Preparedness for when

Karmacat

nuatha wrote: »

Since typing the comment about low voltage electrics I've found various ideas playing through my mind, the main thrust of which is divorcing as much as possible of my office from the electrical supply. I've played with solar chargers, but only to charge a single dedicated device, what I'm aiming for will be a charge station to handle all the rechargeables, and a separate main that will power the computers, monitors, printers etc. That will need a bit of research and I suspect an intermediate storage battery layer.

I'm sure it can be done - I'm also sure it would take me at least a week of concentrated study to understand it all, I've got a block about electricity, my brain won't cooperate very much at all

Some of this will only get as a far as a testbed in the next few months as we are considering moving, though a new house purchase would be the ideal time to install what we need - its always easier to fit an empty house. There's a whole host of reasons why we can't consider a property we could take off the grid at the mo, but that doesn't mean we can't seriously reduce our dependence on the grid.

I definitely want to go in that direction.

Small scale CBR attacks (at least they've dropped the Nuclear from the threat assessment - though I suspect they still haven't found the missing suitcase nukes). Given the likely vector for any of the three is fine powder or aerosol/gas distribution I'm not sure what preps are likely to be of any use.
Take the Sarin attack on the Tokyo underground, I don't see that any personal preps were likely to have made a difference to the outcome. Likewise the USA anthrax mailings of 2001. Though I'd be very interested in ideas and opinions to the contrary view.

The "R" is "radiological", things like the radioactive bit from medical facilities: check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident 250 people contaminated, 129 internally! As for safety, someone told me that this thing http://www.keison.co.uk/drager_parat3200_escapedevice.shtml would be able to get you away - the filter's good for 15 minutes. It's a huge amount of money for something you're very, very unlikely to be involved in, though.

How to decontaminate after a chemical incident: I'm in the middle of researching this, and I haven't got the right reference, but I've got a chapter of a US Army book dated 2014 (Medical Management of Chemical Casualties), which says vapour exposure isn't as problematic as the rest, as it will continue to aerosolise, and *immediate* decontamination is crucial for everything - 1 to 2 minutes. Water, soap and water, and flour (of all things!) followed by wet tissue wipes, are as successful as the Fuller's Earth used by European agencies.

Doveling

Does anybody know what's going on with the voting on TTIP?
The more I delve the more I dislike

Went to see Mad Max this week.
Before I started reading about things I would have said it just reminded me of a cross between Scrap heap Challenge and an Alice Cooper gig.
Now the content gives me pause for thought - whoever controls the bullets, the fuel and the water is the person in charge:eek:
California?

Also went to watch Shaun the Sheep so not all grim this week :rotfl:

Cheapskate

Lyn, I seem to remember you having a wood multifuel stove? We're going to be installing one next spring or summer, and want to some proper research, but it would be good to have recommendations from people with experience.

Doveling, what's TTIP, please?

Thanks ladies

A xo

ivyleaf

Doveling Congrats, I thought you'd be offered the job :T A difficult decision to have to make, but good luck whichever way you decide

Yes, TPTB are keeping rather quiet about TTIP, aren't they :mad:

Sorry Cheapskate, i can't remember what it stands for, it's to do with a financial deal between the UK and the US if I understand it correctly, but my memory being as it is I can't recall enough about it to explain properly, but I'm sure someone more useful will be along shortly ETA it's "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership", am looking at an Independent article through Google. It explains far better than I could. it's the EU and the US.

Doveling

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
a thing being set up between the USA and EU.
I had to google it and have tried to understand what it will mean for the UK.
For such a big thing, we don't seem to have heard much about it. :(
An awful lot of people seem to not want it - but governments do?!

