindable, or in the wrong room. Everything below is aimed at those three.
By Scooter M. · Published · Updated
| # | Product | Best for | Output | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No image Energizer Auto-On Rechargeable FlashlightTop pickIt lives in a wall socket, charges continuously, and switches itself on the instant the power fails. | The light that finds you, rather than the other way round | not published | Check price#ad |
| 2 | No image Streamlight Siege540 lumens of 360-degree area lighting, IPX7, on replaceable cells. A lantern beats a flashlight indoors and this is the one to own. | Area light in a power cut | 540 lm | Check price#ad |
| 3 | No image Petzl Tikka350 lumens, three AAA cells, a red mode, 94 grams. The unglamorous answer that covers most of what people actually do after dark. | A first headlamp, and the glovebox | 350 lm | Check price#ad |
| 4 | No image Streamlight PolyTac600 lumens, 214 m, 2.75 hours, IPX7 and 3 m impact resistance in a nylon polymer body. The one you leave in a truck. | A polymer duty light you will not worry about | 600 lm | Check price#ad |
We earn a commission if you buy through the links on this page, at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we recommend or the order they appear in. Full disclosure. We show a live price when we have one and the words “Check price” when we do not. We never print a number we cannot currently verify.
Most households have three flashlights and no lighting plan. The lights are in a drawer somewhere, at least one has leaked, and nobody knows whether any of them work. That is the normal state and it is easy to fix.
The kit
| Item | Quantity | Where | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto-on socket light | One per floor, minimum | Hall and landing sockets | Mains, always charging |
| Lantern | One per living space | The room you would actually sit in | Replaceable cells |
| Headlamp | One per adult | Bedside drawer | AAA or hybrid |
| Handheld with reach | One | By the door you would leave through | Lithium primaries |
| Child's light | Two per child | Bedside and school bag | AAA, glow body |
| Spare cells | One set per light | With the lantern, in a sealed bag | Lithium where possible |
That is roughly the price of one good flashlight and covers vastly more. Coverage is the whole strategy — see emergency flashlights for the reasoning.
Battery storage: three rules
- Do not leave alkaline cells inside stored lights. They leak over a period of years and the potassium hydroxide destroys the contacts and usually the light. Store them beside the light in a sealed bag.
- Prefer lithium primaries for anything that waits. About a decade of shelf life, no leaking in the same way, and far better in the cold.
- Write the purchase date on the bag. It is the only way you will ever know whether the spares are five years old or fifteen.
The annual check, in ten minutes
- Switch every light on for thirty seconds. Anything that does not light gets a new cell or gets replaced.
- Open every battery compartment and look for white or green crust. That is a leak, and the light needs cleaning or replacing.
- Check the spares bag date. Replace anything over about five years old.
- Top up anything rechargeable.
- Put everything back where it belongs, and tell the rest of the household where that is.
Tie it to a date you already remember — a clock change, a birthday — because a check that depends on remembering to check will not happen.
What people usually get wrong
One light, in a drawer. The failure mode is not the light being dim, it is having to cross a dark room to reach it. Socket lights and coverage solve that; a better flashlight does not.
All rechargeable. Convenient, and it means every light in the house is flat at the same time after a few months of not being thought about.
No area light. Almost every household improvises by pointing a torch at the ceiling. A single lantern makes an outage genuinely tolerable. Flashlight versus lantern covers why.
Beyond lighting
Two things worth having alongside the lights, both directly related. A power bank kept charged, because a phone is the thing you will actually need working. And a written note of where the consumer unit, the water stop-tap and the gas shut-off are, because the moment you need them is not the moment to find out.
We are not going to attempt a general emergency-preparedness guide here — that is a different subject and there are agencies who do it properly. This is a lighting kit.
The picks, in full
image
Top pick · The light that finds you, rather than the other way round
Energizer Auto-On Rechargeable Flashlight
It lives in a wall socket, charges continuously, and switches itself on the instant the power fails.
This is the only product on the site we recommend without a single performance figure, and the reason is that its performance is not the point. Being switched on and in a known place at the moment the lights go out is the point.
Every household emergency plan fails the same way: the torch is in a drawer in the dark room you cannot cross safely. A socket light removes that step entirely.
Energizer publishes no output figure we could find, and we are not going to invent one. Buy it for the behavior, not for the beam.
What works
- Switches itself on when mains power fails
- Always charged, because it lives in the socket
- Doubles as a night light
What does not
- No published output figure at all
- Nothing else about it is documented either
- Only useful in the room it is plugged into, so you need several
Skip this ifyou want one good light rather than several adequate ones. This is a coverage product, not a performance one.
Published specification
- Output
- not published(Not stated in the listing we read)
- Peak intensity
- not published
- Beam distance
- not published
- Runtime
- not published
- Battery
- Rechargeable, charges in the wall socketEnergizer Auto-On rechargeable flashlight — the brand's own listing on Amazon.com (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Weight
- not published
- Ingress
- not published
image
Pick 2 · Area light in a power cut
Streamlight Siege
540 lumens of 360-degree area lighting, IPX7, on replaceable cells. A lantern beats a flashlight indoors and this is the one to own.
A flashlight in a dark kitchen produces one bright circle and a room full of hard shadow. A 360-degree lantern at a quarter of the output makes the room usable. That is the whole argument for owning one.
IPX7 on an outage light matters because outages and weather arrive together.
Replaceable cells rather than a sealed pack is the correct choice for something that sits in a cupboard for two years between uses.
