I was thinking about my household emergency kit and how it could be used in the future. I decided to get a lantern to go with it. I’ll break down my thinking around this and then talk about the lantern I got.
Why a Lantern?
They can provide a lot of light to easily light up a room.
This is great as my household emergency kit is being setup to cater for at least 3 people for 2 weeks. Size and weight isn’t much of a concern for me for this kit. It could be when it comes to the grab and go bags though.
A lantern can help people be comfortable at night time a lantern will help provide light for everyone in one room.
Individual flashlights and glowsticks will also be in this emergency kit. I talk about those in other blog posts.
What Type of Lantern?
When it comes to lanterns you have different types to look at. Outside of an emergency situation lamps are usually used in camping situations.
- Electric lanterns
- Fuel burning
- Candle
There are positives and negatives for each kind.
For me personally I am going to go with something that is cost effective. Easy to use and easy to replace it’s power / fuel, all while staying safe in an indoor environment.
So the electric battery powered type is what I am going with.
The Lantern I Went With
I went with the Energizer WeatheReady 360 area lantern. It’s a simple design with a couple of good features.
There seems to be two versions of this lantern. It looks like the one I have is no longer available here locally. The only difference I can tell is the one I have has a USB port so I could charge things from it if I needed to. Also mine has a carry handle while the one in this picture doesn’t seem to.
Pros
- Can run on either 3 x AA batteries or 3 x D batteries
- 3 light settings
- 500 lumens on the brightest setting
- Lowest setting is similar to moonlight and allows a maximum of 650 hour runtime
- Weatherproof
- Has a USB port to charge items
- Drop proof from 1m
- Glow in the dark on/off button
- Designed to last 15 years * Written on some versions but not all
- Opaque plastic to produce a softer glow
Cons
- Bulky
- Low mode is hard to see in daylight so could be accidently left on
Other notes about this lantern
Some versions state 30 hours of runtime on high. Most packaging now says 150 hours runtime on low.
The battery compartment easily unscrews from the base with a decent amount of thread on it. So it takes a few turns to undo. When doing it back up you get a satisfying click once fully closed.
I’m unsure of how fast it would drain the batteries if you had a phone plugged in and was charging it. For that situation you’d want the D batteries installed.
The first two light modes are white, while the third and lowest powered one is a tungsten type light that gives the appearance of candle light.
This is the lowest setting as seen on a bright sunny day.
For me this ticks a lot of boxes. It’s a light that will spend most of it’s time either on the table or kitchen bench when needed.
The Energizer 360 Area Lantern
For the price and features with the quality it all comes together for me. Energizer make a lot of products. I’ve noticed that over time the products will change as well, or might not be available where you live.
It pays to research what is out there.
This lantern feel sturdy to me. I’m not sure how many drops it could withstand but I don’t plan on doing that regularly.
It can store both sets of batteries in the unit. So 3 x D and 3 x AA can be in the unit at once. But only one set can actually be used to provide power. There is an image on the bottom of the lantern showing this.
I wonder if the current versions don’t have the USB port as that is a likely point for water to get into it. Or was it a cost saving measure and not many people would use it? I’m unsure.
If I was using a lantern multiple times a year in different circumstances I might go for something else.
A theme you’ll see a lot in my blog posts is that I want it to work when I need it and the rest of the time it will be sitting with the rest of the household emergency kit just in case there is an emergency.
What are your go-to lanterns for your own kits or for camping? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
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