woke up to total darkness last night

[Brent S]

i suddenly remembered something that i already have...a few things of blue ice..i've been keeping them in a box,and in the garage.i've had them for i don't know how many years.i just got them out,and washed them off..then i'll be putting them into the freezer when their dry enough.they'll not only help keep the freezer cold longer.but they'll be of use during a power outage as well..

we were in town on friday.in which i made a stop at harbor freight,just to have a look around.in which i came across a power converter,that hooks directly to the battrey.it's idea for running the fridge n freezer off of time to time during a outage..i plan on getting that next month

Inverters are great, but 1 12v battery won't last long running a fridge. You can google the formula for exactly how much use you will get. The fridge will have a label on it for how many amps it uses, if you tell me that I'll figure out how long it will run it for you.

 

[jimLE]

good point.i'll go ahead and get the converter when the time comes.cause who knows,it might come in handy in some other way.if needed..then i'll check it out about the info..

 

[Gazrok]

I wouldn't guess a standard car battery would last more than a couple of hours, powering a fridge. You'd do better with a deep cycle battery, but even then, a generator would be a much better bet. Of course, assuming the vehicle had gas and you were using this battery, and you ran that, the fridge would run for about another two hours after the gas ran out.

 

[jimLE]

yeah,so true on all that.but in my case.i need to go with least expensive route,when it comes to what i buy...at least for now.and i just thought.maybe run the vehicle for at least 5 minutes while running the fridge n freezer.then shut the van down.and keep my jump starter charged up at the same time,just in case i have to go with a jump start..


some serious storm has moved in.we don't have to worry about flooding,when it comes to our location..but some areas are already flooded.i don't want a power outage.but yet i do,on account.that'll let me know how much better prepared i am..here's a link to what i can look forward to...
http://www.ktre.com/category/292344/live-streaming-radar

 

[Gazrok]

For a shorter term outage, you'd be better off keeping the food in the fridge and freezer, and rarely opening them while out. Take a short trip to a convenience or grocery store, and get a couple bags of ice. When the power goes out, take a bag of ice or two out of the freezer, and put it in the fridge (leave one in the freezer, if you can). This will help keep things cool for quite some time. A few hours at least. (and, you could always drive to a store that is in a lit area, to get more ice). Economically, a pretty cheap solution.

Granted, not a SHTF solution, but until then, why not use what society has to offer?

 

[jimLE]

society has offered plastic bottles with lids and blue ice for now..in which im happy with,for now..

 

[Dani]

Had 8 - inches of water standing in my yard last night and we are considered 'high' lands. Even with my trenches dug for the garden rows, some of them were underwater and all my corn which was around 3 1/2 ft high now has been knocked over due to the wind gust we had. Once it stopped raining, it did drain off pretty quick and I don't think anything 'drowned'. For our area to have already been saturated in water, we didn't need to see tropical storm Bill.

 

[jimLE]

thats why im glad that im not close to the gulf coast..but yet.there is water standing in diff places in the yard....and as of last friday.the water in the creek,just down the road from me.is at least twice it's normal leavel..and i've seen it 2 or 3 times that much more..the first pic.is the drain pipe under the road.and the water leavel is normally a few inchs from the bottom of it

 

[Gazrok]

Luckily, our ranch is on pretty high ground, and drains pretty quickly. However, those who have septic, know that really heavy rains suck, as it means the toilets don't quite flush as well (drainfields get saturated, so can't work as well). My solution is simply to use the emergency septic stuff to reintroduce more bacteria, and help the process. I always have a few bottles of this onhand for it.

 

[jimLE]

well.we have another storm that has moved in.and it looks like a sever one.so that means we'll find out,if im better prepared or not,if the electric should go out..i allready have ice in the freezer.took ice out of fridge and put it back into the freezer,to freeze it solid again.except for 6 AA batteries,all my rechargeable batteries for flashlights are up to date.oil lamps and camping lanterns are charged up..

