When the power goes out, light is usually the first thing you notice you don’t have — and one of the easiest things to actually prepare for. A little planning here goes a long way toward keeping a power outage calm instead of stressful.
Our general guide on what to do when the power goes out touches on this briefly. This piece goes deeper on the one question that trips people up most: what should you actually have on hand, and what should you skip?
Why candles aren’t the answer
Candles feel like the obvious backup, but they’re genuinely one of the riskier choices. An open flame in a dark, unfamiliar house — with people moving around more than usual — adds a real fire risk at exactly the moment emergency services may be busiest. Candles also light a much smaller area than most people expect, so it typically takes several to cover one room adequately.
Battery-powered lights avoid all of this, which is why they’re the recommended first choice for home emergency lighting. If you already have candles, keep them as a genuine last resort — not the plan.
The three lighting tools worth having
A layered approach covers every real scenario without over-buying:
- A flashlight or headlamp per person — a headlamp is worth the small extra cost specifically
because it keeps your hands free for anything else you need to do in the dark.
- A lantern for each main room — a lantern spreads light across a whole room rather than a
narrow beam, which matters most in shared spaces like a kitchen or living room.
- One backup, solar or hand-crank powered — for outages that run long enough to drain
batteries, a solar or crank-charged light means you’re not fully dependent on a battery stockpile.
Practical tip: a reasonable rule of thumb is one lantern per main room your household actually uses, plus one flashlight or headlamp per person — enough to cover real use without turning this into a shopping project.
Batteries: what actually matters
Whichever lights you choose, they’re only as reliable as what powers them:
- Alkaline batteries are fine for everyday use and are the cheapest option
- Lithium batteries last longer on the shelf and perform better in cold, which matters if your
lights sit unused for months between real outages
- Rechargeables are the most cost-effective if you actually remember to keep them charged —
worth pairing with a small solar charger if you’re prone to letting things run flat
Whatever you choose, check and rotate batteries roughly twice a year — dead batteries in a drawer are the most common reason emergency lighting fails when it’s actually needed.
Where to keep everything
Lights that are hard to find in the dark defeat their own purpose. Keep at least one flashlight or lantern somewhere genuinely easy to locate without light — a bedside drawer, just inside the front door, or wherever your household already keeps its 72-hour kit — rather than stored away in a closet you’d need light to search through.
A simple starting setup
If you’re building this from nothing, this covers the real scenarios without overbuying:
- One lantern for the kitchen or main living space
- One lantern for a bedroom or secondary space
- One flashlight or headlamp per household member
- One solar or hand-crank backup light
- A stock of the battery type you chose, checked twice a year
Putting it together
Good emergency lighting isn’t about having the most gear — it’s about having a few reliable tools, in a place you can actually find them in the dark, with batteries that haven’t quietly died in a drawer. Skip the candles as your primary plan, favor battery-powered lights, and check your setup twice a year, and lighting stops being the stressful part of a power outage.
If you haven’t built out the rest of your emergency kit yet, our guide on what goes in a 72-hour emergency kit covers the full list, and the free 72-Hour Family Guide walks through the complete kit and family plan step by step.
FAQ
Are candles ever an acceptable backup? Only as a last resort, and never left unattended. Battery-powered flashlights and lanterns are the recommended first choice specifically because they remove the fire risk that candles add in a dark, more chaotic household.
How many flashlights does an average household actually need? A reasonable starting point is one flashlight or headlamp per person, plus one lantern per main room your household regularly uses — enough for real coverage without over-buying.
Do I need to buy expensive lights, or will basic ones work? Basic battery-powered flashlights and lanterns cover the vast majority of real outages. The one upgrade genuinely worth prioritizing is a solar or hand-crank light, specifically for outages that run long enough to drain your battery stock.
How often should I check my emergency lights? Twice a year is a reasonable rhythm — test that lights still turn on, and rotate or replace batteries. Dead batteries are the most common reason emergency lighting fails when it’s actually needed.
Where should I store emergency lights so I can find them without power? Somewhere you can locate by feel in the dark — a bedside drawer or just inside the front door — rather than in a closet or storage box you’d need light to search through in the first place.