Preparedness for when

daz378

like that maplin charger...... not venturing out tomorrow...if its too bad. but ..its on my radar.....especially if we are entering a disrupted energy phase. cant believe ive not got round to buying a pair of wellies.... ideally like a pair of waders... proper back up.....so looking forward to relaxing on my weekend off

Frugalsod

daz378 wrote: »

like that maplin charger...... not venturing out tomorrow...if its too bad. but ..its on my radar.....especially if we are entering a disrupted energy phase. cant believe ive not got round to buying a pair of wellies.... ideally like a pair of waders... proper back up.....so looking forward to relaxing on my weekend off

With climate change they could be very handy, with regular flooding more likely. I suspect that you might come to regard them as one of your best ever purchases after the first flood.

I have ordered a solar kettle, apparently it will take 2 hours to boil 0.5l of water but could be used all year round, all it needs is good sunlight. So I will be trying it out and seeing whether I need a second one to make best use of the flask for the days coffee.

2tonsils

So if an emp would wipe out my scooter....why does it still start (and run ) on the kickstart when I disconnect the battery?

daz378

braved the elements and bought myself a sturdy pair of dunlop steel toecapped wellies.........i will have to delay purchase of waders.....and hope the floods do not become biblical before i can afford them.... will venture into manchester monday to buy the maplin charger

Butterfly_Brain

Gold doesn't seem such a good bet after this

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-06/one-ton-gold-shipment-hong-kong-revealed-contain-just-worthless-metal

Perplexed_Pineapple

Frugalsod wrote: »

I am currently looking into the idea of using solar panels to run a laptop from, as well as a solar kettle for boiling water. It might be slow and might need several for a days coffee refills, but combined with a vacuum flask it might work. Initially I suspect that the payback rate will be very long but as electricity prices rocket once we start to run out of oil and gas then its will become very cost effective.

I've just been thinking about a solar set-up to run a laptop and come to the conclusion that there are very few good reasons for using limited power in a blackout for running a laptop. I'd miss surfing the net, but the internet would probably be down anyway, I could live without movies and games, there might be useful information in ebooks or downloaded documents but anything really useful should probably be in a hard copy and there's a lifetime's supply of useful and useless information on the bookshelves anyway. So the main reason for wanting to access information on a laptop at signficant energy expense would be portability - if you had to bug out it would be easier to carry a laptop than lots of books. But as we're discusing if we have motorised transport there are easier ways of generating electricity so the scenario where it would be useful would be if we reverted to older technology. So what we need is to design a donkey cart with built in solar panels

[Deleted User]

For me the hardest deprivation if the power grid should fail would not be no lighting, we've got that covered, not be no heating, we've got that covered too nor even not being able to access information as I've got small...... well, medium library of books covering amost of the things I'd need to know, it WOULD be not being able to communicate with you guys, although I'd still know you were there and doing the same things as we were. I'd miss the support and the company and inventiveness and stoicism that is this thread, I'd miss the being able to toss ideas into the collective and ask questions and share the humour and that feeling of belonging which I have whenever I'm here. So I guess it's a big thank you to all of you and much hoping we NEVER lose the power supply!!!

Frugalsod

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

I've just been thinking about a solar set-up to run a laptop and come to the conclusion that there are very few good reasons for using limited power in a blackout for running a laptop. I'd miss surfing the net, but the internet would probably be down anyway, I could live without movies and games, there might be useful information in ebooks or downloaded documents but anything really useful should probably be in a hard copy and there's a lifetime's supply of useful and useless information on the bookshelves anyway. So the main reason for wanting to access information on a laptop at signficant energy expense would be portability - if you had to bug out it would be easier to carry a laptop than lots of books. But as we're discusing if we have motorised transport there are easier ways of generating electricity so the scenario where it would be useful would be if we reverted to older technology. So what we need is to design a donkey cart with built in solar panels

I am not disagreeing with you. For me the real benefit is to be able to work anywhere, even up a mountain in Colorado or on a secluded beach in Northern Sweden at 2 am in the summer. My work does not rely on internet access 24/7 so I could quite happily work in complete isolation miles from the nearest internet access or mains power point. I could rent a poolside villa somewhere and work by the pool using the panels not needing to worry so much about cables or adaptors get power to the table. That for me would be the main use. The SHTF scenarios would be the bonus. Also the costs of such a panel would be excessive if only used for a SHTF situation.

Also an ebook would be more practical, lower energy usage and easier to recharge from USB power generating systems than a laptop.

[Deleted User]

2tonsils wrote: »

So if an emp would wipe out my scooter....why does it still start (and run ) on the kickstart when I disconnect the battery?

Because it's not the battery that gets fried in an EMP attack.

It's the microchips in the ignition and/or engine management systems.

BTW. I didn't say an EMP would wipe out your scooter.

What I said was, having a kickstart doesn't mean it won't be wiped out.

Whether it will be safe from an EMP attack, depends not on how you start it (electric starter or kickstarter), but on whether critical items contain microchips.

You can get electric start vehicles which don't have microchips, and non-electric start vehicles which do have them.

thriftwizard

Oooer, looking at the news, it seems we've had a lucky escape weather-wise. We've had nothing but a few rumbles of thunder & a few drops of rain but it looks as if it was much worse elsewhere. Hope you have all got off reasonably lightly too...