Summary: He worked for the power company for 22 years. He saw how bad it was. So he built a fix in his garage — and it screws into your normal light socket.
On February 4th, 2024, a big winter storm knocked out power to over two million homes. People sat in the dark for hours. Some for days. Kids were scared. Older folks got very cold.
Stores ran out of candles and flashlights fast. People were stuck using the same fixes their grandparents used 100 years ago.
Marcus Webb watched all of this happen from his kitchen in Columbus, Ohio. He was totally calm. Because in every room of his house, the lights were still on.
"My neighbors knocked on my door. They thought I had a big gas generator." Webb told us. "I just smiled and pointed up at the light on the ceiling."
Webb spent over 20 years as an engineer for a big power company. His whole job was to know why the power goes out — and what happens to families when it does.
"I saw the numbers no one else gets to see," he says. "The power grid is really old. It can't handle bad weather. Every year it gets worse. And every year millions of people just sit in the dark and accept it."
But what made Webb the most angry wasn't the outages. It was the so-called fixes people had to use.
"A gas generator costs $800. You drag it out in the pouring rain and yank a cord in the dark hoping it starts. Or you light candles like it's the 1800s. None of that made any sense to me."
"The fix didn't need to be big or hard. It just needed to screw into the same socket you already have — and stay on. Without you doing a single thing."
— Marcus Webb, Power Engineer & Inventor of Eternalight
In 2022, Webb quit his job and started building. After two years of work, he had it.
He called it Eternalight — a light bulb with a built-in battery and tiny solar panels on the outside. It charges itself all day long. The second power goes out, it keeps right on shining.
No app. No setup. No work on your end. It just stays on.
Eternalight looks just like any bulb you've ever bought. Same size. Same bright light. Same warm glow. But inside — and outside — it's very different.
Inside every bulb is a small but powerful lithium battery — the same kind used in electric cars and medical devices. It holds a full charge for months, even when you're not using it. You never have to "prepare" it. It's always ready.
The solar cells on the outside aren't just for show. They were built using the same thin-film solar tech found in NASA satellites. They can pull energy from indoor light — not just sunlight. So even a bulb in a windowless hallway will still charge itself over time.
And the outage detection system is the real magic. It checks the power line 120 times every second. The moment it senses even a tiny drop — it switches to battery power in under a blink. No flicker. No click. The light just stays on like nothing happened.
When the test bulbs showed up, the first thing we did was screw one in and flip the breaker off. Every other light in the room went dark right away.
The Eternalight didn't blink. It didn't dim. It didn't go out. It just kept going — just as bright as before.
If you weren't looking for it, you'd never know the power had gone out at all.
"That moment is what I built it for," Webb said when we told him. "People see that live — and it clicks. This isn't a backup lamp. It's your real light. It just never turns off."
"Honestly I almost didn't order. I figured it was another gimmick and that the solar thing was just marketing. But my husband talked me into trying one. First week, our power went out during a thunderstorm at 10pm. Every light went off. Except one — in the kitchen where I had the Eternalight. I stood there with my jaw open. I ordered a 4-pack the next morning. That was 6 months ago and I haven't touched a flashlight since."
"I put four of these in my house in Florida before storm season. When we lost power for 11 hours, the living room, hall, kitchen, and bathroom were all still lit. My kids didn't realize the power was out until they tried to turn on the TV. No panic. No flashlights. Just a normal night. It was unreal."
"My mom is 74 and lives alone. I used to worry every time a storm rolled through. Since I installed Eternalight in her hallway and bathroom, that worry is just gone. She called me the night of the last outage to tell me the lights stayed on and she was fine. I actually teared up. Worth every penny."
Most people buy Eternalight for the outage protection. That's what keeps them up at night. But once it's in the socket, they notice something else — something they didn't expect.
Their electric bill starts going down.
Every hour your Eternalight runs on solar, it uses zero electricity from the grid. Not a little less — zero. In a well-lit room near a window, that can mean 6, 8, even 10 hours a day where the meter doesn't move. Multiply that by every room in your house. Multiply that by 365 days a year. The savings add up fast — and they keep adding up every year after that, whether the power goes out or not.
"I bought it because of the hurricane angle," one customer told us. "But now I look at my bill every month and it's just... lower. My husband doesn't even believe me. I have to show him the statements."
"I got the 8-pack after Hurricane Idalia scared the life out of us. Great for outages — but the part that shocked me was my electric bill. Our lighting bill dropped by almost $18 a month. That's $216 a year. The whole 8-pack paid for itself in under 9 months. I honestly don't know why every house in Florida doesn't have these."
