As a Midwesterner raised near Lake Erie, I have firsthand experience with winter’s wrath. Although my sister and I once poked fun at our neighbors’ constant pre-storm hoarding of bread, milk, and eggs, I eventually came to appreciate the wisdom behind their preparations. My parents taught us to slow-drip faucets to prevent frozen pipes and to fill the bathtub as a backup water supply.
Despite my upbringing, while living in East Texas years later, I was completely blindsided by the February 2021 snowstorm. Neither my family nor the state’s infrastructure was prepared for the extreme conditions. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas promised controlled rolling blackouts, but they were anything but—the power grid failed, leaving millions, including my loved ones, without electricity for days.
Although I wished I had bought a collapsible water container before the storm, one unassuming item that I was especially thankful for was an emergency light bulb set I received as a stocking stuffer a few years back. At the time it seemed insignificant, but when you’re without power for 10 days, you discover a newfound appreciation for simple things, like having a reliable light source for going to the bathroom. It made the difference between eating in total darkness and sharing a meal with loved ones under a comforting glow during a stressful time.
I had completely forgotten that two of these bulbs were installed in my guest-bedroom lamps. To my surprise, when I opened the door to grab something from the closet, I was greeted by a well-lit room. The lamps were still on—the emergency bulbs were doing their job.
Top pick
This light bulb charges while you have power, stays on in an outage, and fits into standard fixtures.
Nebo’s Blackout Backup Emergency Bulb looks and operates like a regular LED bulb, with a standard-size E26 base that fits into the socket of most lamps, ceiling fans, and recessed fixtures. It puts out 850 lumens at 3,000 kelvins, emitting a soft white glow that’s slightly yellow in appearance.
The emergency bulb has a built-in battery that charges whenever you turn on the light fixture or switch. When the power is on, it operates like a traditional bulb, and you can turn it off and on with a light switch. When the power goes out, the bulb automatically switches into battery-backup mode but still operates like a regular bulb, controlled by your light switch. No fumbling around for a remote control or digging through the junk drawer for a flashlight. I have a floor lamp in my office next to my desk in which I installed two emergency bulbs, so they’re always charged and readily accessible.
The Blackout Backup Bulb comes with what Nebo calls a “power cap,” which is essentially a dummy light socket with a hook attached, allowing you to carry it like a flashlight or hang it on a nail, hanger, cabinet pull, or other piece of hardware. During outages, I use the power-capped bulb as a handheld light to explore dark spaces such as the pantry, cabinets, and closets. The cap’s flexible hook freed my hands countless times during the 2021 winter storm, making it easy for me to shower, shave, and cook.
Although the bulb isn’t dimmable, it offers adjustable brightness settings. When the power’s on, it shines at 850 lumens, but during an outage, it switches to backup mode, with three adjustable brightness levels that range between 80 and 500 lumens. To adjust the brightness level of the emergency bulb, you just turn the switch, fixture, or holder off and then back on within one second; repeating this process cycles through the three brightness levels.
Choosing a lower setting can significantly extend the battery life; Nebo says the bulb will last for 12 hours on low power and two hours on high. To determine the bulb’s actual run time, I set up a time-lapse before bed, turned the bulb to the medium power setting, and recorded it under a clock. The bulb met the advertised claim of a six-hour run time but gradually dimmed over that time.
Charging this bulb fully takes 12 hours, but once you put it back in a socket, it immediately lights up—assuming you have power. Since it doesn’t have a USB port, you can’t charge it directly from a wall outlet.
If you find yourself in an outage lasting longer than the bulb’s battery life, you can charge it by powering a lamp using a portable power station or generator. A 1,000-watt power station, for example, can power this bulb for about 17 days if you use it for six hours daily. If you’re particularly conscious of energy use, note that this emergency LED bulb uses only 8 watts of power, which costs about 96¢ per year.
Nebo’s parent company, Alliance Consumer Group, has a solid 50-year track record, and the emergency bulb is backed by a one-year warranty. It’s also one of the few models that are safe for use in damp locations and outdoors, though it isn’t fully waterproof. Plus, it’s ETL listed, which means it has been tested by Intertek Testing Laboratories and verified to meet rigorous safety standards for electrical products. The one thing I’d change: I wish the bulb had a power indicator light so that I could gauge how much battery life it had left.
If you can spare around $10 for an emergency bulb, I promise you won’t regret picking up a couple. These bulbs are a set-it-and-forget-it piece of emergency prep, and you’ll never have to fumble around in the darkness of an unexpected power outage again.
This article was edited by Jen Gushue and Harry Sawyers.