[Deleted User]

Hi CHEAPY yes we have a CLEARVIEW INSET MULTI FUEL STOVE (blimey what a mouthful!) we didn't have enough hearth to have a freestander but it fits into the fireplace itself and they fitted a black cast iron plate behind it to hide the gap between it and the edge of the bricks and sealed all draughts with mastic. It's a good little workhorse, we only butn wood so that the ash can go into the compost heaps but a friend in the village has the same stove and uses coal too, they chuck out quite a lot of heat and are very economical with fuel. We invested in a stove thermometer that has an indicator of ideal burning temperature so it's not often that we get sooted up doors which happens when the burn temperature is low. It has a cast iron 'lip that is about 6" wide and the width of the stove that I can actually use to cook on, I've even made soda bread on it very successfully and reheating things in saucepans (I found 2 x half moon ones) and making hot water for tea/boiling eggs/mulling wine is very easily done on it. The best thing about this type of stove is that it is set into a floor to ceiling brick built column which heats up in the burn and retains the heat (like a masonry heater) so well that it is still slightly too warm to touch in the morning. Our bedroom is over the lounge and we never need heating on as the room is toasty. DD1 has a smaller area to heat and last year installed a small Morso stove (can't remember the model) which does the same job in her victorian semi. Worth taking some advice from a supplier of stoves to get the right thermal capacity for the area you want to heat, if DD had put in the one she thought she wanted she'd have fried herself!!! Whatever you get will give you great satisfaction but be warned, you'll become as obsessed with wood collecting as we are, never ever able to pass a building site without asking for offcuts!!! I know... SAD!!!

mardatha

Cheapsake we've got a Parkray Cumbria, we burn coal. It's hot.

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

OK, I'm going to ask, why not mine? Because you could see I wasn't on the forum (was at the lottie with pooter off)? Or because I've mentioned that if I'm away from the screen for more than a minute or two I turn my monitor off? It's a CRT Samsung one with the EnergyStar rating but will be 13 this autumn.

Gosh, just realised my pooter is old enough to go to secondary school - the putty colour is a dead giveaway. Mind you, it's been improved so much over the years by my pooter wizard that it's harbouring any number of 'ponents not as manufacturer intended. I shall keep it as long as possible, too.

Because its a hulking big CRT. They are high voltage. The main box on the otherhand ...

I have several boxes of similar vintage - just because they get older doesn't make them useless, or so I keep telling myself.

Karmacat wrote: »

I'm sure it can be done - I'm also sure it would take me at least a week of concentrated study to understand it all, I've got a block about electricity, my brain won't cooperate very much at all

I've a couple of tame electrical engineers when my head starts to hurt. Its useful at times.

The "R" is "radiological", things like the radioactive bit from medical facilities: check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident 250 people contaminated, 129 internally! As for safety, someone told me that this thing http://www.keison.co.uk/drager_parat3200_escapedevice.shtml would be able to get you away - the filter's good for 15 minutes. It's a huge amount of money for something you're very, very unlikely to be involved in, though.

And given the amount of medical radioactives that are improperly disposed of or are stolen in transit an "R" incident is far more likely than an "N"

How to decontaminate after a chemical incident: I'm in the middle of researching this, and I haven't got the right reference, but I've got a chapter of a US Army book dated 2014 (Medical Management of Chemical Casualties), which says vapour exposure isn't as problematic as the rest, as it will continue to aerosolise, and *immediate* decontamination is crucial for everything - 1 to 2 minutes. Water, soap and water, and flour (of all things!) followed by wet tissue wipes, are as successful as the Fuller's Earth used by European agencies.

The problem being if you are in the middle of an attack, you aren't able to decontaminate until you are out of the danger zone, by which time you may well be beyond decontam. Suddenly producing something like the mask you linked to is going to draw huge amounts of attention and suspicion at yourself. Prepping to survive an incident includes not being shot as a suspicious person.

Doveling good luck with your thinkings things through over the weekend. (And well done on being offered the post).
The whole TTIP process is considered secret by the respective governments. So much for government of the people, by the people.

Frugalsod

This is the wood stove I am planning on getting.

http://www.fireboxstove.com/5-inch-folding-firebox



A little less than 1 kg but very versatile. You can burn anything in it. It even can be used with a trangia stove or esbit or fuel tabs.

[Deleted User]

Very similar to the Firespout except mine doesn't have more than draw holes in the sides, they're a very useful bit of kit!!!