The power outages in Spain and Portugal have hit the headlines, but network operators claim some farce as to the cause; but perhaps the biggest issue is peoples ability to live without power and the grids.
Electric cars and Electric trains as well as traffic lights all work from power, but in the idiocrasy of the world today, no one seems to be able to cope with life before when things were more simple.
Mobile smart phones are attached to the brain rather than the hand on occasion and it is interesting how they are the central part of life, rather than food and water, and life skills for that matter.
What is interesting is the collapse of the money system where people are using cards rather than cash and the infrastructure brings both the service and failure.
Mobile phone redundancy lasted around 30 minutes which of course would bring down the internet services for many. but the “panic” of youth seems to be the key lesions to be had here.
Are the bygone skills of life gone?
for the most part todays youth and even adults cannot survive in the real world or natural world because they have never had to. life has given them everything on a plate and things are at the touch of the button. Cant cook, order in. but if you cant order in do you starve to death? The answer is “more than likely”.
What if we had no power?
My partner asked if we had no power and the grid went down, how would that effect us? I have her a puzzled look, and replied; it doesn’t?
We have on and off grid power, so nothing much would change, we have our own internet and coms systems too, so we wouldn’t go without and there would not be any major disruption. the only thing here is that we don’t have enough space for growing food and small water reserves which would last us around 3 weeks.
Cutting apron strings.
Most people, almost everyone in the developed countries are firmly tied to the government and its services, most live in homes that have no redundancy for life, we saw a lot of problems with Covid, the shops were empty and they could not keep them stocked with basics. I suspect if you told someone to make bread, butter and cheese they would freak out and not know. I doubt many would know how to grow food, or even have to tools to. let alone the space to do so.
Could you imagine if money was worth nothing and you needed food how could you cope? What about no gas or old derived products?
it becomes clear that people cannot live without infrastructure and are totally depended in more ways that they care to admit.
Short term – without power grid
Phone lines, olden day ones never actually used power. Mobile phones do.
you will want two things, the modem back up power, and house hold power.
This is provided that you have electric lights and cooker as well as water heater.
Keeping the internet on.
Mini UPS For modems and routers — RenewSolar
You can use one of these to keep the internet on, providing that the telco has back up power. This little unit will have a run time of around 11 hours.
Keeping the power on is a bit different due to demands you may have. and having solar may not provide you with anything. Grid tied solar and a lot of hybrid solar systems will NOT WORK when the power goes out.
You may find the EPS is not connected at all meaning that you have no back up power.
Keeping the power on.
Off grid, with a ATS or Grid attached inverters allow you to keep the power on, with batteries and solar you could find that you could have lights and more for days or weeks depending on how your system is designed as well as your plan… you have a plan right? to lower the power consumption to meet with the generation.
We have a grid attached, off grid and generator which work in combination to ensure there is always power.
Don’t take things for granted.
You should keep account of what items use what power, that way you can save power. you should know how much power you need for your fridge freezer for example and how much that uses in 24 hours. But you also need to account for how much food and water you have; and where the nearest safe source of water actually is.
When you go long term things become vastly different. Food, water and heat can be essential to life, more so that your state of charge of your smart phones battery, believe that if you will… but for the most part as illustrated by Covid, long term can be less than a week before the shops are empty and you lack basics. But holding a range of food to last more than a week, would only give you a life cycle of just one week. for most homes and families water is essential but is very limited when the pump stations go down. we have 800 liters in home, but in the olden days we would fill the bath with water and olden days I mean the 1980s.
There is only so fast that you can grow food, but then the space and time is lacking, in the 1940s in the UK parks were turned into elopements in England’s “dig for victory” – seem to be still going –The Home Front in WW2, Growing and Cooking Rationed Food | Dig For Victory
You have to ask yourself, can you life without anyone else or other services for 1 month. You should give it a try as a test to your skills and education. I think that we should have your comments and progress report at the end of it ( as you cant while you run the course) or comments in the box below!
Perhaps you have a plan, or are planning? how is it going?
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