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Emergency Preparedness - What Are You Doing? (If Anything)
- Thread starter Sgt. Ear Ache
- Start date
At our safety lectures, I warned students that if they were slow getting out the door, they'd end up with a Stuart-shaped hole in them.
phoenixdogfan
Major Contributor
Other than having a supply of canned meats (spam, hash, beef stew, skyline chili, bags of rice, pasta, and noodles, and a couple cases of bottled water) no huge food larder. What I do have I could make last me about two weeks, maybe three. Plus I have flashlights and a battery powered radio, and plastic sheeting and duct tape, plus 5 g internet. So I could possibly made it through a short power outage, and or chemical contamination emergency. Plus an interesting collection of knives, a fishing rod, and training on how to use them.
So could probably survive most weather, terror, biohazard, power outage events. But would be seriously screwed if civilization takes a dive or we get nuked. But so would everyone else including the guys with 300 days supply in a bunker.
So could probably survive most weather, terror, biohazard, power outage events. But would be seriously screwed if civilization takes a dive or we get nuked. But so would everyone else including the guys with 300 days supply in a bunker.
We are guaranteed to have power failures in winter, especially when it is cold, just about every year. So when we built our new house, we put in a 30 KW standby generator running on 500 gallon propane tank. Sadly, half the time we have needed the thing, it has failed mostly due starter battery going bad! Last time it literally exploded and I had to clean up acid everywhere. 
Then this last time, it failed to start for no good reason. Got it serviced and now hoping it will keep going.
Looked at batteries+inverter and despite massive price drops, they still can't handle anything remotely close to what the generator produces. I can get the wattage but it would be sucked dry in hours instead of a full week. And solar is a bust in winter here when it would be needed the most.
Outside of electricity, we have our own well for water. And usually large amount of food stuffs both frozen and in cans.
Two things we can't handle: a massive tsunami or volcano erupting, both of which may happen tomorrow or a thousand years from now!
Then this last time, it failed to start for no good reason. Got it serviced and now hoping it will keep going.Looked at batteries+inverter and despite massive price drops, they still can't handle anything remotely close to what the generator produces. I can get the wattage but it would be sucked dry in hours instead of a full week. And solar is a bust in winter here when it would be needed the most.
Outside of electricity, we have our own well for water. And usually large amount of food stuffs both frozen and in cans.
Two things we can't handle: a massive tsunami or volcano erupting, both of which may happen tomorrow or a thousand years from now!
Just checked on my food reserves:
2 packets of waffles, a pint of milk, a yoghurt and a half-eaten Polish sausage I should probably throw out.
In the event of a disaster my plan is to go out looting.
2 packets of waffles, a pint of milk, a yoghurt and a half-eaten Polish sausage I should probably throw out.
In the event of a disaster my plan is to go out looting.
Sokel
Master Contributor
- Joined
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Batteries are the main failure,yes.We are guaranteed to have power failures in winter, especially when it is cold, just about every year. So when we built our new house, we put in a 30 KW standby generator running on 500 gallon propane tank. Sadly, half the time we have needed the thing, it has failed mostly due starter battery going bad! Last time it literally exploded and I had to clean up acid everywhere.
Looked at batteries+inverter and despite massive price drops, they still can't handle anything remotely close to what the generator produces. I can get the wattage but it would be sucked dry in hours instead of a full week. And solar is a bust in winter here when it would be needed the most.
Outside of electricity, we have our own well for water. And usually large amount of food stuffs both frozen and in cans.
Two things we can't handle: a massive tsunami or volcano erupting, both of which may happen tomorrow or a thousand years from now!
We have a smaller one 16 kW running at the same tank of the central heating (underfloor) and I had to jump start it once using my car and the emergency leads!
From then on I regularly check on it.
007Shorty
Active Member
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- Apr 2, 2021
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I've often thought about the fact that a house needs a large paraffin tank. This will then be charged (melted) over the summer with the help of solar thermal energy and provide the house with heat for free in winter. If necessary, you could make candles out of it.
Of course, you could also use a large water tank, but the enthalpy of the phase change (solid/liquid) contains so much energy that the paraffin tank would probably be much smaller.
Of course, you could also use a large water tank, but the enthalpy of the phase change (solid/liquid) contains so much energy that the paraffin tank would probably be much smaller.
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restorer-john
Grand Contributor
I have a 3kVA petrol generator which lives downstairs in the laundry. I start it maybe once a year, run it for 20 mins or so. It saved us last year when a storm and tornado (genuine tornado here in Qld) took out out power and 150,000 others for 6 days over Christmas. Maybe $100 worth of petrol (gas) and a top-up of small engine oil. I love that thing.
