I am in an apartment but I also have backup power systems to run essential appliances in case something happens. I only use Jackery brand power packs and these are REALLY good. I have a smaller Jackery that I carry with me on the job that I can run worklights and drill/driver battery packs. For larger needs my Honda gas genny on a dolly covers it.
Many different types of lithiums are out on the market and the funny thing is, almost all of them are made in China. It is the source of the factories that matter. Samsung and Fenix, the ones making the 18650s that I use, are made in the factories in Shenzhen that are contracted with these companies and have QC personnel on site to make sure that products getting shipped out meet all safety standards. The danger lies in that these same factories do not like to chuck defective items and production errors into the junk pile where they are supposed to go, but they crate them up and sell them to second hand factories at marked down cost. These second hand factories then "fix" these items and sell them with no-brand, nonserialized labels. That is how you can tell they might be defective even though they look like the official branded products. These are the culprits that are being imported en masse by the bike shops here and placed into high capacity packs that operate at pretty high current and voltage.
These are the Samsung flattop 18650s that I use in my Vaporesso and Smok Arcfox vape mods. VERY good capacity from 2500 to 3000 MAH and a full cell lasts almost a week running at 18-20 watts with 0.3 ohm coils for 50mg salt nicotine e liquid. (For cigar smokers just 5 non-inhale puffs on that output equals a medium to full bodied cigarillo.) You will also see the notice that they are "not for ecig or vape". That is directed towards those individuals who used to build their own vape mods back in 2011-2015 before current day devices with Axon chip computer controls are introduced. These homemade devices, called "mechanical mods", have no safety and temperature/output regulation and they often fried these batteries, causing the manufacturers to label them to avoid being blamed for accidents in these types of devices. All mods built from 2016 onward like the Smok and Vaporesso, are chip controlled and just like the batteries, have circuitry that regulate current and wattage so they are completely safe to use with branded batteries.
Now if you look around a lot and are not paying attention, you might find this mixed in at a dealer's inventory too:
Note the difference between the two. The Samsung labeled one, often with metallic stickers on the other side that are also clearly branded and with battery capacity and output ranges labeled, have smart circuitry built in that will cut off power in the event that an overheating, short, or gas venting is detected. The purples ones on the bottom are mass sourced from Alibaba and do not have official brands and labels. THESE are the ones to stay away from. They also have no such safety circuitry.
ETA: It is not the color that matters. Flattops are color coded based on their MAH capacity and they come in green, purple, blue, and gray. It is the labeling and stickers on them that distinguishes them from potentially dangerous second-hands.
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