What is in your power outage kit?

Hardware
1

Recently, we had a power outage. This is a rare occurrence for me and I was not prepared.

I somewhat survived with the following:

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I am thinking of improving this and therefore interested in what the MPU community has to for such an occurrence???

I also wrote about it in detail if interested:

It really is interesting how we take things for granted and how quickly we can feel stressed and/or unsettled when our perfect ecosystem is temporarily disturbed.

2

I always keep flashlights in my home and car, and a couple of old sleeping bags where I can easily get to them. I’ve lived in the southern U.S. much of my adult life so I’m no stranger to power outages.

But a major weather event that occurred in my neighborhood back in 2009 taught me to also keep spare batteries, water, and food just in case. And if you have a UPS, shut down your computer as soon as possible. Mine still had enough power to let me keep my phone charged for days.

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3

I am unlikely to experience power cuts, but power flickers are a possibility so I have important devices that don’t like an unexpected loss of power on UPSes. This includes my Plex/media server, 3D printer, and my iMac. If it has a battery it doesn’t get to talk to the UPS. I am considering another UPS for the living room for my router/TV.

I also have a large number of battery packs in various sizes with a number of ports. These are always charged and when my parents’ neighbour’s house got hit by lightning a few years ago and it knocked out our electric I was able to keep everything important charged until the electric company could assess our consumer unit the next day and say it was safe to turn the electrics back on.

I also have a few different torches (flashlights), all of which are rechargeable. I have a freestanding “work light” which recharges via micro USB, 2 regular hand held torches which also use micro USB, a tiny one which is very powerful and lives in my handbag and recharges via USB C, and a big one which has batteries that I can swap with my electric screwdriver and drill. Between those I won’t need to worry about being in the dark!

I’ve considered picking up a solar charger several times, but I’ve never actually needed one - though if there was a power outage for a while it would be nice to lay it out in front of the french doors a lot of light (and warmth) comes through!

I also have a small desk fan which recharges via micro USB, it could also recharge my iPhone! I mostly got it because it’s small and portable, but it would also work in a power outage!

4

We have:

  • Plenty of small tactical flashlights (very bright) located within reach all around the house
  • Plenty of spare batteries
  • A Jackery battery to charge phones if needed
  • A radio with a hand-cranked generator
  • UPS to gracefully powerdown the Synology
  • Spare food

We’re in an urban area now, so getting out to a safe place with power is not an issue. Though we have had frequent long outages over the years.

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5

even though power outages are extremely rare over here I have

  • flashlights and powerbanks charged (not for outages per se, just standard practice)
  • A UPS powering, and safely powering down, my iMac and Synology
  • A radio with a hand-cranked generator available (from camping gear)
  • Automatic-on flashlights plugged into wall sockets in my hallway (they turn on at the moment power goes down)

I think we’ve had one power outage in the last 15 or so years, but who knows what the future brings.

6

I light a candle and get out the playing cards and board games.

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7

Living in the desert I’m always worried the power will go out in the middle of the summer so I have a dual fuel generator and portable indoor AC LG AC unit. My more basic supplies consist of…

  1. Multiple portable battery packs.
  2. UPS surge protectors.
  3. Inverter adapters made by Ryobi that allow me to use my power tool batteries to run electronic batteries. They make a lot of products that come in handy if the power goes out including lights, radios, and fans. They all run off the same their two basic batteries.
  4. I have plans to install either a small solar or wind set up to charge a GoalZero travel battery bank.
  5. Food/Water
8

Nothing currently other than a couple of cheap flashlights.

Next year I suppose it’ll be a 6kW Solar Array and Battery running critical loads if the power goes out.

9

We have 5 APS UPS units in our house / home offices one of them has a battery extender. That unit is dedicated to our home network.
That gives me at least 1-2 hours of time to start the generator that is fed with propane.

Yes we live in America where the power gird is almost as bad as in 3rd world countries I lived in.

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10

I’ve been without power for days in sub-freezing weather, but you win. Layering up and crawling into one of my old mummy bags is a lot easier than melting into a puddle. :grinning:

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11

Man, what a coincidence! I’m supposed to be without power for roughly four hours tomorrow. This topic will come in handy. Wish me luck! Thanks a bunch! :zap:

12

Download all the podcasts ahead :grin:

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13

I lived for a while in a two block area that was always last to get power after a storm. I’m in a more reliable situation now but still have as many igloo/coleman coolers as I would need to hold everything from my refrigerator and freezer. My freezer has many old half gallon juice cartons of ice to keep all those coolers cold.

14

Jeebus, 4 hours? That’s a long time for what I presume is maintainence.

15

Yeah, it is utterly ridiculous.

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16

I’ve downloaded sounds with myNoise app which might prove calming/distracting during a power outage with no wifi. Not sure how much the in-app purchase was. Great app!

17

The previous owner of my house had installed a whole house generator. Lost power last night for 3 hours due to storm. Barely noticed it. I do keep flashlights in set locations.

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