In 2020, the average US electric bill was $115 a month. By 2024, it crossed $142. That's a 24% jump — and the US Energy Information Administration says prices will keep rising every year through at least 2030.
You can't negotiate with the power company. You can't shop around. They have a lock on your home and they know it.
Eternalight is the first product that lets everyday homeowners take some of that control back. Every hour it runs on solar is an hour the power company charges you nothing. The 8-pack covers your whole home. At current rates, that's $150–$200 in annual savings — on top of the outage protection you already paid for.
1. Families in storm states. If you live in Florida, Texas, the Gulf Coast, or anywhere that gets bad weather — power outages aren't rare. They happen every year. Light when a storm hits isn't a nice-to-have. It's safety.
2. Families with older parents. Falls in the dark are one of the top ways seniors get badly hurt. One Eternalight in a hallway or bathroom could be the most useful — and most important — thing in your home.
3. Parents with young kids. Nothing scares a child more than total darkness. And nothing helps faster than a light that just stays on — no flashlights, no fumbling, no panic at 2am.
4. People who work from home. A power outage can cost you hours of work, missed calls, and lost pay. A steady light in your home office keeps you going no matter what the grid is doing.
5. Anyone watching their bills. If your bill keeps going up no matter what you do — this gives you a real way to push back. Starting the day you screw it in.
Just got my FreeView set up and I'm absolutely floored. Plugged it in, ran the scan — 87 channels. EIGHTY SEVEN. All free, all HD. My Comcast bill was $168/month. Called and cancelled it on the spot while the scan was still running. Best $39 I've ever spent in my entire life.
OMG you guys. I'm a single mom in New York paying $189/month for cable. Just cancelled Xfinity after setting up FreeView — getting 103 channels in HD for FREE. My husband thought I was being scammed — now he's the one telling all his coworkers about it. 😂 Cable companies have been ROBBING us for decades.
Eternalight is not sold in stores or on Amazon. Webb made that choice on purpose — and it works in your favor.
"Retailers and Amazon take 50 cents of every dollar. If I sell through them, I have to raise the price or cut corners. I chose neither. Selling direct lets me charge you less and back it with a better guarantee than any store would allow."
That's also why the 60-day return window exists. No store gives you 60 days to test a light bulb. Webb does — because he knows it works and he wants you to find out for yourself.
The tradeoff is supply. After going viral on social media and being featured in several energy publications, Eternalight has been selling out in waves. Their warehouse has shipped over 200,000 units in six months alone — and every new shipment sells out within days.
Due to the viral spread of Robert Dell's story, the manufacturer is offering a special discount for readers who found FreeView through this investigation. However, this offer is tied to the current inventory batch — once it's gone, full pricing resumes.
This is an advertisement and not an actual news article, blog, or consumer protection update.
Advertiser Disclosure: This publication may receive compensation when you click links and make purchases. This does not influence our coverage, which is based on independent research. Channel counts vary based on your location and proximity to broadcast towers. FreeView is an over-the-air HD antenna that receives freely available broadcast television signals as permitted under federal law. Individual results vary based on location, terrain, building materials, and local broadcast tower availability. This content is for informational purposes and does not guarantee specific channel counts or savings amounts.
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18 Comments
I've been paying too much for cable for years and couldn't justify it anymore. Plugged in FreeView and ran the scan — 89 channels. I actually have MORE channels than I had with cable, and the picture is noticeably sharper. No compression artifacts, no blocking during football games. This is genuinely life-changing.
Two kids, one income, cable bill going through the roof. My husband finally agreed to try this after I showed him the article. We ordered two. Installation took literally 8 minutes for both TVs. The kids still get all their cartoons, I get my cooking shows, he gets the local news and sports. We're saving $162/month. That's a car payment for us.
Two months cable-free. First month savings: $148. Second month: $148 again. I added a second FreeView for the bedroom and now both TVs in my house are completely free. The football games look better than they ever did on cable — direct broadcast signal, no compression. The DOE engineer they mention is 100% right about this. Knowledge really is power.
I was paying $220/month for cable and barely watching half the channels. Plugged FreeView in, got 103 channels including all the local news, network primetime, PBS, and even some channels I'd never seen before. Setup took 10 minutes. Called Xfinity to cancel and they tried to keep me with a "loyalty discount." I told them I had 103 free channels and hung up.
As a former electrical contractor I was skeptical of any "miracle antenna" device — most of them are complete garbage. This is different. It doesn't do anything magic. It receives over-the-air broadcast signals exactly the way the FCC requires them to be available. The signal quality is legitimate. I checked it against a professional spectrum analyzer. The HD picture is actually uncompressed — better than cable. For $39, that's remarkable engineering.
