Last Updated on April 26, 2023 by Lisa Vargas
As I write this post, California is a blazing inferno. People are losing their homes right and left in Southern California, which is about 3 hours from my home. I’ve driven the 405 freeway a million times on my way to Santa Monica for a weekend at the beach and can only imagine the chaos that is ensuing in that area.
At the same time, PG&E has been forcing rolling blackouts to help curb potential wildfires on communities closer to home such as Bakersfield, CA and I’m sitting here wondering when it will eventually hit my city of Fresno.
I’m not taking any chances, and have stocked up on a few extra items just in case of power outages in my area. I can’t help but think to myself if my short-term prepping skills will finally be put to the test.
Since all of the buzz on the news is around power outages, I wanted to do a post that will hopefully help you to choose the best LED lantern for power outages. Just thinking about these power outages makes me think how lucky we are to have electricity in the first place. If we ever had to learn how to live without electricity for the long term, we might be in for a big surprise.
Before we look at the best LED lanterns for power outages, let’s look a little closer in detail at the LED lighting system and what makes it such a fantastic and bright light.
What Exactly Does "LED" mean?
LED stands for light emitting diode. An LED is an electronic device that emits light when an electrical current is passed through it. The fame of the LED light is in the efficiency in which it produces light.
It is said to produce light 90% more efficiently than incadescent light bulbs. It’s interesting to learn that LED lights do not necessary “burn out” or fail like regular bulbs. LED lights will fade over time and become less bright.
You will also notice the word “lifetime” on some of the LED lanterns that we look at today. Lifetime is established on a prediction of when the output of the light decreases more than 30%.
When reading Energy Star’s website they noted that, “LEDs use heat sinks to absorb the heat produced by the LED and dissipate it into the surrounding environment. This keeps LEDs from overheating and burning out.” This is a key component to LED lighting as well.
What Are Lumens?
According to Lumens.com, lumens are “a unit of luminous flux in the International System of Units, that is equal to the amount of light given out through a solid angle by a source of one candela intensity radiating equally in all directions.”
Lumens are important because they are a direct measurement of the brightness thatis emitted from the object. This is why you will see many manufacturers competing with the amount of lumens their product submits.
And to some extent,that’s a big part of choosing the best products. Products with higher lumens tend to be more expensive.
When we start analyzing the lanterns below, you will notice the higher the number of lumens, the more pricier the lantern will be. But for our list today, we have taken a few other factors into account to determine the best LED lanterns for power outages as you will learn later on.
Below you will see a chart that that compares lumens vs. watts. LED lighting was so exciting when it first came out because of how efficient it was compared to the old incandescent light bulbs. You can see below an example of what we are talking about.
What To Look For In The Best LED Lanterns
There are a few unique factors you should be looking for when shopping for the best LED lanterns, especially to be used for power outages, because brightness will obviously play a factor.
Brightness Expressed In Lumens
As we talked extensively about above, brightness will be one of the biggest determining factors when choosing the best LED lantern. You have to think of the situation you and your family will be in during a power outage. Most likely you will be at home, and wanting to do normal “at home” things as much as possible.
Is Red Lighting Available?
Having red lighting capabilities is a unique feature that you may want to have if you think you might be working in the dark. There is certainly a science behind it, and the reason why manufacturers started making lanterns with red lighting capabilities.
The best way to describe it is the red light allows you to preserve your night vision while working. There is an interesting debate and more information about it here.
A lot of military bunkers, photographers in the dark room, and submarines for example will use this. It will allow you to have enough light to work by, while keeping your eyes adjusted to the dark.
It’s a pretty cool feature to have, but it’s not absolutely necessary. You will have to decide yourself if you will be working at night and will need a feature like red lighting.
How Is The Lantern Powered?
There are a variety of different ways that lanterns can be powered but in a power outage you will definitely need to have a battery powered lantern that uses either lithium ion batteries, alkaline batteries, or rechargeable batteries.
There are even some LED lanterns that can use both lithium ion and alkaline batteries. Note that lithium ion batteries perform much better in cold temperatures, so if you live in a colder climate, and need to use your LED lantern outdoors, don’t choose to go with alkaline batteries.
