Posted: 6/8/2008 6:55:42 AM EDT
|
I've been lurking here on the Survival Forum for several years now and don't generally post much. I do read pretty much everything that get's posted here however so over the years I've learned a lot. I recently had an experience that I think is worth sharing and that taught me a particularly expensive lesson so here's my report. Last Wednesday a line of severe thunderstorms rolled through our area. As a result of widespread tree damage we were without power for six hours. Now I'm not expecting any sympathy from you Mid-Westerners who've been though some really terrible weather lately but at least the experience did give me the opportunity to test a few of my preps. Interestingly enough it pretty much validated everything I've learned here on ARFCOM. Here are the lessons learned: 1) Head lamps are great. The power went off around 3:00 pm and I got home at 5:00 so I was able to get most everything setup before it got dark but being able to get the last few things done after nightfall while having full use of my hands was wonderful. It was particularly nice to get the wife to settle down and read a book which she could do conveniently because of her headlamp. By the way, I'm a flashaholic so I have a lot of expensive flashlights available but the first ones I grabbed were the 3 for $15 headlamps I got at Home Depot last Christmas. They weren't great lights from the flashaholic's perspective (two 5 mm LEDs) but they were completely adequate and made life a lot easier. 2) Anderson Powerpole connectors rock. These are genderless low voltage high current connectors that I came across in my amateur radio hobby Power Poles or see the thread in the Amateur Radio Forum. As part of my preps I have extensive 12V infrastructure which I've standardized to use Powerpole connectors. The most common size is rated for up to 45A but larger sizes are available. Each 12V battery I have terminates in one as do all my "appliances." They're color-coded and can only be connected one way so I'm confident my non-engineering wife could hook things up if I'm not around. They're a lot smaller than cigarette lighter plugs and being genderless can connect to each other without an adapter. These made deploying the lighting, radio, and small inverter (for charging the cell phones) a snap. 3) Florescent lanterns are wonderful when it's hot out. A few years ago I bought a pair of two bulb, battery-operated florescent lights made by Coleman on clearance at Target. I was careful to buy ones that ran off of 8 D cell batteries (i.e., 12V). Given my 12V infrastructure I immediately modified them to use a small cord that terminated in a Powerpole connector. Once it got dark I flipped them on and they worked great. With both bulbs running (14W or so) they each covered two rooms or so with enough light to easily make your way around. I also have Coleman propane and white gas lanterns but they put out a lot of heat and without the AC going it was already too hot. 4) Thermometers for refrigerators and freezers. About a year ago I was wandering through Target with the wife and saw some indoor/outdoor thermometers on clearance for $8 each. I quickly grabbed two ignoring the scowls and groans from my wife. My explanation that "Honey, when the power goes out I'll be able to tell when to run the fridge or freezer off of backup power" was met with the remark that "the power never goes out." She had a point, but I bought them anyway and placed one on top of each fridge (I already had one for the freezer) and ran the "outdoor" probe into the refrigerator compartment. There they sat completely ignored until last Wednesday's prolonged outage. It was great to be able to tell when a given unit needed backup power. As expected, the refrigerator in the kitchen was the first to go as its environment was hotter than the unit in the hall to the garage or the freezer in the basement. 5) Two is one, one is none/Expect a visit from Mr. Murphy/Test your stuff. We have a diabetic dog who requires insulin injections. We also have a lot of SHTF food stored in a deep freezer. Losing the dog's (incredibly expensive) insulin or the contents of the freezer due to a power outage is unacceptable. In order to keep our refrigerators and deep freezer going I have a battery bank, inverter, and a small generator. The theory is to use the battery bank to run the fridge and freezer at night then run them off the generator during the day while I'm also recharging the battery bank. Given how hot it was in the central part of the house after a few hours the kitchen refrigerator was the first to need to be run according to its thermometer. No problem, I had the battery bank and inverter all ready to go. I opened the freezer compartment to flip the wire bail to disable the ice maker (its heater would waste precious battery power) then turned the inverter on and plugged-in the 'fridge. It started right up and looked to be good-to-go. An hour or so later, I noticed that it wasn't running and prepared to disconnect it from the inverter/battery bank and move on to the other 'fridge which now needed power. When I got to the inverter however I noticed that the power being used had gone up (3X) not down as it would have had the 'fridge shutoff normally. I opened up the freezer to confirm that the ice maker was off -- it was -- then began to get a sinking feeling in my gut. The inverter I was using is a modified sine wave unit. It puts out a power waveform that looks like a stair step rather than a sine wave like what comes from the power company. The reason for this is that these inverters are about one tenth the cost of comparable true sine wave units and will run *most* things just fine. I had previously run both refrigerators off it to confirm it could start their compressors but I had never run them more than a few minutes. As the other 'fridge now needed to be run I went outside and fired-up the generator. After sorting out the power cords and getting the other 'fridge and basement freezer running off the genny, I tried the kitchen 'fridge again (on the generator) hoping that I had just tripped a temporary thermal cutout or something. No joy. In the immortal words of Dr. "Bones" McCoy: "It's dead Jim." I had killed our main refrigerator. After the initial round of recriminations from the wife, she realized that she could now get the new refrigerator she had been wanting and calmed down. Fortunately the other refrigerator and the freezer ran just fine off the generator until the power came back on. Now we had the problem of how to preserve the food in the dead refrigerator until we could get a new one. (BTW, the new true sine wave inverter arrives next Thursday. 