03221 Energy in an Emergency

Got juice?

The essentials of an emergency power system are:

• a source of power (car alternator, portable generator, wind or solar power),
• batteries — small rechargeable batteries, auto, and marine batteries. For emergency purposes, the best choice is a marine or golf cart battery. In an emergency, an automobile battery will work.
• a battery charger
• an inverter (to change the battery's 12 volt DC power into AC power),
• a way to distribute the power — good quality extension cords.

Small inverters are cheap and will run a couple of lamps or a radio, or even a small TV or freezer (look at electronics or auto parts stores, or catalogs), up to whatever their rated capacity is. For example —

A 350 watt inverter could run three 100 watt lights — 3 x 100 watts = 300 watts, which is 50 watts less than the capacity of the inverter. It would not be able to run four 100 watt lights, since 4 times 100 watts equals 400 watts, which is 50 watts more than the inverter can handle.

Most inverters have a surge capacity, usually about twice their run capacity. A 750 watt inverter may have a 1500 surge capability. This means that for a short period of time, the inverter can handle the higher 1500 surge capability. This allows the inverter to power something like a freezer. While that appliance runs on less than 750 watts, it will need a surge of maybe 1200 watts for a brief moment to start the freezer motor.

Small inverters can be plugged into the cigarette lighter of a car. You use a good quality extension cord to connect the inverter with the house.

When the battery gets low, the inverter automatically shuts off and the car can be started to recharge the battery.

Inverters may come with clamps so that they can attach directly to a battery.

If you bring a marine or auto battery into the house, place the battery away from any open flames and in a well-ventilated area. As a battery discharges (by powering lights or whatever), it produces a minute amount of hydrogen gas. So that’s why they say “put in a well ventilated place away from open flames.”

In other words, do not place your battery and inverter in an enclosed utility room with a natural gas or propane water heater that has a pilot light! Even if there is an open window!

Don’t put the battery and inverter into the living room, in the middle of the family, plug in the inverter and start watching a movie.

Put the battery elsewhere, in a well-ventilated space with no open flames and run an extension cord into the living room to watch your movie.

You could use a generator to run lights, a TV, computer, freezer, etc.

Or you could use a generator to charge batteries, which you would then use with an inverter to run your stuff.

Generators are noisy. If you can rig a connector, an ordinary motorcycle muffler will muffle the noise of a portable generator. Here’s an article about that conversion with pictures. http://joelsgarage.blogspot.com/2006/03/quiet-generator-muffler.html .

Generator exhaust, like the exhaust of an automobile, is poisonous with carbon monoxide. Don’t run a generator indoors. Place the generator outside, preferably on a porch or under an overhang or shed that protects them from the weather.

Generators gulp fuel like it was cheap. Don't think you can run a generator 24/7 in an emergency. You will have to ration your generator usage to meet your fuel availability.

Small solar panels can provide enough sunlight for a couple of hours of lights each sunny day, as long as it is sunny. A value-priced alternative for lighting is to stock the solar yard lights that are sold at dollar stores and lawncare departments. Repurpose them for emergency lights.

Any DC light can be run directly from a battery. You could remove brake or backup lights from a car for this purpose.

Flashlights and battery powered lanterns are useful. Get an inexpensive solar small battery charger and some rechargeable batteries ($2-$6 each, depending on the size).

A step down voltage converter (plugs into the cigarette lighter) can be used to run small "C" or "D" powered radios or CD players from a car battery.

For all emergency power applications, an inexpensive volt meter will be useful.

Candles are a good idea although most candles are actually made of paraffin, which is a hydrocarbon product and they pollute the interior air. A better idea is to buy soy candles. Don't leave any candles burning unattended or while you sleep. Put candles or battery-powered lights in front of mirrors and you get more light.

How to Keep Warm in the Winter if the Natural Gas or Electricity Grids Go Down

Bundle up your body! Wear several loose layers of clothes. Don’t forget a hat, even when you are indoors! If you must go outside, beware of wind and wet. Keep dry. Wet clothing loses its ability to insulate, and can suck heat right out of you. Stay out of the wind as much as possible. Protect your head, hands, and feet. Clean clothes keep you warm better than dirty clothes.

Don't try to heat the entire house. Gather everybody into one or two rooms and don’t forget pets. The kitchen and an adjacent room are a good choice. Close doors and hang blankets over doorways. Use plastic sheets, blankets, quilts, aluminum foil & newspapers over windows. Look for leaks and drafts and use cloth, newspapers, caulk, or weatherstripping to close them. (However, don't seal the room so tight that no fresh air can get in. Even if it is cold, you need fresh air to stay alive.) Insulate floors with blankets, newspapers, and rugs.

Get Neighbors together in one house or apartment. Each human body radiates about 100 watts of heat. We’re all familiar with the way a crowded room gets warm, so put that to work for you to stay warm during a winter emergency.

Safety first!