What works
- 360-degree area lighting, which is the right beam shape indoors
- IPX7
- Replaceable cells, so storage does not kill it
What does not
- No published runtime in the source we could reach
- 540 lumens is modest if you want to light a whole floor
- No sourced weight
Skip this ifyou need to walk outside with it. A lantern spreads light everywhere, which is exactly wrong on a dark path.
Published specification
- Peak intensity
- not published
- Beam distance
- not published(Not applicable to a 360-degree lantern)
- Runtime
- not published(Not stated in the listing we read)
- Battery
- Replaceable cellsStreamlight Siege — the brand's own listing on Amazon.com (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Weight
- not published
image
Pick 3 · A first headlamp, and the glovebox
Petzl Tikka
350 lumens, three AAA cells, a red mode, 94 grams. The unglamorous answer that covers most of what people actually do after dark.
Three alkaline AAA cells hold roughly 3.9 Wh between them at a modest draw. That is comparable to the Swift LT's entire battery, for a couple of dollars, available in any gas station in the country.
The red mode is the feature people end up using most. It preserves night adaptation and does not wake a tent.
350 lumens looks modest next to a 3,000-lumen listing. On a footpath at walking pace it is more light than you need, and it will still be running when the 3,000-lumen light has stepped down twice.
What works
- AAA cells: replaceable anywhere, storable for years, no charge cycle to manage
- A red mode you can reach without a mode-cycling ordeal
- Cheap enough to own two
What does not
- No rechargeable pack in the box
- 70 m throw identifies nothing at distance
- IPX4
Skip this ifyou want one lamp for everything including work. There is no real flood mode and no high-CRI option.
Published specification
- Output
- 350 lmANSI/PLATO FL 1Petzl Tikka — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Peak intensity
- not published
- Beam distance
- 70 mOn three AAA cells; 75 m on the CORE rechargeable accessoryPetzl Tikka — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Runtime
- Visible at 700 m for 400 hReserve visibility figurePetzl Tikka — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Battery
- 3 x AAA (included), or the CORE rechargeable packPetzl Tikka — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
image
Pick 4 · A polymer duty light you will not worry about
Streamlight PolyTac
600 lumens, 214 m, 2.75 hours, IPX7 and 3 m impact resistance in a nylon polymer body. The one you leave in a truck.
2.75 hours at 600 lumens from two CR123A cells is a very efficient result — that is roughly 6 watt-hours doing real work rather than being thrown away as heat.
3 m of impact resistance is the highest figure in this roundup. Polymer absorbs a drop that would dent an aluminum body.
119 g with cells installed makes this the lightest full-size duty light here.
What works
- Full per-mode table published, all three modes
- 3 m impact resistance and IPX7
- 119 g, with a ten-year shelf life on its cells
What does not
- 600 lumens is modest against the rechargeable competition
- CR123A running costs add up
- We could not pin a current ASIN for it, so the buy link is a tagged Amazon search
Skip this ifyou use a light daily. CR123A primaries are the wrong economics for frequent use; buy a rechargeable instead.
Published specification
- Output
- 600 lmHigh. Medium 260 lm, low 35 lm.Streamlight PolyTac — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Peak intensity
- not published(Listed per mode; no value on the page we read)
- Beam distance
- 214 mHigh. 140 m medium, 52 m low.Streamlight PolyTac — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Runtime
- 2.75 h high / 5.5 h medium / 34 h lowStreamlight PolyTac — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Battery
- 2 x CR123A lithium (included)Streamlight PolyTac — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Weight
- 119 g (4.2 oz) with batteriesStreamlight PolyTac — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Ingress
- IPX7Waterproof to 1 m for 30 minutes; 3 m impact resistance testedStreamlight PolyTac — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
Questions people actually ask
What should be in a power outage kit?
For lighting: a socket light per floor, a lantern per living space, a headlamp per adult, a handheld by the door, two lights per child, and spare cells stored separately with the purchase date written on the bag.
How should I store batteries for emergencies?
Outside the light, in a sealed bag, with the date written on it. Lithium primaries for anything that waits, because they store about a decade and do not leak the way alkalines do.
Why do batteries leak in stored flashlights?
Alkaline cells vent hydrogen and electrolyte as they age and self-discharge, and the potassium hydroxide that escapes corrodes the contacts. Over several years it will usually destroy the light. Lithium primaries do not fail this way.
How often should I check emergency flashlights?
Once a year takes ten minutes: switch each one on, check the compartments for corrosion, check the spares date, top up anything rechargeable. Tie it to a date you already remember, like a clock change.
Should an outage kit use rechargeable lights?
Some, not all. Rechargeables self-discharge and will all be flat at the same time. Keep the waiting lights on lithium primaries or mains-charged in a socket, and use rechargeables for the lights you handle regularly.
How much light does a household actually need in an outage?
Less than people expect. Around 500 lumens of area light makes a room usable, and 100 to 200 lumens of directional light finds anything indoors. Coverage and shelf life are the constraints, not output.
Sources
Every figure on this page came from one of the documents below, read on the date shown. We do not cite other review sites, forum posts or video reviews as sources of fact.
Read next
Best flashlights for power outages
Outage lighting ranked on shelf life, area coverage and findability rather than on output.
Best flashlights for home use
Household lighting ranked on coverage: socket lights, lanterns and a handheld that will still work in two years.
Flashlights for kids
Children's flashlights ranked on findability and durability rather than on any performance figure.
Flashlight vs lantern
Directional versus area light, with the illuminance arithmetic for choosing between them.
Flashlight runtime, computed
How runtime is defined, why thermal step-down happens, and the arithmetic to compute a real figure yourself.
Found a number that is wrong? Tell us and we will fix it and say so. Our methodology shows every formula on this page.