Lighting During Power Outages in the Holiday Blizzard of 2010

My brother just emailed me a photo of his car buried in snow in Maplewood, NJ. His house got about 20 inches of snow. He was dreading having to dig out his car, which would take more than an hour. But at least he did not have a power outage caused by the blizzard. More than 2 million people lost power at some point during the blizzard. What did they have prepared for the power outage? Here is our estimate of how unprepared people were for a power outage:

Candles Only – 14%
Flashlights Without Working Batteries – 17%
Flashlights / Lanterns Only – 21%
Nothing – 22%
Flashlights / Lanterns and Candles – 26%

Having flashlights without batteries is a big mistake – by our estimates around 350,000 homes found themselves without working flashlights during the blizzard. More than 450,000 people had no emergency light source ready. Remember the sinking feeling you get when the power goes out and you realize that you are not prepared with any emergency lights? The people living in these 800,000 homes all had that feeling during this recent blizzard.

The solution to lighting your home during a power outage is wireless lighting. We recommend that every home has at least one flashlight for these power outages, but an even better solution is wireless lighting like the LED lights from Mr. Beams. Wireless lighting is a category of lights that use batteries instead of direct wiring to electricity. Mr. Beams has perfected this type of lighting by using the brightest LEDs, the best motion sensors, the most efficient components to extend battery life, and simple ways to attach the wireless lights to any surface.

The leading solution to light your home during a power outage is the Mr. Beams LED Ceiling Light. The Mr. Beams LED Ceiling Light can attach to any wall, ceiling, closet or porch in minutes. This wireless light will only activate when it is dark (it has a light sensor) and only activate when it detects motion (motion sensor). It is so bright that it can light up an entire hallway, yet so efficient that it gets more than 2,400 activations on one set of batteries.

A complete line of lighting solutions for power outages and blackouts are available from Mr. Beams at www.mrbeams.com.