In our little preparations for emergencies, we try to come up with likely emergencies. Yeah, it's great to prep for the zombie apocalypse with your many guns and tactical knives, but come on.
So a power outage is something that does happen, and depending where you live--may happen frequently. For instance, where we live the most common reason for a power outage is a really heavy wet snow.
We have some camping lanterns that we would use first during a power outage (to be discussed later). However, I thought it important to have some back up sources of lighting for when we don't have batteries to run these lanterns.
Over the past year, I've collected enough candles to light our home for several days:
While helping my parents clean out their basement, we came across many old candles just lying around. They did not want them, so I brought them home for my emergency kit. Some of them were deformed and unusable, so I melted them down into an old jam jar.
We have received some candles as gifts. Some aren't scented, so they go right into our stock. Others are scented, but after a while we get sick of the scent and then add it to the collection.
Sometimes we get candles that we absolutely love. Eventually, the wax gets down to about 1/2 inch. At that point, the candles doesn't burn as well, and we've heard it is actually dangerous to burn that low. So we break out the remaining into chunks to be melted down later.
When I first wanted to have non-electric light sources, I simply thought the best way was to buy wax and reuse old jars to make my own candles. I found a website that explained these candles cost about $2 a piece, less than half what you'd find at the store. I made the equivalent of 6 regular sized candles from a 5 lb bag of soy wax flakes that I paid $13 for. Yep, just over $2 a piece.
Then the holidays hit. One day, about a week after New Years, I was walking through the grocery store and happened to pass the Christmas clearance carts. Well, I found these large, well-scented candles for $1.50 a piece. All ready to go, no work needed. (Making your own candles takes time, and can be messy)
My wife would only let me get 4, since I already had a decent candle supply at the time. If you're just starting out and time it right, this can be a great way to get a good supply of candles.
I think the very first type of candle I worked toward was a completely 'no-cost' candle. So I gathered a couple salsa jars, and rounded up all the old and broken crayons I could--after all crayons are made of wax. Going green while prepping. Though this is a great idea, it actually takes a lot of crayons to fill a salsa jar. I fill the jars with crayons until they reach the top, and then melt them down. I use a paperclip to weigh down the string, and a toothpick across the top to keep from losing my string wick. One note of caution, burning crayons don't smell very good.
If you're looking to start your own emergency candle collection, the easiest and cheapest way I've found so far, is simply getting a bunch of blank religious candles from the dollar store. At first I was hesitant to buy these, because I didn't want to offend anybody by not using them for their intended purpose--it might be sacrilegious or something. Then it occurred to me that these are for emergency purposes, nobody is going to care, and besides, if it is an emergency, I'll probably be praying anyway...
Each one of these candles will burn nonstop for a couple of days. One online source even says as much as 90 hours per candle. Since they're tall and skinny, they don't give off as much light, but putting a couple in each room should get you by just fine for a few days.
So here is my complete candle collection. I'm pretty confident that we'll be able to hold out for a few days in a power outage. Just don't forget the matches...
