An emergency light I didn't ralize I had

[Moe]

I'm in town on the grid and we rarely have power outages. But the
other morning when it was still dark we had a thunderstorm and the power
was out about for 45 minutes. I was using a flashlight to get around
and it dawned on me to put a CFL in a reflector type clip on light and
plug it into the computer APC. This provided plenty of light for the
room until the power came back on.

 

[Vaughn Simon]

I'm in town on the grid and we rarely have power outages. But the other
morning when it was still dark we had a thunderstorm and the power was out
about for 45 minutes. I was using a flashlight to get around and it dawned
on me to put a CFL in a reflector type clip on light and plug it into the
computer APC. This provided plenty of light for the room until the power came
back on.

That is a good plan as long as all of your power outages are short. Most
of those household UPS units have pretty small batteries. I did the same thing
a few years ago following a tropical storm; worked great for about 30 minutes.

Vaughn

 

[Arnold Walker]

That is a good plan as long as all of your power outages are short.
Most of those household UPS units have pretty small batteries. I did the
same thing a few years ago following a tropical storm; worked great for
about 30 minutes.

Vaughn Also workds for a trouble light on a vehicle.

Just plug it in an invertor ....used both CFL and sodium bulbs.

 

[Moe]

My power in Cleveland comes from the same feeder that feeds high
reliability power (redundant feeds) to the Maytag factory across the
street. One of my power quality tools is a Dranez power disturbance
analyzer. Several, actually. This instrument logs each disturbance -
voltage swell and sag, cycle drops, frequency deviations, etc. I
leave 'em plugged in all the time to keep the batteries charged and
the capacitors formed. They're like the Maytag repairman - nothing to
do. They'll occasionally record a transient from lightning but the
feed is so hard (low impedance) that it doesn't last long enough to
trigger any of my UPSs.

My mountain home is the polar opposite. It sits on the far end of a
17 mile spur up the side of a mountain. It comes from a rural co-op
fairly notorious for lack of right of way maintenance. When the wind
blows the power goes out. When it snows the power goes out.
Sometimes when it rains the power goes out. I think sometimes just
the weatherman forecasting snow is enough for the power to go out.

Ergo, I have multiple generators in the mountains capable of running
my house for an extended period. In Cleveland I have a little camping
generator that could run a few lights and maybe a 'fridge if need be.
Except for camping and the occasional exercise, it never gets used.


Well, to put your analogy right, "why have homeowner's insurance if
your house is made of concrete?" Yeah, I think the dead horse has
taken a beating. Your level of preparedness is appropriate for your
environment, as is mine for my environment. If I did everything here
in Cleveland that you've done, I'd only waste money and look silly.

John
---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
All great things are simple and many can be expressed in single words:
Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, Hope. -Churchill

Speaking of UPCs, I stopped by the second hand store and found one on
the shelf for 5 bucks. I'll use it for parts and maybe get an old car
battery and see what I can do with it. With a little luck I won't have
much more in it then what a new one would have cost. We don't lose
power here often and when we do it's for only a short time, except an
ice storm 5 or 6 years ago that took three or four days to get the power
back on. I've got a cheap Chinese 1,000 watt generator that sits in
the garage in case that happens again. Enough to run a TV and a
satellite system. Also an inverter still in the package. I miss the
TV and computer most when the power goes off. I've got a couple of
natural gas heaters that don't need electricity and will heat the house
or at least this part of the house. Water stays on since I'm on city
water and they have lots and lots of storage and redundant backup
pumping systems.
Flashlights, batteries, candles, good chainsaws and generators are
the things needed most after storms. Anyway I'm prepared except for the
cable modem, I use VOIP only for phone and when the power goes off no
phone or online computer, I don't have a cell phone. DSL would fix the
online problem if it were a chronic problem, but it isn't so I'll just
stick with what I have and if I have to, use the neighbors DSL if power
goes out for an extended period of time. My neighbor agreed to let me
put my wireless router on his system and power it so I could have the
net if it ever comes to that. It's really not that difficult to get
the basic stuff up and running when the power goes off if a person will
just do a little planning and thinking. Oh yea "realize", I see I
misspelled it in the header.

 

[Vaughn Simon]

I've got a couple of natural gas heaters that don't need electricity and will
heat the house or at least this part of the house.

Very good thinking! This will get you by for 90% of all ice storms and
other power outages. But what about the rare natural gas outage? I used to
always keep a KeroSun heater around for when all else failed, but now winters
aren't a problem. (I live in S. FL)

Flashlights, batteries, candles...

Oops! Stop right there! I got rid of my candles and oil lamps years ago in
favor of fluorescent lanterns. They give off amazing light and are guaranteed
to not set your house on fire. The batteries last for days. We have one LED
lantern that serves night light duty in the bathroom.

Anyway I'm prepared except for the cable modem, I use VOIP only for phone
and when the power goes off no phone or online computer, I don't have a cell
phone. DSL would fix the online problem if it were a chronic problem, but
it isn't so I'll just stick with what I have and if I have to, use the
neighbors DSL if power goes out for an extended period of time. My neighbor
agreed to let me put my wireless router on his system and power it so I could
have the net if it ever comes to that.

I don't know about your area, but Bell South does not have emergency
generators at most of their neighborhood mux terminals. That means that all
phones and DSL die a few hours after a power failure. Even our Fire Stations
lose phone service for the same reason. They have portable generators, but not
enough to go around.

Vaughn

 

[Moe]

I have two Mr. Heater Buddy heaters. For the garage but emergency use
was definitely a consideration for getting them.

BTU / hour ear) for about 25 hours.

I live in Oklahoma, if the natural gas goes out here, we have a lot
more serious problems then just keeping warm! Tornadoes are our biggest
natural threat. The ice storm a few years ago isn't apt to happen again
for another 10 years or longer. It was weird, standing in the front
yard I could hear limbs breaking for a radius of a couple of blocks,
some sounded like guns going off, mother nature did a lot of pruning
that night, all the streets became blocked so vehicles were unable to
drive and there was no sound or light, it was like being out in the
country. The limbs fell on the power lines pulling them down. With no
electricity the gas stations couldn't pump the gas they had. After the
streets were cleared people were driving 25 miles round trip to get to a
gas station that had a standby generator that could sell gas. In a
couple of days the electricity was back on to the main feeds and stores
were able to reopen. Lowe's had a standby generator and was able to
stay open and that helped a lot. People could buy kerosene, heaters,
chainsaws and generators there. It was interesting how people could
cope when they had to. Main problem was trees blocking the streets at
first, then the electricity, then the clean up of all the tree limbs and
damage due to some collapsed buildings etc. A major hailstorm also
caused a lot of solid waste problems at the landfill once. All the old
shingles were going to fill the available landfill space so they had to
be stockpiled until they could get permission to be disposed of in an
approved manner.
Water/beer, food, shelter, warmth, TV/radio, Internet gotta have the
necessities.
Oh well, enough of this, the printer is finished, back to doing my
taxes.

 

[Moe]

In all that description I didn't read if the NG stayed on.

There's no place like home. There's no....

Gas and water kept working,
Sorry about the long post, I was putting off doing my taxes.