From the Barber's Chair: Emergency Lighting

My barber forwarded an email to me that describes an emergency light source that you may already have around your house -- literally around your house. It's one of those ideas that seems so obvious, yet so few think of it.

Here's the email:

Last week, a thunderstorm rolled through our neighborhood and a huge oak tree came down on some power lines, creating a power outage for a large area around us. We lost power for about 5 hours.

We were scrambling around in the darkness, looking for matches,

candles, flashlights, etc.

We looked Outside, and noticed our solar lights shining brightly all

around our patio, stairs, dock, etc. They were beautiful. Pat

walked outside, and brought several of the solar lights inside.

We stuck the solar light pipes into plastic drink bottles containers

and they made the nicest, brightest, safest, lighting you could

ever imagine. We put one in the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, etc. There was plenty of light.

There are all types of solar lights available. We put them all around our yard. They look nice and they do not attract flying bugs like the outdoor lights around our doorway.

The lights we have fit into the small (20oz) water bottles and

they also fit into most of the larger liter bottles. If you need

a weight in the plastic bottle to keep them from tipping over,

you can put a few of the pretty colorful "flat marbles" that they

put in aquariums, and vases. (you can also use sand, aquarium

gravel, etc., whatever you have available).

The lights we have were perfect inside our home. They burn

all night long if you need them. The next day, you just take your solar lights back outside and they will instantly recharge and be ready for you to use again any time you need them. Perfect for power outages , hurricanes, etc.