A day, a few days, or a month—how to effectively set up autonomous lighting for blackout situations?

In Ukraine, the season of shelling and cold has begun, bringing with it massive power outages. This is not the first autumn and winter without electricity, so many have developed their favorite methods for creating autonomous/emergency lighting at home.

"Telegraph" spoke with electrician Yaroslav Marchenko from Zaporizhzhia about his thoughts on currently popular options and which ones he recommends based on his experience.

UPS. Light, and sometimes all electricity for a few hours

First, it's essential to determine what exactly we are providing, says the electrician. The options may include:

• a few hours to a day of light in case of emergencies (then we leave the city if the outage lasts);
• constant power supply (living with light for a few hours a day or even more than a day during an outage).

It’s better to have several options for different scenarios, and God willing, they won’t be needed, advises our interlocutor.

"If the goal is to have several hours of light, then our choice is a UPS. It's better with an external battery and a power rating of more than 1.5-2 kVA for reliable refrigerator startup. The advantage of a UPS over a charging station is its affordability, flexibility in battery selection, and the ability for automatic switching without installing unreliable AVR switches (automatic transfer switch — a device designed to switch the consumer to a backup source, — Ed.) from a conditional 'AliExpress'," says Marchenko.

UPS systems are usually chosen based on three criteria:

• connection (a direct cable input for powering the apartment is better, without a socket, just a terminal block),
• power (for reliable refrigerator startup, a minimum of 1.5 kVA is needed; for an inverter refrigerator, 1 kVA is sufficient, but this also depends on other household appliances that will be in use),
• external battery.

"With an internal battery, it's impossible to place a large-capacity battery (these are purely computer batteries), while with an external one, you can often choose between different systems and voltages of batteries under the same UPS," says the electrician.

Here, it’s important to highlight the budget, which starts at 7,000 UAH and can reach up to 40,000 UAH just for the equipment itself. Additional costs should be considered for a specialist who will properly connect everything to the grid.

Batteries. The secret to choosing the best

If we talk about emergency power from a battery, the safest and relatively inexpensive option is a gel battery (also known as AGM). Yaroslav Marchenko points out that the battery is chosen based on the load that needs to be powered and the expected time of light per day. A disadvantage of gel batteries is their long charging time.

"Using a classic car battery and a cheap inverter is also an option, but not a very reliable one. The lifespan of a car battery when discharged to half its capacity is very limited," assessed the electrician.

In cases of prolonged outages with short "light periods," the battery needs to withstand significant charging current, which brings us to the use of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

"Expensive, but effective. As for safety — the technology may not be hundreds of years old, but compared to lithium-ion cells, the problems are significantly fewer; LiFePO4 cells do not explode, and in case of internal damage, they may catch fire at most. However, this is a very unlikely scenario, which can be disregarded in the case of a battery with up to a hundred cells (the probability is less than 0.0012% per cell over 10 years)," says the electrician.

Hybrid inverters

This option is suitable for living in conditions of multi-hour outages. At the same time, the electrician warns that such an inverter should not be installed as a UPS in the absence of solar panels or a generator.

"In such a case, we are using a microscope to hammer in nails and significantly overpaying. However, if solar panels or a wind generator are available, it makes sense because, in that case, one can comfortably live for more than a week without the grid," says the electrician.

Joint generator with neighbors

Yaroslav describes the generator as the only option for genuinely extreme conditions and survival in an unpowered city for a month. Even though it is loud and emits a foul smell.

"Trust me, after a week of outages, you will be praying for it along with your neighbors, stretching extension cords between balconies, rather than risking getting a hundred liters of burning gasoline if a missile lands nearby; such are the times," advises the electrician.

As an option, the electrician recommends installing a dual-fuel carburetor right away. If necessary, it can be started on both gasoline and gas (city gas is also suitable, as long as it's available).

Diesel is better by many criteria, but its price and weight are drawbacks. Therefore, it makes sense to install it only for more than 6 kW for a private house. In cases of low power needs (up to 2 kW), one should consider a inverter generator — quieter, more economical, and sufficiently compact.

"It's always better to have several options for different scenarios, and God willing, they won’t be needed. But one must be prepared for everything," advises the electrician.

LED strip

The electrician considers a sticky LED strip as one of the possible options. However, certain conditions must be met.

"The LED strip is viable, but not with a power bank; it should be with a car battery. It works; the strip is 5 watts/m at 12v, several meters in a room — a workable option. But it requires a lot of effort, plus it's not a cheap pleasure," says the electrician.

The strip, when stuck to the wall, does not last long, overheats; it must be adhered to a metal heat-dissipating profile or a similar heat-dissipating surface.

Battery lamp with power bank

The electrician views this popular method with skepticism:

"A battery lamp and power bank is an option, but an extreme one. The convenience of this method is virtually zero, and the lighting is very minimal," says Marchenko.

Let us remind you that this week, Russians have launched another targeted strike on Ukraine's energy system (both on power plants and on substations of the energy transmission system), leading to emergency outages.