Preparedness guide · Light & PowerUpdated 3 September 2026
When the lights go out, Europe reaches for candles. Civil protection says: don't.
Every official preparedness list includes candles and matches. The same officials add one sentence that almost nobody reads. It decides how safe your household is on the first dark evening.
The short version
- Civil protection literally advises: prefer light sources without fire. LED over candle.
- The first problem is the first hour: finding light in a dark apartment.
- The second problem is day three: everything you own was last charged while the grid still worked.
- Those are two different problems. One device does not solve both.
Play the evening through. The power goes at 21:40. Your phone has 34 percent, and its flashlight is now your most valuable device. The flashlight in the drawer has the batteries nobody restocked. So you do what every household in Europe does that night.
You light candles.
Austria's civil protection association writes in its blackout guide: “Is there enough backup lighting, flashlights and batteries? Prefer light sources without fire!” And further: “LED lights have a long burn time and, unlike candles, pose no major fire risk.”
Austrian Civil Protection Association, blackout guide (PDF)That is the whole point. In every power cut, someone puts a candle on something that can burn. The advice exists because it keeps happening.
And the candle is only half of the problem.
Hour one and day three are different problems
The apartment is suddenly dark. You need light in the rooms you walk through, now, without searching. Whatever solves this must already be in place before the blackout.
Phone, flashlight, emergency bulb: everything was last charged while the grid still worked. Official planning assumes up to 14 days. Whatever solves this must recharge itself, without the grid.
One device does not solve both. A fixed light that jumps on instantly hangs on the grid. A light that recharges itself is not there in the second the power drops. You need one of each.
The three options every household has
1. Candles and matches
Cheap and on every list. Also an open flame in a dark apartment with stressed people and children. Civil protection itself advises light sources without fire.
2. Flashlights and spare batteries
Works, if the batteries are fresh and someone keeps restocking them for years. In practice, that is the drawer with the dead batteries. And by day three, everything rechargeable hangs on a grid that is not there.
3. Light that switches itself on, and light that recharges itself
A bulb that is already in the lamp and bridges the first hours. A lantern that charges by daylight and carries the second week. Nothing to find, nothing to restock.
Exactly here is where NORDVAND begins. Two devices, one for each half of the problem.
Part 1 · The first hour
The NORDVAND L1
You screw it into the lamp that is already there. And then you forget it. The L1 is a perfectly normal LED bulb. It runs on mains power like any other. When the power fails, it keeps shining, from a battery that has been charging along the whole time.
No hunting for the flashlight. No digging through the drawer. The light simply does not go out. Four bulbs: kitchen, bathroom, hallway, children's room. The places you walk to in the dark. Each one also detaches as a handheld lamp.
One thing you need to know before you buy. The bulb needs a closed circuit to switch into emergency mode. In practice: the wall switch must be on. If the switch is off when the power fails, it stays dark. So put these bulbs in lamps that are on in the evening anyway.
What the L1 honestly cannot do
It does not replace a backup power supply and it will not shine for two weeks. It bridges the first hours, while everyone else is fumbling in the dark for their phone. A battery is a wear part: after a few years it holds less than on day one. Figures for battery capacity and burn time follow as soon as we have the manufacturer's data sheet. Until then, we do not print an hour count.
Delivery in 5 to 12 working days. 90-day returns.
Part 2 · The second week
The NORDVAND L2
By day three, nothing is charged anymore. That is the uncomfortable truth about almost all emergency lighting: it depends on the grid. Not the L2. It has its own solar panel. Put it by the window or on the balcony during the day and you have light again in the evening. As long as the sun comes up, your light does not run out.
Four lanterns, portable. Magnetic base that sticks to the fridge, the radiator, the fuse box or the car door. Hanging hook for light from above: that is the difference between seeing and searching. Collapsed it is a flat disc in a drawer.
What the L2 honestly cannot do
Solar is slow. A panel this size needs a full, bright day for one charge, and a central European December day behind a window pane is not a bright day. Expect considerably less in winter. So charge the lanterns fully over USB while there is still power, and use solar as the top-up, not the only source. Anyone who tells you a palm-sized panel replaces a wall socket has not measured it. Figures for battery capacity, burn time and panel output follow with the manufacturer's data sheet.
Delivery in 5 to 12 working days. 90-day returns.
Why two light products and not one
The L1 sits fixed in the socket and switches on the second the power goes out, but it needs the grid to charge. The L2 is portable and recharges itself. One covers the first hour, the other the second week. If you only have one of the two, you have a gap.
Three things, kept apart
What the authorities advise
Backup lighting in every household, and light sources without fire: LED over candle. Quoted and linked above, straight from the official blackout guide.
What NORDVAND offers
A supplementary way to follow that advice: a bulb that bridges the first hours and a lantern that recharges itself. Not the only way, and not a replacement for official instructions.
What NORDVAND does not claim
No burn-time or capacity figures without a data sheet. No replacement for a backup power supply. No connection to or endorsement by any authority cited here.
You can see again. Now the question is what you know.
Water and light carry your household through the first days. The third chapter is about something else: the moment your phone shows full bars and still cannot reach anyone. It is the strongest chapter of the three.
ADVERTISEMENT. This article is published by NORDVAND and promotes NORDVAND products. The recommendations cited are quoted with their sources. There is no connection, partnership or endorsement between those institutions and NORDVAND. In an emergency, always follow the official instructions of the authorities.