snap crackle and pop

[kinzel]

Well, not quite yet --

We've had about 5 short term power loss episodes so far; those of you in the Northeast may understand when I say... we're on the verge of an ice storm. Temps in the low 30a, rain/sleet/snow ... and the birch and pine trees trees are drooping and bending under the weight of the ice. That means we've got a real good shot of losing power for real when one of the birch trees breaks onto a powerline. We *do* have about 5 UPS around here, mostly charged, so we could carry on computer wise with laptops if need be...

But, I'm ought here for the moment.

Comments

[patchwork-prose.livejournal.com]

We finally gave in and bought a generator. The winter and spring storms are a real pain.

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

We don't have a generator, though we've considered it. We haven't considered it at the same time we've had a royalty payment come through, so that hasn't happened.

I'm at least looking at getting an inverter -- one of our neighbors managed to save a refrigerator and a big freezer's worth of food throughout the big ice storm we had by running a line from his truck and running them a few hours a day....

What we do have is something I picked up at VIP Auto -- it's essentially an undedicated battery-back-up that can also be used to hot-shot cars. We also have a big pile of batteries; once or twice a year I take a hike through local discount stores looking for battery sales and buy a dozen or two. Right now I'm low on AAA batteries, and probably need to get in some D cells, but we're good for the moment.

[patchwork-prose.livejournal.com]

The fellow across the street saved our basement from flooding by hooking up our pump to his RV generator, one year. Our priorities for the generator are pump, furnace, 2-meter radio, and then refrigerator. Don't know why it is that when we lose power for a couple days, it's when we have a just-filled refrigerator.

We've got lots of batteries we haven't done anything with, yet.

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

After the earthquake in San Francisco (the little one, but the power was still out for a day and a half), the answering service I worked for managed to keep running, the traditional part because it was power optional (vintage PBX equipment, using power only for ringing and indicator lights) and the modern part with a couple car batteries and a big inverter (every so often the owner would swap a battery out and take it downstairs and stick in in his car)

Compared to a consumer UPS, you can run stuff for a long long time on a car battery.

Also, if you have a big solid 12VDC source, you can run DC-DC voltage modifiers which are usually more efficient than an inverter plus a transformer block (as long as the final output is DC)

I know this more from running accessories off (the) battery power on my buses than power outages here (infrequent but massive[1]). At home when the power is out, I don't try to run the computers (very power inefficient setup), and everything else can survive with not power. At night, I dig into my camping gear for an LED headlamp (100+ hours on 2 AAs), and a 12LED camp lantern for area lighting (runs on 4 Ds for a long long time[2]).

Good luck with the ice storm, those pretty much sucked when I was growning up in NC.

[1] Last major power outages: earthquake, human error[3] and human error [4].

[2] In the process of modifying one so that it runs off 4 AAs and fits under 4oz for back packing.

[3] For safety reasons, when you are doing work on a substation, you isolate it from the grid and ground it out. When you put it back online, it is a good idea to disconnect the grounding cables...blew fuses all up and down the Peninsula.

[4] Fire alarms do no good if they are ignored or turned off. A small smouldering fire at the unattended Mission substation (40% of SF) was disregarded by remote operators until the smoke got so bad that there was massive arcing and damage at the substation.