how best to get electricity for emergency prepareness

[Richard Crowley]

Is that the same as "Don't run it without a load?"

I'm sorry, but illiteracy just confuses the crap out of me.

You appear to be confusing "illiteracy" with a commonly-
used electrical engineering term ("no load").

 

[Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)]

We wish to prepare for emergency - such as power outage because of
earthquake or hurricane or flood.

I think you also have to give some thought as to "how long" you expect to be
in the disaster area?

1 hour vs. 1 day vs. 1 week will demand very different answers.

We have a gas generator that we can use to power devices as needed.

Typically I'll run the fridge for a few hours (unless in the winter.. then I
might as well just move stuff outside).

I've got to get the 220 volt side wired up to drive my water pump and
possibly turn over my furnace.

Other than that.. I'll sit back and relax and wait it out.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

You appear to be confusing "illiteracy" with a commonly-
used electrical engineering term ("no load").

Thank you, Richard. In fact, the contractors just finished
installing a propane fueled backup system with automatic start and
transfer switch at my dad's house (He lives next door) about an hour ago
and the warning labels use the same wording.

 

[Notan]

Thank you, Richard. In fact, the contractors just finished
installing a propane fueled backup system with automatic start and
transfer switch at my dad's house (He lives next door) about an hour ago
and the warning labels use the same wording.

I stand corrected, although, have you read certain labels and instruction
manuals? Totally unintelligible! <g>

Notan

 

[mike]

We wish to prepare for emergency - such as power outage because of
earthquake or hurricane or flood.

When power goes out we want:
1. lighting - battery powered florescent lights seem to be best?
2. phone - charge cell phone battery and direct line phone
3. laptop computer battery charging
4. get to watch TV - may be off the air when cable goes out. So TV tuner for
the laptop computer
5. Microwave to cook simple stuff or boil water.

How can we get power source from - car battery?
Any small and simple electric generator to charge the car battery?
12VDC to 115AC convert? 400 watt sufficient?

This is what we come up with in our meeting of brain storming.
The biggest discussion were about the spoiled food in refrigerators.
Your comments and suggestions please.

Last thing I'm gonna need in a disaster is a computer.

You carry the generator and the TV.

Gimme a van full of fresh
water and a gun to protect it.
mike





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[Rich Grise]

The "friendship with your neighbors" and "gun to protect yourself from
your violent neighbors" seem contradictory. But then I don't know your
neighborhood

The gun is to protect you from the storm troopers that come to
forcibly eject you from your home.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Rich Grise]

until the inevitable moment when that POS generator breaks at the worst
moment..

Usually mechanical stuff breaks as a result of neglect or misuse.

As James Beck said, keep it in running condition, do your routine
perodic maintenance, and it will probably outlive even you.

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[Pooh Bear]

I stand corrected, although, have you read certain labels and instruction
manuals? Totally unintelligible! <g>

I've seen some truly wonderful Chinese examples recently.

Graham

JRC/NJR is usually a giggle for their data sheets too.

One of my favourites.....

" Featuring noiseless, higher gain bandwidth, high output
current and low distortion ratio, and it is most suitable not only
for acoustic electronic parts of audio pre-amp and active filter,
but also for the industrial measurement tools. It is also suitable
for the head phone amp at higher output current, and further
more, it can be applied for the handy type set operational
amplifier of general purpose in application of low voltage single
supply type which is properly biased of the low voltage source. "

http://www.njr.co.jp/pdf/ae/ae04056.pdf

 

[James Beck]

I've seen some truly wonderful Chinese examples recently.

Graham

JRC/NJR is usually a giggle for their data sheets too.

One of my favourites.....

" Featuring noiseless, higher gain bandwidth, high output
current and low distortion ratio, and it is most suitable not only
for acoustic electronic parts of audio pre-amp and active filter,
but also for the industrial measurement tools. It is also suitable
for the head phone amp at higher output current, and further
more, it can be applied for the handy type set operational
amplifier of general purpose in application of low voltage single
supply type which is properly biased of the low voltage source. "

http://www.njr.co.jp/pdf/ae/ae04056.pdf

I still remember the chinglish explanation of the difference between
PORTA on the masked MC68705P3 and the windowed part :

"The optional PORTA pullup option on the masked version is not optional
on the erasable version."

So is it always there or always not there?

HMMMMMMMMM

Even the local support guy wasn't sure about that one.

 

[Joerg]

Hello Michael,

Toss in a bag of clothes, a folding chair and a couple pillows and
I'm ready to leave for the shelter.

And maybe a bottle of Glenfiddich ;-)

Regards, Joerg

 

[Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)]

A. Jacobs wrote:

Last thing I'm gonna need in a disaster is a computer.

At my recent Mock cave rescue class (where I will say I was NOT playing the
IC.... ...