• Open flame heaters, such as kerosene or propane, require ventilation and attention to safety details. Store fuels like propane and kerosene safely outside of the house or apartment.
• Place the propane or kerosene heater in front of the ventilation opening (such as a window open 1/4 inch). If you place it away from the ventilation opening, the fumes will first fill the room before they exit from the window. Carbon monoxide and smoke detectors save lives!
• Never use charcoal briquettes or Coleman fuel camp stoves inside a house or garage for cooking or keeping warm. People die every year from carbon monoxide poisoning when they fire up charcoal briquettes inside the house to keep warm. There are no exceptions to this rule.
• Never run an electrical generator inside a house or a garage. Always put it outside. Make sure it stays dry and let it cool down before refueling it. There are no exceptions to this rule either.
• Carbon monoxide poisoning is always a risk with open-flame heating indoors. If the room seems "stuffy" and you begin to feel headachy and lethargic and/or your vision gets blurry — get everyone out of the room and ventilate it with fresh air immediately. Pregnant women, children, and unborn babies are particularly at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Beware of fire! Place a fire extinguisher where it can be quickly used. If you don't have a fire extinguisher, get a couple of large boxes of baking soda and a bucket of sand. Don’t leave candles or open flame heaters burning unattended or while you sleep. Make sure candles are in secure holders that can’t be knocked over. Keep them away from small children.

Don’t keep a gas cook stove burning 24 hours a day for heat. They aren’t designed for that. Turn the burners on to warm things up for a couple of hours and then turn them off. Wait a while before you turn them back on. Turn the oven on, at a moderate temperature, for 3 or 4 hours & then turn it off for a while. Don’t leave the oven door open to heat a room. That burns out the thermostat and then the stove won’t light. You don’t get any more heat with the oven door open than you do with the oven door closed. While the oven is on, make something good to eat to help you stay warm.

Refrigerator and freezer issues

If the temperature outside is below 40 degrees, take the food from your refrigerator and freezer and put it in an ice chest or other box with a tight lid. Put it outside in a covered place, such as a porch or shed. During the day, keep it in the shade. If it is below freezing most of the day, the frozen food will stay solidly frozen too. However, if frozen food thaws, cook and eat it, or cook it before you re-freeze it. Do not simply re-freeze frozen foods that have thawed; cook them first.

Emergency lighting can be candles, flashlights, and lanterns. To increase the illumination, put lights in front of a mirror. DO NOT go to sleep with candles or lanterns burning. The flame of one candle can generate enough heat to keep a person from freezing to death. Make sure there is nothing burnable close to the candles.

When the power goes out, turn off all lights except one and unplug electrical appliances. Turn off the heating system. When the power comes back on, there may be power surges that can damage equipment. Leave one light on so you know when the power comes back.

The sun is your friend! Open the curtains when the sun shines directly through the windows. If the windows are dirty, clean them — more light will pass through them and thus you will have more heat from the sun. Cut pieces of cardboard so they are the same sizes as your south facing windows. Cover the cardboard with aluminum foil. Place them outside the south windows straight out horizontally from the window ledge so that the light which hits the ground in front of the window reflects into the window. As the sun moves in the sky, and light no longer shines directly through a window, cover it with curtains and extra blankets/auto sun shades.

“Store” daytime sunlight for nighttime heat by placing bottles of water (or buckets with tight fitting lids) in direct sunlight coming through your windows. This warms the water. When the sun stops shining on the bottles or buckets, their stored heat will be slowly released. Paint the bottles or buckets black to store more heat. This is free hot water for bathing or washing dishes!

To keep warm at night, bundle up. Use extra blankets. Sleep more than one person in each bed. Wear a cap to bed. Make a “tent” of blankets or sheets over the bed (like the old fashioned “canopy beds”). Or you can make a tent in the middle of a room, and gather the family inside. DO NOT use open flame heating inside a tent.

The best place for babies is on their mother's bodies, in their arms or using one of the ways of carrying a baby and still having your hands free. Check on your elderly and vulnerable neighbors to make sure they are OK.

Food and drink can keep your body warm! Drink a lot of water, and eat frequent meals with lots of carbohydrates. Soups, casseroles, bread, biscuits and gravy are comfort foods for stressful conditions that give you extra fuel to stay warm. Besides natural gas stoves (which may work when the power is out, depending on their ignition system), you can cook inside with propane camp stoves, a wood burning stove or fireplace. You can warm food over candles or cans of Sterno or chafing dish fuel. You can cook outside on a gas grill.

Don’t pour any heat down the drain in the form of hot water! Let hot water cool to room temperature before draining, and you get more heat and humidity in the house. If the air is really dry, put a pot or kettle of water on the stove and keep it at a low simmer.

Newspapers are great for emergency insulation. Just ask anyone who’s been homeless. They can be wrapped around legs, arms, torso, taped over windows, laid on the floor, or layered between blankets. More layers = more insulation. Auto sun shades can be hung over the inside of windows to reflect heat back into the room.

Beware of the tendency to resort to bad habits when under stress.