When the Power Goes Out: Generating and Storing Power
More than ever, our civilization relies on electrical power for everything: lighting, entertainment, communications, security, heating / cooling, cooking, food refrigeration, the list goes on and on. Our reliance on the electrical grid has made electricity critical to our lives.
Short power outages (under 12 hours) have resulted in widespread traffic chaos, hospital evacuations, and even civil disorder. Multi-day outages can adversely affect water and sewage systems, supermarkets, gas stations, and cellular phone systems.
[amazon asin=B004BKI0UW&template=*lrc ad (left)]As you can see in this 1965 image, even big cities like New York suffer from power outages.
The Basics
This subject is huge and I am only scratching the surface here. As a result I’m not discussing solar, wind, or small-hydroelectric power. All three have pros and cons that are discussed at length in print and online. Here I will concentrate on what most people can easily put together in a suburban environment with a reasonable investment in time and money.
Preparing for extended power outages is a little more complicated than you’d think. These days, having a generator is just scratching the surface…EVERYTHING in our lives consumes electricity. While you could run a[amazon asin=B003R7AJ4K&template=*lrc ad (right)] generator 24 hours a day, it is a horribly inefficient waste of fuel, as well as a surefire way to piss off your neighbors and attract unwanted attention.
Any serious power outage strategy will also include one or more storage batteries, a 12 volt-to-120 volt inverter, and a quality battery charger. You can run your generator in the daytime to power appliances and charge batteries, then shut it down overnight while you quietly run your devices on the stored power in your batteries.
The Basics
[amazon asin=B00HAIGJF0&template=*lrc ad (left)]The electricity that comes out of your wall sockets is 120 volts, alternating current (AC). AC current is easy to transmit long distances, but cannot be stored. AC current is very dangerous if mishandled, resulting in burns, electrocution, and/or death. Conversely, direct current (DC) which is used in phone, laptop and car batteries is able to be safely and easily stored for later use. 12 volt DC current is one of the keys to emergency power.
Let’s define a few electrical terms:
- Current: This parameter is measured in Volts; think about a mountain stream, the higher the current number, the stronger the current and the more power is transmitted through the current. This is a measure of force, or “push.”[amazon asin=B001G8Y542&template=*lrc ad (right)]
- Amperes (Amps): This is a measure of quantity of electricity…we’re most familiar with amps because it is usually an overload of amps on an electrical circuit that causes a fuse to blow or a circuit breaker to trip. You know, Mom using her blow dryer while Susie heats up her coffee in the microwave…too much power in use. Batteries are rated in terms of “Amp-hours,” which is an expression of how long the battery can provide a certain quantity of power.
- Watts: This is the measure of the amount of work that can be done. In general, this is the key measure in determining if appliances can be accommodated in a given electrical circuit. This is a familiar measure for light bulbs and blow dryers. More importantly, it is the measure used to rate the power generating capacity of portable generators and inverters.
AC current can be converted to DC current; we do this every day when we plug in our phone or laptop charger. DC can be converted to AC through the use of an “inverter.” To store power, we use “deep-cycle” batteries which look like car batteries but are specifically designed to efficiently take in and give back DC current. When we need AC current to run a refrigerator or lights, our inverter converts the DC current to AC.