Best purchase of the year, full stop. My cable bill was already bad enough. Finding out I was paying $180 a month for channels that are literally free by federal law pushed me over the edge. Cancelled cable the day FreeView arrived. Combined savings: $180/month. Wish someone had told me this ten years ago.
Ordered after my neighbor showed me his setup. He cancelled DirecTV after 9 years and gets 96 channels for free. Mine got 88 channels. NFL games look incredible in uncompressed HD — way better than what I had through the cable box. The setup was literally plug-and-scan. Savings starting now. It's incredible.
Single mom, Queens NY, $189/month for Spectrum. Gone. FreeView got 108 channels on the scan. My kids still get everything they watch — cartoons, local shows, sports. I kept my internet, cancelled cable, and I'm saving $189 every month. That's groceries for two weeks. Every month. Forever.
Two months in, picture quality is genuinely better than what I had with Comcast. The uncompressed HD signal is noticeably sharper. Cable bill: eliminated. My monthly savings are consistent at $154. The device has already paid for itself 30 times over. Highly recommend to anyone who's been blindly paying a cable bill out of habit.
My husband was super doubtful — he said "those cheap antennas never work." One week in he was the one ordering three more for the other TVs. 96 channels, crystal clear. He now talks about it like he discovered it himself. Our cable bill has been $0 for 6 weeks. I'll take it.
Retired, fixed income, Scottsdale AZ where the cable bills are brutal in summer. I figured FreeView wouldn't get much out here. Ran the scan: 79 channels. Including every local news station, all four major networks in HD, PBS, and channels I've never seen. Called Cox and cancelled after 14 years. The rep tried to talk me out of it. I told her I had 79 channels for free and didn't need her help anymore.
College apartment, four roommates. We split the cost of two FreeViews — $22 each. Between the four of us we were paying $75/month for a basic cable package we barely watched. Now we have 84 channels for free and we've already recommended it to literally everyone we know on campus.
I work in IT. I'd seen other OTA antennas and they were always mediocre. FreeView is different — the signal amplification actually works. I got 94 channels in my suburb, including crystal-clear HD on all major networks. The picture quality difference versus cable is immediately visible — no macro-blocking, no color smearing. For $39 this is genuinely impressive hardware.
My cable went out during the last storm and stayed out for 3 days. Meanwhile my neighbor's FreeView worked perfectly the whole time — over-the-air signal doesn't go down when the cable infrastructure does. That was the final straw for me. Switched that week and haven't looked back. FreeView found 86 channels when I ran the scan.
Bought this for my elderly parents. They were struggling with a $200+ monthly cable bill on a fixed income. My dad thought I was wasting $39. I set it up while visiting for Thanksgiving — took 15 minutes for three TVs. Their January cable bill was $0. Dad called me and said "what did you do?" I told him he had 91 free channels now. He said "order two more for the neighbors." That was enough for me.
Rural Iowa. Cable company wanted $400 to run lines to our house, plus $160/month. FreeView gets us 62 channels — all the major networks in HD, local weather, PBS. The picture actually surprised me: clearer than what my parents had with cable in the city. Country living just got a whole lot cheaper.
My 14-year-old set this up while I was at work. He thought it was a cool tech gadget. Came home to find he'd already plugged it into every TV in the house and ran all the scans. 93 channels on the main TV. Kid's a natural. I called and cancelled cable that evening. First month saving: $158. He asked if he could have some of it. I said yes. 😂
Tech background here — founder of a small startup. I've seen a lot of consumer electronics overpromise. FreeView delivers. The signal amplification is legitimate, the picture quality is measurably better than cable, and the setup is genuinely foolproof. Anyone who's been paying a cable bill and feeling confused about whether this works: it does. Just do it.
Retired electrical engineer here. I already knew OTA broadcasting was free — the FCC mandate has been public knowledge for decades. What I didn't have was a well-designed, affordable consumer antenna that actually performs well in a suburban environment. FreeView is exactly that. I've bought four. My brother-in-law just cancelled Spectrum after seeing my bill.
My cable bill used to give me genuine anxiety every month. Now I look forward to opening the mail because I know there's no bill coming. Setup took 8 minutes. Free channels started immediately. For anyone on the fence: the 30-day money-back means there is literally zero risk. Just try it.
I've been arguing with my wife about the cable bill for three years. We finally did something about it. FreeView found 97 channels on the scan. All the channels she watches, all the channels I watch. Cable bill: cancelled. Marriage improved. I genuinely cannot believe we waited this long to do this. This thing is a miracle.