Light when the power goes – the head, the table, the pillow

It is a Monday in January, quarter past four. The seven-year-old is in the bath with a bubble beard, the four-year-old is building Lego on the hall floor, and outside dusk has already turned into evening. Then there is a click and everything goes black. The bathroom has no window, so you cannot see anything at all in there. The four-year-old starts crying in the hall, and the seven-year-old shouts that they cannot see the tap. Someone feels for the phone in their pocket, someone else remembers there ought to be a torch in a drawer, but which one?

The first few minutes decide whether the evening becomes an adventure or chaos, and it comes down to one thing: whether the family knows where the light is. This guide is built on a simple model to remember: the head, the table, the pillow. Every person has a light on their head, the room where you gather has a light on the table, and every bed has a light by the pillow. On top of that there is one rule for everything that burns: one flame, one adult.

The big picture on power cuts, heat, food and water is in power cuts – how to cope, and the wider equipment list is in gear and home preparedness. This guide is only about light.

The head: one lamp per person

The head torch is the most important lamp in the house. It leaves both hands free to carry a child, pour water or cook on the storm cooker, and it goes with whoever heads to the toilet. That is why everyone needs their own, even the four-year-old. A child with their own light feels safer, and you avoid everyone crowding round the same torch.

Teach the children to point the lamp down when they talk to someone, so nobody gets dazzled. Red light is good at night, because your eyes keep their night vision.

Tip: The family's head torches usually come from the outdoor gear box, and that is exactly right. Give them a fixed place at home instead of leaving them in the rucksack, and see the packing list for camping with kids for the rest of the outdoor gear.

The table: a light that brings the family together

In the room where the family spends the evening, a battery lantern should light up the whole table. It gives everyone even light with no fire risk. Ideally hang it high up on a hook, so the light spreads better and dazzles less.

If you do not have a lantern, there is a trick from camp life. Strap a head torch round a clear water container or a large plastic bottle of water, with the lamp pointing into the water. The water spreads the light, and the container glows like a lantern.

Gathering the family round one lantern saves both batteries and heat. How to make the room warm is covered in a warm room when the power goes.

The pillow: the light for the night

By every bed there should be a torch or a battery-powered candle, always in the same place, so whoever wakes up can find it by feel. For the children it can be a small battery night light that glows softly all night.

A lit candle must never stand by the pillow. The authorities are clear: do not use candles while you sleep. Put out all candles before the last adult goes to bed, and do one last round with the head torch.

Watch out for the small LED candles that look like tealights. Many run on button batteries, and a button battery swallowed by a small child can cause very serious injuries. Choose candles where the battery cover is screwed shut, and keep the spare batteries as high up as the medicines. If you suspect a child has swallowed a battery, call Giftinformationscentralen (the Swedish Poisons Information Centre) straight away on 010-456 67 00, day or night, or 112 if the child is struggling to breathe or seems affected.

The batteries: the lowest setting decides

The figure on the packaging is easily misleading. The run time is usually measured until the light has dropped to a tenth of its starting brightness, so the last part is dim. Some head torches state even longer times, measured until they only give a faint glow close up. Look at the lowest setting as well, not the brightest. It lasts many times longer and is almost always enough for moving between rooms or playing cards.

In January it is dark from around four o'clock, so the lantern on the table is on for many hours every evening. A rule of thumb for a week is at least two spare sets of batteries per lamp, and more for the lantern.

1. Alkaline batteries are the most common. They work well but have one weakness. If they are left sitting in a lamp, they can leak a corrosive liquid that ruins the contacts. So take the batteries out of lamps that are stored in the emergency box, and keep them next to the lamp, in their packaging. They also lose a lot in the cold, and manufacturers usually say they work down to about minus 18 degrees.
2. Lithium batteries in AA and AAA cost more, but they rarely leak, weigh less, keep for many years in storage and work down to about minus 40 degrees. They suit the lamp that lives in the car, at the cabin or in a cold hallway.
3. Rechargeable batteries are best for lamps that are used often. Choose low self-discharge ones, which hold their charge for months. Head torches with a built-in battery are handy but only shine for as long as you can charge them, so a lamp that takes both its own battery and ordinary AAA batteries is the safest choice. Charging from a power bank, the car and a solar panel is covered in charging your phone without electricity, and the same maths applies to the lamps.

Keep new batteries in their original packaging, not loose among coins, paper clips and keys, as the terminals can short-circuit. Tape over the terminals of 9-volt batteries and button cells that are going to be thrown away.

Tip: Do the battery check on 1 December, on Brandvarnardagen, Sweden's annual smoke alarm day. Test the smoke alarms, switch on every lamp in the emergency box and replace whatever is weak at the same time.