Well as the review pointed out.. we had the laptop and printer (to print out
all of our forms, cave maps, etc) set up early. Meanwhile we had only 2
teams in the cave and about 30 people standing around outside. Hmm...
Houston, we had a problem.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Hello Michael,


And maybe a bottle of Glenfiddich ;-)

Regards, Joerg

Now you're talking. Or perhaps Laphroaig, if you like phenolic.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Richard Crowley]

I stand corrected, although, have you read certain labels and
instruction
manuals? Totally unintelligible! <g>

Actually the term may be more correctly: "no-load"
since it is a two-word term, rather than bad grammar.

 

[Notan]

Actually the term may be more correctly: "no-load"
since it is a two-word term, rather than bad grammar.

Now *that* sounds a bit better.

Thanks!

Notan

 

[Ian Stirling]

Usually mechanical stuff breaks as a result of neglect or misuse.

As James Beck said, keep it in running condition, do your routine
perodic maintenance, and it will probably outlive even you.

Good Luck!
Rich

Or really shitty design.
I was wondering why the generator I purchased was using a LOT of fuel.
The tank had a porous weld sealing the tank shut, and was leaking in 10
places.
Plus, simply designing down to a cost, using pistons/cylinders that
have no hope of going beyond a couple of hundred hours is a problem in the
very cheap units.

 

[Ignoramus25888]

Or really shitty design.
I was wondering why the generator I purchased was using a LOT of fuel.
The tank had a porous weld sealing the tank shut, and was leaking in 10
places.
Plus, simply designing down to a cost, using pistons/cylinders that
have no hope of going beyond a couple of hundred hours is a problem in the
very cheap units.

Exactly... These generators are not designed to be usable for any real
(read over a few days) use. Using the cheapest possible ways of
building things.

i

 

[Mac]

We wish to prepare for emergency - such as power outage because of
earthquake or hurricane or flood.

When power goes out we want:
1. lighting - battery powered florescent lights seem to be best?
2. phone - charge cell phone battery and direct line phone
3. laptop computer battery charging
4. get to watch TV - may be off the air when cable goes out. So TV tuner for
the laptop computer
5. Microwave to cook simple stuff or boil water.

How can we get power source from - car battery?
Any small and simple electric generator to charge the car battery?
12VDC to 115AC convert? 400 watt sufficient?

This is what we come up with in our meeting of brain storming.
The biggest discussion were about the spoiled food in refrigerators.
Your comments and suggestions please.

Just get a little Honda generator. The eu1000i, or the eu2000i. They are
reliable, light-weight, fuel-efficient, very quiet, and produce very clean
AC power. They can also handle large surge loads such as an electric motor
starting up. (e.g., power tools). Oh, they are kind of expensive, but you
get what you pay for. ;-)

If you want to run stuff inside the house, you will need long extension
cords since you can't put a generator inside the house with you...

You can use this thing to charge any batteries you want, including your
car battery (with a suitable charger).

If you have to do without grid power for a long time, make sure you have a
Coleman stove that runs on unleaded gasoline, and I think you can even get
gas lanterns that burn unleaded. If not, get the white gas lanterns and
keep some white gas for them. Of course you need to keep 10 or 20 gallons
of unleaded gasoline around to run all this stuff. Use a fuel stabilizer
for the stored fuel. Oh, and extra mantles for the lanterns.

The microwave is questionable, but if you have to boil a lot of water it
might be just as efficient to use the microwave as the Coleman stove, and
I think the Honda eu1000i could drive it. The eu2000i could definitely
drive it.

Since you will have the generator, you can use rechargeable batteries for
flashlights and such. But whenever possible, try to just use the Coleman
lantern.

Might as well keep plenty of D-cells around, too, and relatively cheap,
dim flashlights that use them. Mag lights are cool, but the bright bulbs
drain batteries fast, and the filaments are more likely to break if you
drop the flashlight. When your eyes are dark-adjusted you need very
little light to see. So I find that at night, the flashlight puts out far
more light than needed anyway.

I don't see what you would want a computer for at all. Your DSL probably
won't be operational. But you can run the generator to recharge your
laptop as needed.

Don't forget canned food and water. If you already have drinking water,
you may not have to boil water at all.

--Mac

 

[Ignoramus25888]

Last thing I'm gonna need in a disaster is a computer.

You carry the generator and the TV.

That's a sweeping statement.

Not every outage is a disaster.

What about a plain vanilla situation of being without electric power
due to something mundane like lightning or ice storm. Hardly a real
disaster. It would be great to be able to continue to use computers.

i

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Hello Michael,


And maybe a bottle of Glenfiddich ;-)

Regards, Joerg

They don't allow you to bring anything but sealed bottled water into
the hurricane shelters, and I don't know of anyone who would have been
willing to go out to their car or truck during the hurricane for a nip.

 

[A. Jacobs]

Watch TV is not such as bad thing. That is where you can get the latest, up
to date, less hype and BS at the scene reporting from CNN.