Emergency lights in shop

[larry cronkite]

I read the thread on emergency generators and it gave a lot of information but what I am looking for is an emergency light just for the workshop
so if the power goes off while I am operating a piece of equipment I can see enough to at least turn it off and/or get out of the way if the power suddenly comes back.

Anyone have any experiences good or bad with any such an item?

[michael osadchuk]

...there are two emergency items in my workshop placed in a position where I know I can find them/reach for them:

- a phone handset (to call 911 in case of a severe emergency accident; health crisis)

- a crank-operated flashlight (so I don't have to worry about expired batteries)...... I imagine a even more immediately accessible light source would be some kind of micro-sized flashlight that I would carry always on my person when in the workshop

...and no, I haven't thought of (and am not persuaded, as yet) installing a more pricey, automatic alternated light source that would come on when house electrical current fails

good luck

michael

[Gary Lange]

Just a thought but would work. Take some of the outside flood lights that are charged by the sun and place them in such a manner that they would shine on the various tools around the shop. Place the charging grid outside on the roof in full sun so they would stay charged. When the lights go out these would come on and light up the shop for you to do whatever you want. They would even keep it lite at night like someone is in the shop.

[Scott Velie]

Most of today's stationary shop tools have magnetic switches. These will not come back on after a power failure.
I have never thought about emergency lighting other than a flashlight.

[Jim Becker]

I would think that you can source something like this from just about any electrical supply house and it's not a terrible idea...

[Jim O'Dell]

We have a hand held light that plugs into a wall outlet that charges an internal battery. When power drops out, the light automatically comes on, and you can pull it from the outlet to use it as a flashlight. The battery is getting weak, and it needs to be replaced, but it still works for a few minutes. It's made by the Coleman Company, Inc., model # 5387B702 (I think!!) I just opened it up and it uses 2 AA rechargeable cells. Easy enough to get. 2 or 3 of these scattered around the shop should do the trick. Hope this helps! Jim.

[Lee Koepke]

i have seen them at big box stores, and plan on getting one myself. i have a flashlight 4 steps directly left of the table saw, slightly above shoulder height on the wall

if you do get commercial type emergency lights make sure they are 120 and not 270V ( as many commercial bldgs have their lighting circuits on 270 )

[Don Bullock]

Since we live in "earthquake country" we have safety lights that plug into outlets in almost every room of the house and one in the garage/shop. The lights com on whenever the electricity shuts off. They work quite well and have come in handy when we have power outages at night. In our last major earthquake these lights helped tremendously as we moved from room to room assessing the damage. It's amazing how dark it is when all electricity is shut off over a large area at night. The ones we currently came from Home Depot.




All the "public places" in California must have a larger version of these lights. I found the following ones at Lowe's that I may install in my new garage/shop once it's built.



Or I might use something like these at Home Depot that don't have to be hardwired. They plug into the wall just like the smaller ones.



I must add that this type of light does have to be tested on a regular basis because the batteries do fail. I simply unplug mine to see if they still work. I do it when I change batteries in my smoke detectors.

[Wayne Cannon]

I have a couple of very inexpensive emergency lights from Ace Hardware very similar to the first picture posted by Don Bullock. A couple of power failures have tested them, and they worked fine. I also keep a couple of heavy-duty flashlights, and use them frequently to assure their batteries are good.

The emergency lights are not extremely bright (the bigger commercial ones are like car headlights), but one at each end of the 30'x30' shop provides plenty of light to illuminate my way through any work or cords that might be in the middle of the floor at the time. One would be adequate.

Pay attention to placement so their light can reach most of the shop and not be blocked -- I have one near the door and one in a ceiling outlet across the shop.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a standard commercial emergency lighting unit in my shop.

I mounted it in a location where one head illuminates the stairway, and the other illuminates the shop area.

In the six years I've had it, I've never once been in the basement during a power failure!

One note, like fire extinguishers, they should be inspected monthly. The unit I purchased has a test button, and I replace the battery at three year intervals.

Regards, Rod.

[John Schreiber]

Most of today's stationary shop tools have magnetic switches. These will not come back on after a power failure.

I have found that while many of the bigger esp. 220v machines have magnetic switches, most others do not.

[dave rollins]

Larry,
You might look at this emergency light, they are not too expensive and should do the trick.
www.ExitLightCo.com >>> The Exit Light Co. >>> Exit Lights, Exit Signs, Emergency Lights
Hope this helps
Dave

[Matt Meiser]

I have one of these from Lowes. Mine came prewired with a cord. I mounted it right over the door since it isn't very bright, but at least I can see the silhouette of anything in my way. Its come in handy a time or two.

[Wayne Cannon]

When I lived in Virginia and Texas where we at least had some significant weather, power outages were measured in seconds for the breakers to switch from one feed direction to another. Now that I live in Northern California with about the mildest weather anywhere, I've had more and longer power outages than anywhere before.