Rechargeable batteries are typically power-packs that are sold with the lantern. You have to be careful though because if the power goes out, you can recharge the battery pack with no electricity.
So either make sure the power pack is fully charged or make sure you have some extra lithium ion batteries stocked up in the house.
5 Best LED Lanterns For Power Outages
Below you will find the 5 top rated LED lanterns when there is a power outage. These lanterns were specifically chosen for the greatest durability, brightness, and ease of use during a power outage.
With its tough and rugged exterior and extremely bright light, we chose the Tough Light LED Rechargeable Lantern. See below for more details.
Tough Light LED Rechargeable Lantern
- Weight: 1.3 pounds
- Dimensions: 3.5 x 3.5 x 7
- Uses one 6000mAh lithium-ion battery
- Comes with 2 USB cables which can be stored inside of the bottom of lantern itself
- Built in hanging hook
- Extra utility hook also included
- Takes 4 to 7 hours to fully charge
There are several emergency features to this LED lantern including an SOS beacon, a light that lasts 265 hours from one charge, and a red flashing hazard light that last 526 hours. It’s outer shell is made from military-grade rubber and plastic, which makes it super tough, along with having an IPX-6 water resistant rating.
This is a wonderful little lantern that is convenient and easy to use in power outages, for camping, or any outdoor use as well. You can charge this lantern using your laptop through the USB cord that comes inside the box. When lantern is being charged, it will have a red indicator light, and then when it’s fully charged it will turn green. A very nice lantern meant to be used for emergency situations.
Pros
- Can be charged from any USB charger block
- The same charger that is used for cell phones can be used to charge this lantern
- Rugged and durable
- Drop Tested to 5 feet
- 30 day money back guarantee plus a 2 year warranty
Cons
- Charger block not included
- Be aware that even though it offers 200 hours of light, the light will only be at 40 lumens (which is low) during that extended amount of time
Coleman Quad LED Lantern Special Edition
The Coleman Quad LED Lantern is a really cool lantern that will last you a good 75 hours without having to change the batteries. This lantern is a little different than the rest in that it have 4 light panels on the outside that fold up and form the lantern. The panels can be taken out one by one and used in other areas of the home when there are power outages. Each of the panels has 47.5 lumens, which accounts for a total of 190 lumens. With 190 lumens of light, it makes for a bright source to use for any part of the house.
- Dimensions: 6.5 x 11.7 inches
- Weight: 6.15 pounds with batteries
- Uses 8 D-cell batteries
- 190 lumens
- Brightness range: 26 ft.
- Water resistant (although no official IPX rating)
If you remember from above, I mentioned about “lifetime” LEDS. This is the first lantern that we came across that has “lifetime” LEDS that never need replacing. This has 24 LED light bulbs on 4 panels. The lenses are nice because they are designed to reduce the glare so it doesn’t hurt your eyes. It’s been noted that some of the panels have stopped working after a while on this lantern, so everyone will have a different experience with it. If you don’t like the fact you have to buy the heavy D-cell batteries, there is an adapter you can use instead.
Pros
- 5 year limited warranty
- Reduce-glare lenses
- Can be broken up and used as separate lights
Cons
- Cannot charge with USB cable
- Some reports of side panel failures
- Have to use 8 D-cell batteries
STREAMLIGHT 44931 THE SIEGE LANTERN
This Streamlight 44931 Siege Lantern was a close 2nd place for us and is an amazing little lantern for its size. The only reason we didn’t choose this one was because it requires the use of 3 double-D alkaline batteries to charge. With that said, you can still get this lantern with a rechargeable battery and USB port but it’s a different model and much more expensive. This lantern comes with red lighting mode for preserving night vision, which is nice is you are going to need this for working at night.
- Extremely bright LED lantern at 540 Lumens at full output
- IPX-7 Waterproof Rating
- Impact resistance from 6.5 ft
- Weight: 15.2 oz.