Sort out the dark before it comes

A light you have but cannot find is no help. Give every lamp a fixed place and stick to it, like a hook by the front door for the head torches and a basket on the shelf for the lantern and the batteries.

• A torch by the fuse box. The first thing you do when the power goes is check whether a fuse or the residual current device has tripped. That is hard without light.
• Glow-in-the-dark tape. A strip of glow-in-the-dark tape on the lamps' hook, on the torch and on the top stair means you can see them in the first few minutes of darkness. The tape charges up from ordinary light and glows faintly afterwards.
• Charge before it gets dark. If the outage lasts several days, charge head torches and rechargeable batteries from the power bank in the middle of the day. By three o'clock every lamp should be charged and in its place.
• One light switch left on. Leave an ordinary ceiling light switched on so you notice when the power comes back. At the same time, switch off the cooker, the iron and anything else that could be dangerous when the electricity suddenly returns.

One flame, one adult

Candles, tealights and paraffin lamps give a warm light and a little heat, and they are on the authorities' list for home preparedness. But candles are also a common cause of house fires, and during a long power cut they burn for more hours than usual, in rooms full of blankets and sleeping bags. That is why the rule is: every flame has an adult in the same room.

• Stand candles firmly on a surface that cannot burn, in a candlestick or on a saucer with a little water.
• Keep them away from curtains, blankets, cushions and clothes drying.
• Space tealights well apart, never close together, as they heat each other up.
• Put them out when you leave the room, even for a moment.
• Place candles high enough that children and tails cannot reach them. A cat jumping onto the table can knock a candle over in a second. More about pets in preparedness for dogs and cats.
• The children do not light the candles, but they can be candle wardens who remind the adults to put them out.

Paraffin and oil lamps give a lot of light and burn for a long time, but they need more care. First check that the lamp is made for indoor use, as some hurricane lanterns may only be used outdoors. Stand it firmly with clear space above the glass, which gets very hot. If the flame is sooty, the wick is turned up too high, so turn it down.

Refill when the lamp is out and cold, ideally outdoors or over a tray, and only with lamp oil or paraffin, never petrol, lighter fluid or methylated spirit. Do not fill to the brim, and wipe up any spills before you light it. Keep the fuel in its original bottle, high up and never in a drinks bottle. If a child swallows lamp oil or paraffin, even by sucking on the wick, it can slip down into the airways and cause breathing difficulties and, in serious cases, chemical pneumonia. Do not make the child vomit; call Giftinformationscentralen instead.

Everything that burns uses up oxygen and can give off soot. Air the room regularly, especially when several candles and a lamp are burning in a small room you have sealed up to keep the heat in. If you are also heating with a stove or bottled gas, a carbon monoxide alarm belongs in the room.

The smoke alarm and the extinguisher

When the home is lit by flames, the smoke alarm is what keeps watch. A battery smoke alarm works as normal when the power goes. If yours are wired to the mains, check that they have a back-up battery. Have at least one on every floor, near the bedrooms and next to the kitchen, and test them once a month by pressing the button. If the smoke alarm gives a short beep about once a minute, the battery is running out, so keep a spare at home. It is worth testing one evening whether the children wake up to the alarm when they are asleep.

During a power or water outage, fire protection that needs electricity or water can be affected, such as automatic smoke ventilation in the stairwell or sprinklers. If you live in a block of flats, ask the landlord or the housing association what your building has. Read more in preparedness in a flat.

Also keep a 6 kg powder extinguisher near the exit and a fire blanket near the kitchen. The fire blanket smothers a fire in a candle arrangement, on the storm cooker or in clothing. If someone's clothes are on fire, lay the person face down and smother the flames with the blanket, from the head downwards. Burns and first aid are covered in first aid in a crisis.

The dark as an adventure

For children the dark is scary when it comes unexpectedly, and exciting when they get to join in. A few things usually turn the mood around:

• Shadow theatre. Put the lantern on the floor and let your hands become dogs and birds on the wall.
• Star night. When the street lights across the whole area are off, the sky looks like it does in the mountains. Wrap up and go outside for a while.
• Head torch hunt. Hide a cuddly toy in the room and let the children search with their lamps.

But the real sense of security comes from having their own light that the child knows where to find. How to talk to the children about worries when something happens is in talking to children about crisis and worry, and more about the very youngest is in preparedness with a baby and toddlers.

Try it for an evening

Pick an ordinary evening this winter. Switch off all the lights at five o'clock and live with the head, the table and the pillow until bedtime. You will quickly see which lamp is missing, which batteries were flat and whether the four-year-old can find their torch in the dark. That evening does more for the family's preparedness than a new box of gadgets.