UPDATE: 02/20/2014. It looks like 1–800-Prepare is no longer carrying the Ascella Flashlight Lightbulb . However, I found it on Amazon.com for you here .
Well, I’ve been talking to one of the guys over at 1–800-Prepare about a new product they brought on. It’s a light bulb. No, it’s a flashlight. No, it screws into my light socket, so it’s a lightbulb. Well, It’s both, really. A light bulb and a flashlight. See, Ascella designed this cool and ingenious little device that doubles as both a light bulb for your lamps at home or in the office, as well as an emergency flashlight in the event your power goes out.
Let me give you some of the features:
- 26 LED bulbs. I counted them.
- 150 Lumens (about the same as a 25 / 30 Watt incandescent bulb)
- 20,000 hours of life capacity
- Only uses 5 Watts of power
- Just like the emergency lights in your office, if the power goes out the light actually turns on. I played with this by unplugging my lamp humoring myself until I was satisfied that it worked.
- When you unscrew the bulb from the socket, the neck extends like a flashlight so you can ergonomically get a better grip on it to carry around the house with you…
- It never gets hot to the touch, so you don’t have to worry about the bulb burning you if you have had it on for a couple hours in your lamp
- Lifespan of the internal battery lasted just over three hours when I let it burn… Not bad.
Overall, a pretty cool device. The selfish guy in me wishes the Lumens were higher/brighter so that I could use it in my living room all the time. I think it would be fine if you had several of these bulbs in a chandelier type of lamp in the kitchen that might be attached to a ceiling fan as you would have multiple bulbs as a source of light. The prepper in me says that this is a cool bulb that is going to make it to a lamp either in my bedroom or in my home office and always be in emergency mode, so that I can find my way to it if the power goes out on me. In fact I may buy a couple for myself as well as a couple during holiday season as stocking stuffers / gifts for family, prepper, and non preppers alike.
Overall, I can see having a few of these around the house. I give it 4 solid stars out of 5.
Here is a video I found after writing this up:
In reply to Lusitan .
Lusitan Cool beans. Like I said, I am going to get a few more myself, and with the holidays, I may buy a few as gifts for the holidays…
Thanks — I agree, these seem like a good idea. I am going to give one a try.
In reply to Lusitan .
Lusitan If you want to turn the light off, you have to switch it off on the bulb itself if the power is out. You cannot use the light switch on the wall to turn it off if the power is out and the bulb is illuminated.
In reply to Lusitan .
Lusitan If it has a regular socket it would screw into, the answer is yes. I have one. It was sent to me by 1–800-prepare.com. I have it in a desk lamp. When the power went out, it went on, and I moved the desk lamp to the kitchen where I used it to cook food in the evening so I didn’t have to hold the lantern or a flashlight. Realistically, it is probably 25 — 30 watts, but it lasts a LONG time, and you can turn it on and off like a flashlight.
To answer your question, yes, it works like an emergency light, assuming you keep it plugged in and it charges/stays charged.
After, going through this hurricane, I am going to buy about three more just to have them in the event of another power outage. Two hurricanes, two years, it is time to have more of the backup stuff I/we need.
They would be good for your scenario…
P.S. And when I say I want to leave the light “off” I mean that I don’t want it illuminated, I could leave the light switched “on” but I just want it dark (until the power goes out). Would it work that way with an overhead light fixture?
Do you actually have one of these ASCELLA bulbs? If so, does it work in an overhead light? More specifically, I have an overhead light that we never use in the hallway of the upstairs of my home. I was thinking that it would be great if I could put an ASCELLA bulb up there and leave the light OFF all the time (as we normally do) but then if power went out the light would automatically sense that the house lost power (how it would do that, I don’t understand, since the light would be off?) and then turn on; like emergency lighting that only comes on when a blackout happens.
Does it work this way? Can you test that out for me? These things are expensive, but if it worked like that it may be worth it for me.
I’m thinking of a scenario where, say, my wife and kids are upstairs doing the whole get-ready-for-bed routine (which is a complex process with 3 kids five and under!) and the power suddenly goes out. What would surely be a bit of pandemonium in complete blackness would be much better if that overhead light in the hallway kicked on.