Recent power cuts

[Ajax]

There were a few storms in the UK recently. Some had power cuts for several hours. I guess many lit candles.

Take a spare car headlight bulb. Solder two thin copper wires to the contact points. If you don't know what these are, go educate yourself. Strip and tin a two inch length on both. Wrap these around a screwdriver with a metal shaft - no not plastic! Place the screwdriver with the wire either end across a ring magnet. Let here be light. No torch, batteries, power source, recharging or fire risk. You're welcome.

[Pete Grey]

(24 February 2022, 23:34)Ajax Wrote: There were a few storms in the UK recently. Some had power cuts for several hours. I guess many lit candles.

Take a spare car headlight bulb. Solder two thin copper wires to the contact points. If you don't know what these are, go educate yourself. Strip and tin a two inch length on both. Wrap these around a screwdriver with a metal shaft - no not plastic! Place the screwdriver with the wire either end across a ring magnet. Let here be light. No torch, batteries, power source, recharging or fire risk. You're welcome.

Ajax you’re talking rubbish again.

[bigpaul]

watched "the big freeze of '63" last night, I lived through that as a young kid, so did my wife.
people were stronger back then, not like the woke snowflakes we have today.

[Straight Shooter]

Yes you can achieve similar results with two nails and a potato ...a seen on the net .......speaker magnets are great for this as are microwave magnets .....be very careful removing these buggers though they can hold a good thump and could well kill ....even unplugged seek help of some one qualified !

[Ajax]

(25 February 2022, 09:37)bigpaul Wrote: watched "the big freeze of '63" last night, I lived through that as a young kid, so did my wife.
people were stronger back then, not like the woke snowflakes we have today.

I agree with you to totally. I genuinely worry what would happen if the power went out for more than three days. I'll be fine as I know what I'm doing - grew up during the miner strikes. You'll be just fine too, thankfully. Many here also. What bothers me are the idiots in my local village (aren't we only supposed to have one village idiot? I guess they upped the quota and I missed the memo) Anyway, they learned NOTHING!
Blimey, even a trip to Go Outdoors for a camping stove and a few gas canisters to put on standby would be better than a kitchen that is powered by electric only. Even after the 12 hour power out, I still do not think they learned a thing.
Last thing we need is a hungry moron sniffing our morning bacon and eggs in the midst of a blackout. That said, cast iron is sturdy.
All the best, mate.

[Ajax]

(25 February 2022, 10:15)Straight Shooter Wrote: Yes you can achieve similar results with two nails and a potato ...a seen on the net .......speaker magnets are great for this as are microwave magnets .....be very careful removing these buggers though they can hold a good thump and could well kill ....even unplugged seek help of some one qualified !

I agree with you 100%, mate. Broken electrical anything can be scavenged and repurposed for almost any use. Several years back I took an old car alternator and turned it into a mini generator for a project for a pal of mine. Got a nice bottle of plonk for my troubles too.
I use 'First4magnets.com' and I have a few. They are good value and fast delivery. This might be a safer option for anyone who is not an engineer like myself. At the moment I don't have too much broken tech about. If the grid goes down permanently ... well I have a few more fun projects to be getting on with

[bigpaul]

(25 February 2022, 15:56)Ajax Wrote:

(25 February 2022, 09:37)bigpaul Wrote: watched "the big freeze of '63" last night, I lived through that as a young kid, so did my wife.
people were stronger back then, not like the woke snowflakes we have today.

I agree with you to totally. I genuinely worry what would happen if the power went out for more than three days. I'll be fine as I know what I'm doing - grew up during the miner strikes. You'll be just fine too, thankfully. Many here also. What bothers me are the idiots in my local village (aren't we only supposed to have one village idiot? I guess they upped the quota and I missed the memo) Anyway, they learned NOTHING!
Blimey, even a trip to Go Outdoors for a camping stove and a few gas canisters to put on standby would be better than a kitchen that is powered by electric only. Even after the 12 hour power out, I still do not think they learned a thing.
Last thing we need is a hungry moron sniffing our morning bacon and eggs in the midst of a blackout. That said, cast iron is sturdy.
All the best, mate.

3 Days? hell, I've seen people on the telly moaning about it after 3 HOURS!!

[Mortblanc]

I had a bit of practice time the other night. A supercell came through that stretched from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. There were wind gusts up to 90 MPH so power outage was inevitable.

I had seen the radar so I was sitting there wearing my headlamp. Be prepared is the motto, right.

It went off at around 10PM so I did the only sensible thing. I lit the oil lamps and sat down with my Dobro and played "If It Don't Stop Rainin' the Levee's Gonna Break". A true British hit that was crafted for the event.

I also dumped all the important foods from the fridge into the deep freezer. I keep two gallons of water frozen in there and there is also a 7 kilo turkey in there frozen. It takes days to thaw a bird that size so I don't even worry about the deep freeze until about day 3 of an outage.

There was a new batch of chocolate pudding in the fridge so I ate that! I mean, that's what a real prepper does, correct? No wasted resources.

Went to bed listening to the storm howl and woke up when the lights came back on at 5:30AM. Turned the lights off and went back to sleep.

Other than the wind blowing my 197 kilo motorbike off its side stand I was unscathed by the storm. My neighbor did have a big ash tree about a meter in diameter blown down in the garden. That was a bit unnerving to see. Made me glad I had all the trees trimmed back from the house a few years back.

[Joe]

Ajax I take it you have tried this project ?