All About Emergency Lighting

Help keep your home safe and secure with our guide

Have you ever had your power go out, and you're stuck for hours with no way to see? Emergency lighting can make your life much easier during those critical times. Although these lights are not required by law for your home, unlike commercial buildings, they serve a variety of purposes. Here's why you should consider adding them to your home.

Emergency lighting provides safety. In the event of a power outage, emergency lights will come on, enabling you to vacate your home, if needed.

Emergency lighting that comes from a battery source is bright. While candles, light sticks, and flashlights emit some light, emergency lights are just as bright as regular lights.

Emergency lights are versatile. You can mount them on a wall or ceiling. Some companies even offer emergency lighting systems that are stored inside the wall and open when your electricity gets shut off.

Emergency lighting systems can be built into your regular compact or fluorescent lighting fixtures, providing convenience. When the emergency lights come on, it will look like the lighting your fixture usually produces.

Keep it lit

Once you have decided to add emergency lighting to your home, you'll need to know a little bit about the different products available to you.

Emergency lighting with LED (light-emitting diodes) bulbs can be battery operated, have a long life, and are extremely reliable. LED's are also used as emergency vehicle lights.

Big beam (flood light) emergency lights are battery operated, and emit extremely bright beams of light in the event of a power failure. Although these are rather clunky looking, they get the job done.

Fluorescent emergency basalt lights use a regular fixture. The battery kicks on when the regular lights go out. Since these double as "regular" lights, you won't have to buy a separate lighting system.

Other bright options

If you don't want to install emergency lights into your home, here are a few other options that will ensure you won't be left in the dark.

Flashlights. Make sure you are well stocked with emergency light batteries, too.

Lanterns. Gas lanterns are incandescent and burn a fuel such as propane or kerosene.

Candles. Keep candles and waterproof matches on hand. Although small candles won't burn long, they'll produce enough light for you to see by.

Emergency strobe lights. Although you won't get too much use out of these in your home (unless you're having a party), they work well for cars. In an emergency, another person will be able to see your lights from up to three miles away.

More information on emergency lights