how best to get electricity for emergency prepareness

[A. Jacobs]

Jim, what is the gel cell you are talking about? Is this better and easier
to use compare with a spare car battery? Thanks.

 

[A. Jacobs]

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

That's .jp = Japanese web site, not Chinese.

 

[Notan]

That's .jp = Japanese web site, not Chinese.

They all look alike.

THE WEB SITES! What'd you *think* I was talking about? <g>

Notan

 

[Al Dykes]

Yup--and the lowest drain on resources:
http://www.google.com/images?q=crank+radio
..
..

Not if the alternative is an electric stove.

 

[Ian Stirling]

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.

Or even being unable to pay the bill.

 

[HorneTD]

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 found LED bulbs for my Maglight flashlights that out perform the
incandescent ones and quadruple the battery life. I think I got them
from www.theledlight.com. The only thing wrong with this outfit is that
they will not refund shipping on items returned do to defect.

 

[Jim Yanik]

Jim, what is the gel cell you are talking about? Is this better and
easier to use compare with a spare car battery? Thanks.

Gel-cells are sealed lead-acid batteries with a gelled electrolyte,they
don't spill acid,and can be used in more then just the upright
position.They come in all sorts of sizes and Amp-Hour ratings.
They are commonly used in uninterruptable power supplies,small electric
scooters.You use the same sort of charger as for automotive LA
batteries,float chargers.
Wal-Mart sells some small,low A-H sizes,for the electric toys they sell.

 

[Fritz Schlunder]

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.

That's one way of looking at things...

On the other hand computer and internet use (and surely gaming console use
as well) are correlated with happiness, but in a negative way.

Ex: http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep98/isolat.html

The more we use computers, the less happy we usually end up being.

Anytime the power is interrupted is an excellent opportunity to take a step
back from conventional activities and experience life from a different
perspective. Humans of some sort have been around for perhaps two million
years, but electricity hasn't really been available or useful for most
humans for much more than the past one hundred years. Personal computers
and the internet as we know it today haven't really been around more than
the past ten years. Obviously humans can survive and even thrive without
electricity and computers.

Surely playing cards by candle light with your friends and family is far
more fulfilling than playing computer during a power outage.

 

[Mike Painter]

Not if the alternative is an electric stove.

A microwave is a drain on resources. It does not matter what kind of stove
you have.
There are any number of more efficient ways to cook. Even an electric
immersion heater would be more efficient.

Electricity for anything more than LED lights and a radio is the only thing
I would like, but not need in what I would consider an emergency.

 

[Ignoramus25888]

That's one way of looking at things...

On the other hand computer and internet use (and surely gaming console use
as well) are correlated with happiness, but in a negative way.

Ex: http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep98/isolat.html

The more we use computers, the less happy we usually end up being.

Anytime the power is interrupted is an excellent opportunity to take a step
back from conventional activities and experience life from a different
perspective. Humans of some sort have been around for perhaps two million
years, but electricity hasn't really been available or useful for most
humans for much more than the past one hundred years. Personal computers
and the internet as we know it today haven't really been around more than
the past ten years. Obviously humans can survive and even thrive without
electricity and computers.

Surely playing cards by candle light with your friends and family is far
more fulfilling than playing computer during a power outage.

The irony if a usenet post extolling freedom from computers should not
be underappreciated... You are getting into the real of
philosophy. Whether certain things make us happy or not. And that's
fine, but generators are convenience devices that allow us to do what
we desire, which could be browsing the internet, for example.

i

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

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

Notan

My favorite was an early panasonic service manual for a stereo
cassette deck that described how the reray logic worked. "If not reray
1, then reray 2 ..." I wish I still had it, because it was a laugh riot
for about six pages.

 

[Keith Williams]

That's one way of looking at things...

Surely playing cards by candle light with your friends and family is far
more fulfilling than playing computer during a power outage.

Ever notice the uptick in births nine months after such an "outage"?

 

[Rich Grise]

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.

You think there's going to be cable????

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Ignoramus9118]

You think there's going to be cable????

At least in my area, you can watch TV with a regular TV antenna. The
quality will not be great, but probably good enough for figuring out
just what are the latest news.

i

 

[Tom]

Don't forget that "regular" TV station needs an antenna and a
transmitter. And the transmitter needs power. And they also need some
sort of programming feed, which needs antennas, studios, etc. How much
of this infrastructure survived Katrina? Any more questions?

 

[Ignoramus9118]

Don't forget that "regular" TV station needs an antenna and a
transmitter. And the transmitter needs power. And they also need some
sort of programming feed, which needs antennas, studios, etc. How much
of this infrastructure survived Katrina? Any more questions?

Not all electrical outages involve hurricanes that knock down TV
stations. The stations also have backup generators. Most outages are of
different nature and TV is usually available.

i

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Not all electrical outages involve hurricanes that knock down TV
stations. The stations also have backup generators. Most outages are of
different nature and TV is usually available.

i

How many hours of fuel do you think a TV station has on site? Either
at the studio, or the transmitter? a lot are under 24 hours because the
amount of power required to fire up the transmitter. The last
transmitter I worked around needed well over 250 KW, just for the
transmitter. By the time you added the cooling system and other loads,
they had to have a 500 KW diesel generator. The studio was a big load,
as well. Sure you could shut down some of the equipment and reroute the
signals for a bare bones setup, but that takes time. When the
hurricanes hit Central Florida last year a lot of stations were off the
air for the duration. If the storm damages the STL equipment, backup
power doesn't do you much good, unless you have a secondary control room
and studio at the transmitter site, and I haven't seen a TV station
built that way since the early '60s.

The local TV station was off the air, and most of the radio
stations. Some had power at the studios, some at the transmitter, and
some lost their STL feed. One station managed to re-aim their STL
transmitting antenna to hit another transmitter they owned that had
power and get on the air at reduced power, and hours. If you haven't
been in the trenches during an emergency, you have no idea. The
engineers present plans to the owners to improve things, but they won't
spend the money, because they want to by more poorly equipped stations
rather than fix the ones that they already own.

 

[A. Jacobs]

Watch DirecTV CNN for news.
Local channels are no good for news.

 

[Rich Grise]

At least in my area, you can watch TV with a regular TV antenna.

Yes, but not CNN!

The
quality will not be great, but probably good enough for figuring out
just what are the latest news.

I can get channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 28, 44, 50, 56, and 58,
but I'm like 10 miles from Mount Baldy, where all of the transmitters
are. Actually I can get more channels than that on UHF, but they're
mostly Mexican. And I did build a little Yagi for 50, 56, & 58, but
the signals are so strong from 7 - 13 that I can get them with the
same yagi - clearly, it's acting like a random-wire at those freq's.

I have a battery/12VDC 5" TV that takes 10 "C" cells, that last
about 2-1/2 - 3 hours, although the radio works for a while. A
load of 'C' cells costs more than the damn TV did, so it's hardly
worth it.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Watch DirecTV CNN for news.
Local channels are no good for news.

There was no usable sat service or CATV during the hurricanes last
year. The heavy rains stopped the KU band signals, and the CATV UPS
systems couldn't keep everything on line for more than a couple hours.
We had a private microwave link to the shelter that is normally used for
educational TV, but the high winds would cause the towers to vibrate and
flex enough to chop the signal. It was the first back on line, but the
national news services had no local news. We could pick up a snowy
picture on a 4" portable TV from Jacksonville that had a tiny bit of
useful news. We couldn't get a signal from any of the Orlando stations
which were closer, because they are blocked by hills. I spent over a
month without electricity last year, between the three hurricanes that
affected my area.