 

[Joe SA]

In this part of the world weve got something called "load shedding" thats when they switch of power to certain areas/suburbs of the country for about 2 hours in peak times, to prevent the electric grid from collapsing. This has been caused by the last 21 years of neglect, incompetance and the inability to plan for growth. According poeple that previously worked at ESKOM our national electricity provider, the system is on its last legs and could collapse at any time, if that happens it would take about a month or more to restart the whole system. Can you imagine the chaos?

 

[lonewolf]

they had better start doing that in the UK, we have been told there is only a 1.2% backup in the electricity supply(due to not building enough power stations), if we have a cold winter this year the lights could start going off.

 

[jimLE]

the electrical infrastructure in every country is that way,improperly maintained and out of date.and im surprised that there hasn't been a electric grid failure of any kind here at all..i figure total chaos would start inside 1 or 2 weeks,at the most.one reason,is because there's way to many people who dont/cant cook for them selfs.in which they go with foods that can be put togeather and eaten as is.or heated in a microwave.to eating out..then there's the ones who do cook for them selfs.but yet,dont keep that much food on hand,for one reason or another...thier the ones to start begging and looting first.

 

[DrHenley]

I've been wondering whether they have been doing some "load shedding" around here this summer. At least once a week we get a power outage, especially when it is in the upper 90's. One lasted all night and I was able to have a good test of my 6000 Watt inverter. The inverter did fine, but the two 125 AH AGM batteries didn't. They'd been sitting there a long time and had lost a good bit of their charge. I've had them on a maintenance charge ever since.

The inverter is the 1 day backup plan. The propane generator is the intermediate backup plan. I haven't come up with a viable long range plan yet, still working on it...

I went and bought a dorm sized refrigerator and a 5k BTU window AC unit the other day because I'll be able to run then a LOT longer than the full sized refrigerator and central A/C. And if I can get to the BOL by truck, I can easily bring them with me. Whether we bug in or head to the BOL, I think the propane generator will let me refrigerate a small amount of food, make ice, and cool one room, and still have plenty of power for other things.

I guess when the propane runs out, I'll either have to learn to gassify wood, or it's back to the dark ages...

 

[Brent S]

I did some rough calculations on my generator and can do about three weeks plus on the propane I have. That's 24/7' so with rationing could do a lot longer. I would run mayby two hrs a day which would put me about 40 weeks of referigeration and electric motors. Long enough to get thru any normal emergencies, and hopefully long enough to make the transition to the dark ages.

 

[Joe SA]

We have invested a lot in solar, 2 battery banks of a 1000 Amp Hours(2V cells) each, About 2000 Whats in solar panels all 12V. We got a small wind turbine as well now with a seperate bank of 800 Amp Hour Bateries 24 Volt. The main porpose is refrigaration and lighting. We have doubled up on the capasity of the of the solar panels so as to get the battery banks full even on a cloudy day. At the BOL there are 3 water wells and 2 natural springs, one well we have fitted with its own solar panel and pump, provides about 5 000 liters per day the others are fitted with old fashioned windmills, the got seriously damaged about 2 years ago, but has been replaced since then, and we keep a good supply of spare parts. We do have generator (petrol) as well, but will only be used to do some wellding, and emergency water pumping if needs be. We are working on a sun tracker for the solar panels so as to gain the optimum charge from them. Two solar geysers at 200 liters water each will do the hot water. (enough spare tubes for repacement). Thats more or less the setup, any tips on improvement will be highly appreciated.

 

[Gazrok]

Even the US grid, most components date to the 70's, so we're really going way past the expected date on most major components. Because it works though, very little incentive to do anything more about it. WHEN it goes (nearly inevitable), it's going to go big time, and be pretty damn bad for those affected. SHTF? Maybe locally, but man, I wouldn't want to be in one of the affected cities after sundown. Would make the Purge seem tame....

 

[lonewolf]

unless the grid goes down(as the result of an EMP or a collapse of the actual physical parts themselves) I reckon the British govt will just buy extra supplies from Europe probably France as EDF already run a few of our power stations and are building 2 more, which wont be on stream until 2022- probably at great expense which will be passed on to us the consumers and bill payers.