Instapundit reader, Fernando Colina, writes
And in the good ole Houston, USA, in the aftermath of IKE, telephones, internet and cable TV were down, and cell phones were unreliable due the spike in traffic. The only means of communication that approached useful levels was SMS messaging and good ole AM/FM. Sometimes text messages would be delayed for minutes but they almost always got there. I’m putting my el-cheapo crank-up radio in a pedestal next to my cell phone. They kept us in touch and made us comfortable for 60 hours. And let’s not forget the car charger for our phone. Sure, a generator is great, a car-pluggable DC-AC inverted will do work for small appliances, but a lowly $20 battery charger plugged to your car 12V outlet will power your radios, phones, flashlights, even coffee makers can make the difference between terror and small comfort.
Reynolds gets a follow up question about the Uninterruptible Power Supplies he mentions in a sentence following that
Yeah. I have a bunch of big uninterruptible power supply units for my computers, DSL modem, wi-fi, etc. These will keep the Internet going for days without power — so long as the Internet is up, of course — and also recharge gadgets like cellphones and laptops.
This is the unit he recommends. Not bad for $200.
I might also recommend back up cables, but that may be just because I’ve never trusted wi-fi and am still hardwired to the wall.
In the By Ourselves, For Ourselves series, I introduced you to The Darrells (of which I now own three). They are good for portable power. The UIPS’s are for larger amperage items you may want to run temporarily.
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One other link I found while cleaning out the links this weekend was this link to a blog written by New Yorker, Amy Langfield. It is her account of being stuck in NYC during the big blackout of 2003.
4:10 p.m. The subway stops. Air conditioning goes off.
4:13 p.m. “Attention passengers, we have lost power.â€
4:15 p.m. “Attention passengers, we have lost power. We have lost power.â€Female passenger (to much laughter): “And…?â€
The train is pretty full. All seats are occupied and about 20 people are standing. A pregnant woman – 7 months or so – sitting in the middle of the train is being fussed over by several passengers. She is fanning herself, people offering water and asking about her health. Some guy at other end of the car starts singing “Maria†from the Sound of Music and he is persuaded to shut up.
It goes on a great deal and talks about getting the hell out of the subway and then not having any cash, and attempting to find food, water and light for many, many hours in ‘da big citay.
Well worth your time.
All very good info except the part about plugging a coffee maker into the UPS. What a waste of power! That small pot of coffee will come close to draining that big UPS, and once it’s drained, it takes hours of a/c power to recharge (which he won’t have). As a rule, the LAST thing you want to do with your stored electricity is use any of it for resistance heating.
If he MUST have coffee, he should get some of those european military surplus Esbit stove kits. One of those heat tablets will boil enough water for several cups o’joe. Sportsman’s Guide recently had them on sale. If he wanted to be Coffee King of his neighborhood, he could get a basic one-burner propane stove and Coleman’s drip coffee maker which sits on the burner, all for about $50.
That post on the Husky battery box convinced me to buy one last year. Love it. We’ve used it many times to jumpstart cars and inflate tires and basketballs, and it’s there in case we ever need it in a blackout.
And Rivrdog’s correct. Electricity is a lousy source of heat.
I already had an LP gas BBQ grill and turkey fryer, so I built my cooking and heating plan around LP gas. I can cook on the grill or on the turkey fryer, which is really just a big outdoor burner you can use for pan-frying or for boiling pots of water.
For heat I’ve got a Mr. Heater Heat Buddy that attaches to the same LP tanks as the BBQ grill via a 12 foot hose. LP tanks are available at the convenience store, and you can refill them at large LP stations. I have two tanks, one of which is always full.