It's dark, my apartment alarm system is pulsing in the background, I'm sitting here in the dark with my Energizer LED lantern shining some light in the kitchen and I've got my Energizer LED headlamp on my head. I'm sure you guys know what is going on in my apartment this evening…grid down! This is one of those times that let me refine my grid down emergency plan, yayy! Well I got one thing right, my Streamlight stylus pro worked like a charm since as usual it was clipped to my pocket when the grid went down. It allowed me to dig my headlamp out of my B.O.B and my LED lantern out of my bedside table.
Some things I've found that I need to add to my plan is some fans, it's a little hot out and clearly the A/C is out…I wonder where you find battery powered floor fans? Another thing I need to do is keep some batteries in the flashlights and lanterns. My worry was that batteries would leak if stored to long in my items so I kept everything I didn't use regularly were stored without batteries in them. Well it's good in theory but it really sucks in practice. I think even if I don't keep batteries in my $100 Scorpion flashlight I should keep some cheaper Canadian Tire flashlights, headlamps and lanterns with batteries in them. Some key places for them would probably be by the bed and by the door. I always have a small penlight in my pocket so it covers my day to day lighten needs but I really need to have light accessible in places I could need them when I don't have my pants on…my lantern was a pain in the neck to get the batteries into in the dark so I need to make sure I keep at least one ready to go. Another thing I need to do is get more power outage night lights to light my home for if the grid goes down in the middle of the night and I get up.
I might want to get some Uninterruptable Power Source (UPS) units in my home for my modem; I run hardware Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone system so I do need more than the internal modem backup power. The grid has been down for about 3 hours now and the phone is dead even with a corded phone, I checked and the modem is 100% down. I know a system that will let me rig the UPS unit to kick on after 2 hours when the backup power built into the modem is about to die. There is an idea for everyone to think of, if you run a VOIP service that you might want to find another backup power source for your phone line. Another good idea is to rig a source that will last longer in a long term grid down situation. If you look at most UPS systems they run anywhere from 45 minutes in the lower end units to 3 hours in the higher end units with higher capacity batteries. This may not be the best solution in a serious long term grid down situation. You might want to add HAM Radio to your back-up communication system as well as some deep cycle batteries rigged to run a 110 volt jack and just plug the modem in if you need to communicate with the outside world. In a long term grid down I'd suggest you use it only for 911 calls because you really don't have any idea after the 1st layer backups run out how long the grid will stay down. I'd suggest you call your Internet provider if you use a Hardware VOIP system for your phone line and find out what kind of gen set they have running and how long the power will last if there is no power at their base station. In today's world it will be hard to get someone on the phone that will have an answer to this so you might need to send an email (or letter) to your provider's head office to get a response from someone who works directly for your provider who knows what kind of infrastructure they are running. If for example the grid is down across Canada eventually the internet will run out of backup and any kind of VOIP system (hardware or software) will be dead. In the event that you find their infrastructure to be insufficient maybe you just go to Bell or another traditional phone carrier and get a second line added to your home that runs the traditional system since they need practically no power as long as you have a phone that will run if the grid is down.
I've found that the Reactor Emergency light is insufficient for my needs. I've found that they don't put out enough light to get around the house since they are more like nightlights that run with the power not on. However I've got a Sylvania product that shines a light like a flashlight down the hall that I much prefer. It's like having someone sitting at your plug with a low power LED flashlight shining across the room. These are much better if you've got no light at all. Don't get me wrong the Reactor from Home Hardware is a decent light, I've got one in my bathroom since there is no window and it provides a decent light for a small bathroom. However if you look at my living room the Sylvania product did a much better job to provide me with emergency lighting to see where I was going than the Reactor in a regular size room.
Food for thought…
[What is your 2010 preparedness plan?]
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