It ran the fridge, the fans and the master bedroom portable A/C I had bought "just for fun" for 6 days. Didn't lose a thing in the fridge/freezer and we had fans, toast, hot coffee, lights, internet (fixed wireless bounced off a repeater 16km away) and yes, even music and TV (not all at once). I ran twin 20A cables up the laundry chute to the first floor to run everything and the gen sat on a rubber mat on the concrete slab. Nobody out here had internet, except a few with Starlink running off gens/solar. All the 3g and 4/5g towers were out for a week.
A small-medium (2.5-5kVA) gen is way better than a large one. They are easy to pull-start, need no start batteries to maintain, and can run modern inverter fridge/freezers alongside a ton of other stuff. A modern inverter (variable) drive compressor pulls no huge start current. My fridges sat around 140-190W max and mostly under 60W. Gone are the days where the startup current would stall a gen. You can put them in the back of the car/truck and take them anywhere. A mate of mine had a large diesel "whole-house" generator that couldn't be started after not being used for several years. He lost all his Christmas food and seafood.
It ran the fridge, the fans and the master bedroom portable A/C I had bought "just for fun" for 6 days. Didn't lose a thing in the fridge/freezer and we had fans, toast, hot coffee, lights, internet (fixed wireless bounced off a repeater 16km away) and yes, even music and TV (not all at once). I ran twin 20A cables up the laundry chute to the first floor to run everything and the gen sat on a rubber mat on the concrete slab. Nobody out here had internet, except a few with Starlink running off gens/solar. All the 3g and 4/5g towers were out for a week.
A small-medium (2.5-5kVA) gen is way better than a large one. They are easy to pull-start, need no start batteries to maintain, and can run modern inverter fridge/freezers alongside a ton of other stuff. A modern inverter (variable) drive compressor pulls no huge start current. My fridges sat around 140-190W max and mostly under 60W. Gone are the days where the startup current would stall a gen. You can put them in the back of the car/truck and take them anywhere. A mate of mine had a large diesel "whole-house" generator that couldn't be started after not being used for several years. He lost all his Christmas food and seafood.
How are you connecting to the generator? Do you have the necessary isolation from mains switching, or do you just disconnect the devices from the mains and plug directly into genorator?
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Come the revolution, you'll be the first one up against the walmart.
2 supermarkets at the end of the street, open 363 days a year until late (except Sunday, 1600 closing). Don't see the point of stockpiling, let them stockpile and lose money on spoilage.
Don't have a freezer so no spoilage there but then the longest power cut we've had in years was one hour in the depths of last winter. Cable failure at local substation.
No light, no heat, no music, no TV. Got in a sleeping bag and read a book.
Don't have a freezer so no spoilage there but then the longest power cut we've had in years was one hour in the depths of last winter. Cable failure at local substation.
No light, no heat, no music, no TV. Got in a sleeping bag and read a book.
The latter. I can put the genny outside the door to my utility room, run an extension cable through the cat flap and plug the boiler and fridge/freezer straight into the extension. I should add that I have only tested the fridge/freezer this way. I need to rewire the boiler as the flex coming out of it is wired directly into a fused spur at the moment.
I have a friend who plugs his genny straight into a downstairs socket, but he isolates the ring first.
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I don't worry too much about losing power. As long as town water and gas are coming into my house losing power is just an inconvenience since I can still have heat (gas heating stove) and cook. Long outages are usually in winter so I can keep stuff cold. I also have a little generator but I have never used it, a transfer switch for the boiler circuit that I haven't installed.
Worse disasters I am unprepared for. I try to keep some cans of soup but beyond that I would hope I could just get away.
Worse disasters I am unprepared for. I try to keep some cans of soup but beyond that I would hope I could just get away.
Safety routes and exits should be well highlighted and illuminated.
My wife left behind several years worth of dried and canned food, as well as enough ammo to discourage looters. I added in a few hundred bottles of wine.
I'm prepared.
I'm prepared.
Yes, they should. Would you bet your life on this to be well executed everywhere? I rather not. Sometimes emergency exits are also clogged with all kinds of stuff. I like to know this before and have actually left some place right away. Also, I prefer to be at the front of that queue rather than hold my breath waiting in toxic fumes. Ideally I am gone when others still search for signs. Costs me one good look around. YMMV.
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About Denzel’s age hence every second counts. Too slow to be lazyDo you set your stopwatch after this like Denzel Washington in The Equalizer?
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