- Dimensions: 4 x 4 x 7.2 inches
- Easy to read battery life light indicator
- 3 white modes and 2 red modes
We also liked the fact that you could remove the cover on this LED lantern so that it illuminates a much larger area. This durable little lantern has an excellent water proof rating and even floats if you accidentally drop it into your swimming pool (if you have one) during the power outage. If you use this lantern on high, the batteries will run out after about 30 hours, so be careful to use it wisely, or you may want to try rechargeable batteries. There are pros and cons of rechargeable batteries, but you can be the judge of what you will ultimately use.
Please note that all of these lanterns in this blog post have a maximum number of hours they can last at each setting, either high, medium, or low. For example, The Siege will only last 30 hours at 540 lumens (high), 70 hours at 275 lumens (medium), and 295 hours at 55 lumens (low). It’s something to keep in mind during a power outage when trying to light certain parts of the house.
Pros
- Extra d-ring clips for hanging
- Excellent product for the price
- Extra bright for larger areas
- Unique floating feature if dropped in water
- Convenient locking carrying handle
- Removable cover to increase light.
- Red SOS emergency beacon
Cons
- Uses D-cell batteries or rechargeable(not included)
- Quite small
- Top of lantern doesn’t have an “umbrella” to keep light from shining directly in your eyes.
UST 30-Day Duro LED Portable Lantern
The UST 30-Day Duro Lantern works well in emergency situations and power outages due to its versatility and long run time. Even though the light runs for 30 hours on low as opposed to high, when the power is out, most people just want enough light so they can see what they are doing. This lantern also has a convenient hook that allows you to hang it upside down to illuminate a wider area.
- 700 Lumens at varying hours for high, medium, low settings
- Weight: 1.1 pounds
- Dimensions: 7.20″ H x 3.75″ W
- 30 day run time on low setting, 22 hours on high
- Lifetime LED bulbs
- Flashing red SOS light
This lantern has an IPX-4 rating, which isn’t as high as some of the others on this list, but since we are talking about power outages, you are more than likely going to be inside your house when you use this LED lantern. Another great feature of this lantern is that you can remove the globe so that it can then be used as a “forward-facing” light, similar to a flashlight. As far as the settings are concerned, the low setting on this lantern equals 29 lumens, the medium setting is 150 lumens for 3.5 days, 300 lumens for 32 hours.
Pros
- Can run 30 days straight on the lowest lumen setting
- Extremely durable
- Rubberized ABS housing
- Brightness indicator light
- SOS emergency mode button
Cons
- Shorter lantern life on high setting than others
- Lower IPX rating than others
- Has to use D batteries
Blazin' Bolt 400 LED Lantern
I wanted to compare another amazing LED lantern that can be charged using a USB cable, a computer, or a wall charger instead of D-cell batteries for those of you out there that don’t like to worry about battery life. You will notice that these lanterns tend to be more expensive, but it’s worth it if you like the USB capabilities. When you first get this LED lantern you will need to charge it, which will take about 10 hours for a full charge.
- Uses a 6000mAh power bank and can charge your iphone or tablets
- Can be charged with your cigarette lighter in your car
- 1 lithium-ion battery required
- 5 ft. drop resistance tested
- 360 degree of coverage
- Micro USB cable included
- Visibility up to 30 yards away
This little lantern runs for 24 hours at 400 lumens, 75 hours at 165 lumens, 400 hours at 40 lumens, and has an SOS feature that will last up to 300 hours. The red flashing emergency mode works at 10 lumens for 400 hours. There are many great features of this LED lantern that make it a wonderful device in a power outage including the removable top that allows for a single strong beam of light if needed. You can remove the outer cover on this lantern as well to reveal the inner bulb that can flipped upside down and hung from a tent, for example.
Pros
- 100% Lifetime Guarantee
- Charges using power bank and not batteries
- Red flashing indicator when charge on lantern is low
- Extra hanging hook included
Cons
- Wall charger not included
- No rubberized protective bottom
Conclusion
As you can see, there are several different LED lanterns you can choose from but hopefully from the reviews above, you can tell that the best have been selected for you today. Power outages can be an inconvenience, but you can also be prepared so that they don’t cause too much trouble.
Let us know if you’re favorite lantern for power outages is listed here, or if you have another one you would like to suggest.