6) Even a modest generator is wonderful. Had we not had a generator we would have lost a lot of food. We have a freezer that is crammed full of stuff for short-term SHTF. Losing its contents would have been hugely expensive. I bought a $300 Chinese-Honda-clone 3 kW unit from Costco a while ago. This is the first time it's been used during a real outage but it worked like a champ. Having a bunch of 50 foot extension cords was great. Since it's just a 3000 watt unit I don't have a transfer switch and don't feel the need to back-feed the house. Interestingly, while our houses are spaced out a bit, none of the neighbors came over to investigate the generator noise. 7) Dry ice works great but it's expensive. We're lucky that Harris Teeter grocery stores in our area carry dry ice. Given how widespread the power outage was we were lucky that the 'fridge died when it did; my wife got the last four packs of dry ice from the local store. We put two in the dead refrigerator's freezer compartment and two more in the refrigerator compartment. Conventional wisdom says that dry ice will keep a 'frige or freezer cold for up to 48 hours if the doors remain closed. I think that's maybe a little optimistic; we replenished the dry ice after about 48 hours and it was all gone when we opened the doors but I don't think we've lost any food. The new refrigerator arrives in the next few hour so we'll know for sure shortly. NOTE: While the dry ice works great, it's $1 a pound (!). We used about 40 lbs. at a time (two days). Hope this helps. |
|
Here is a heads up for you on the insulin. Not only am I insulin dependant, but I also have a cat that is. I have never refrigerated the insulin and have survived just fine. I also live in Phoenix and go on 7-14 day hikes out into the middle of nowhere where temps reach well above 105 and once again. If its out of direct sunlight, it will be just fine. Other than that, sounds like you came thru with flying colors. Congrats! (0_o) Dan |
|
Odd that your refrigerator requires pure sine wave power - very odd. I'd figure that the compressor's motor would be just a standard inductor and not really care. The heat load on the coils ought to go up a bit but not that much. I've been trying to find my Kill-a-watt meter, this gives me an extra incentive. You sound very well prepared. Have you thought about going DC with your freezer? This one draws about 36 watts at peak and would keep your dog's meds safe.   |
I'm guessing the the high frequency harmonics in the modified sine wave waveform fried the compressor motor's starting cap (but that's only a guess). I saw your post on the Engel and had to wipe the drool off my chin. If they were cheaper I'd probably have one. Unfortunately that doesn't take care of my freezer. Thanks though for the thought. |
|
I am not sure why you think insulin is only good for 30 days after opening. First, you don't essentially open insulin. You withdraw doses via a membrane. Once again, for most of my life that I can remember I have been insulin dependant. I have never stored any insulin in a refrigerator and I am still kicking. (0_o) |
Obviously you already understand what I'm about to say, but hopefully your write up will drive this home. That there is a reason that a 2000 watt EU2000 costs as much as most 5-8000 watt conventional gensets and that reason is that the EU series of Honda gennys produce cleaner power than you get from the power company itself. Go to an outdoor concert without street power, and look at the quiet red boxes humming along next to the uber expensive sound boards, and such. If you're going to be running major expensive electronic appliances on back up power, make sure that the power produced is "clean" enough for your appliance to use it. |
I agree 100%. I've been taking insulin for 32 years now. I'm still kickin'. |
Very helpful! Any sugguestions on how to get a extra script? My doctor won't give me outmore than 3 months supply of insulin at a time. I would rather have 3 months on hand at all time and rotate through it with a second 3 month script, so i should have around 4 months supply on hand at all times. Any tips on how to get a second script? |
I have had the same problem for a number of years. At one point, I ordered thru a canadian site to have additional vials sitting around. Past that, I am generally stuck with 3 month scripts at a time. Its not ethical, but you could tell them that the prescription got stolen from your car and you need to have it filled again. Other than that... for the most part the system has us.. (0_o) |
excellent question. For me personally, in a pinch I would survive on just about any insulin. I currently use a preblended mix. For my cat, he uses a bovine substitute. There are newer types out on the market now but once you get your cat regulated it ends up being bad news swapping types. Dan (0_o) |
|
pick up extra N and R vials otc... Not as rapid acting as the newer analogs, nor the efficacy of the mimicked basal that glargine gives, but folks survived for years with these prior to the new stuff.. Pick up many extra boxes of either 1cc or low dose syringes as well... Stay away from stocking up on the alcohol prep pads as they dry out... Purchase several cases of alcohol and cotton balls. Just some random thoughts 
|