Power Solutions 4 – Lighting, Communications and Devices

Part 4 of our power brainstorming session. The topics again:

If you’re wedded to your phone, you may think we had our priorities all wrong, with devices coming in at number 4. But trust me, once you’re warm and fed, you’ll be glad we sorted those out first.

Lighting

Before thinking about emergency lighting, let’s have a look at the best day to day lighting.

First of all there are the old school incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes. These were cheap as chips but used quite a bit of power, comparatively.
Next came the ugly, curly Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) which cost more up front, but use a lot less power. The drawback here is that they are full of mercury. If you break one of these, the whole room will be contaminated, so avoid these like the plague.
We like the LED bulbs. But it’s important to get the best quality. We get the Phillips ones in the purple boxes which are more expensive than CFLs, but are safer and can last for 15000 hours. Check the specs before buying though. Some times there’s what looks like a great two for one deal, then you find they’re only 10000 hours. Bunnings have the best prices that we’ve found.

For example, we just replaced a 75W incandescent bulb with an 8W 770 lumen bulb which is supposed to be equal to 68W, and it seems brighter.

There are three main methods of emergency lighting that we came up with.

Candles

easy to source and store
reasonably cost effective
but don’t give a very strong light, so probably only suitable for temporary use
be careful about leaving them unattended
keep some matches or gas lighters

Battery powered torches or lanterns

We have a small torch in every room, so in an unexpected blackout, we can always find one in the dark.
For longer term use, something like this camping lantern from Amazon would be more useful. This one is rechargeable, so make sure it’s always got juice.
We need to check out some of the camping stores to see if they have similar lanterns
Stock up on batteries for these and other battery powered devices (eg clocks, remotes), as we don’t know how long we’ll be able to get them for

Solar powered lighting

Saving the best for last, these seem like the best option for a prolonged power outage

Our outdoor solar lights works quite well even after overcast days, which is a good sign
So if you like solar lights in your garden, these could be brought inside if needed
A string of outdoor lights coiled in a jar makes a cute ambient light
But even better, Goal Zero, who make the portable pwer stations, also have a range of lanterns that can be solar powered, or recharged via USB

Devices

Before we et to an emergency situation, it would pay to think about power savings options on your PC or laptop. Check your settings to reduce your useage.

If you went with a Portable Power Station, or any of the other whole house power options, your devices shouldn’t take too much out of what is available. But there are other options:

A standard power banks should have plenty of juice to keep your phone going for a while.
If you already have one, make sure to always have one charged up.
There are also special types of power banks for laptops
Many of the Goal Zero lanterns have a device charger included
Or there may be specific solar powered power banks available
In Japan, there are phone chargers powered with water and salt, so we wnat to find out more about those too

Communicating

Now that you have your device charged up, is it going to be any use?

As well as potential power outages, we need to consider the possibility that the internet will go down, or that the cell phone network will go down. Each of these will require different solutions. Some of our ideas:

Have a battery powered radio for official announcements
In an internet outage, we understand Signal and Bastyon are most likely to keep going so important to have both downloaded
Would it be good to have a BackupUPS such as https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FWAZEIU to keep the internet working
If we can’t use our phones to communicate, consider satellite phones, walkie talkies, ham or other types of radios
Think abut who you need to stay in contact with in an emergency and work out plans with them
Have a meeting place, and if someone doesn’t check in, visit to make sure they’re ok
There is an app for phone called Resonance (Wellington start up) which we want to find out more about

Lighting

Devices

Communicating

Other topics