Preparedness for when

wondercollie

A friend who lives in North Dakota saw this today http://www.augasonfarms.com/30-Day-Food-Storage-Emergency-All-in-One6-Gallon-Pail-UPC-78716-20095

when shopping.

Prepping for the uber lazy

[Deleted User]

Augason_Farms wrote:

It is a safe, non-combustible, burnable material that lights quickly in even adverse conditions.

How can it be a burnable material, if it's "non-combustible" :huh:

nuatha

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

It did cross my mind, to use a leisure battery to run a laptop, instead of a jumper pack, as leisure batteries have large (in some cases massive) capacities.

Two things put me off.

1. The price. :eek:

2. You can't easily pop a leisure battery into the foot well, and charge it from the lighter socket, on the way to and from work.

Given a laptop draws around 1.5 to 2 amps, I reckon the 17Ah battery, fitted to most reasonably priced jumper packs, will keep me online, for the few hours between coming home from work, and going to bed.

Quite a few current model laptops draw well over 2 Amps, worth double checking before you decide on a model.
Though you are relying on your phone mast still receiving power. If memory serves, you don't have a landline, for those that do a laptop running XP could use a USB ADSL modem (such as the Thompson Stingray) with a BT line - exchanges have backup generators and fairly substantial battery backups.

Have you thought about adding a charge point to the boot of your car, that way the jumper pack would be out of sight?

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

How can it be a burnable material, if it's "non-combustible" :huh:

I'm also stumbling over that one - is this the divided by a common laguage thing?

mardatha

Our repeater mast along the road goes off in powercuts.

jk0

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

It did cross my mind, to use a leisure battery to run a laptop, instead of a jumper pack, as leisure batteries have large (in some cases massive) capacities.

Two things put me off.

1. The price. :eek:

2. You can't easily pop a leisure battery into the foot well, and charge it from the lighter socket, on the way to and from work.

Given a laptop draws around 1.5 to 2 amps, I reckon the 17Ah battery, fitted to most reasonably priced jumper packs, will keep me online, for the few hours between coming home from work, and going to bed.

My father and I used to run into all sorts of battery problems when we were motor caravaning.

Bob, I think you may find that even a half hour trip into work & back is not sufficient to recharge the batttery in your jumper pack. (The charge current will be limited in some way so that the small lead acid battery does not boil.)

A better idea might be to have a second car battery either permanently installed in your car, with a split charger, or have one in your garage the same as your car battery that you can swap over every night when you come home from work.

If you are careful not to let it discharge too far you could even use the car battery itself. (That's what I would do, and if necessary the car could idle on the drive.)

vanoonoo

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I'm tempted to get a laptop (doesn't need to be top of the range), a car adapter, and a jump starter pack, so I can stay online, during a power cut.

not sure you'd be able to get online to be honest as most routers would go down too

[Deleted User]

jk0 wrote: »

Bob, I think you may find that even a half hour trip into work & back is not sufficient to recharge the battery in your jumper pack.

I guess I could charge it at work.

[Deleted User]

vanoonoo wrote: »

not sure you'd be able to get online to be honest as most routers would go down too

I don't have a router.

[Deleted User]

mardatha wrote: »

Our repeater mast along the road goes off in powercuts.

During the few (albeit brief - a few hours each) power cuts we've had, in the last decade or so, my mobile still worked so, I'm expecting mobile broadband to continue working, at least to start with.

notjustlaura

GreyQueen wrote: »

PP, I agree about the car. I haven't owned one since 1997 and can well remember the stress and worry of running a 10 y.o. Fiesta on a very small income....

Getting rid of my car is one of the best and most effective MSE/OS decisions I've made. I have use of my mother's car (they live a 15 minutes walk away) if I need it but can manage quite happily without - it's a luxury I'm grateful for rather than something I use all the time.

Not only do I save on tax, repair and insurance but I've lost the facility to jump in the car on a whim and go shopping. I have to catch the bus which gives me a nice breathing space between the impulse to buy a 'new shiny thing' and actually parting with my money.

Speaking of which ... I've been reading the conversation about cash vs plastic with great interest. I tend to think the money I have is safe in the bank (and, let's be honest, it's not like I have a lot of it at the moment). The main danger to it is ME. I've noticed previously that I spend less when I take out £XX each week because that's what I've budgeted for and don't use the plastic (except online where if I spend £10 on plastic I put £10 from my purse aside because it's been spent). It seems I'm a very visual person and the mantra 'No. You can't afford it,' is a whole lot more effective when my purse is empty.

It's pay day (well, pension day) for me on Friday and I'm going to set myself up to take the week's money out once a week and pay cash. I wonder how much I'll save?