woke up to total darkness last night

[Joe SA]

In this part of the world weve got something called "load shedding" thats when they switch of power to certain areas/suburbs of the country for about 2 hours in peak times, to prevent the electric grid from collapsing. This has been caused by the last 21 years of neglect, incompetance and the inability to plan for growth. According poeple that previously worked at ESKOM our national electricity provider, the system is on its last legs and could collapse at any time, if that happens it would take about a month or more to restart the whole system. Can you imagine the chaos?

 

[bigpaul]

they had better start doing that in the UK, we have been told there is only a 1.2% backup in the electricity supply(due to not building enough power stations), if we have a cold winter this year the lights could start going off.

 

[jimLE]

the electrical infrastructure in every country is that way,improperly maintained and out of date.and im surprised that there hasn't been a electric grid failure of any kind here at all..i figure total chaos would start inside 1 or 2 weeks,at the most.one reason,is because there's way to many people who dont/cant cook for them selfs.in which they go with foods that can be put togeather and eaten as is.or heated in a microwave.to eating out..then there's the ones who do cook for them selfs.but yet,dont keep that much food on hand,for one reason or another...thier the ones to start begging and looting first.

 

[DrHenley]

I've been wondering whether they have been doing some "load shedding" around here this summer. At least once a week we get a power outage, especially when it is in the upper 90's. One lasted all night and I was able to have a good test of my 6000 Watt inverter. The inverter did fine, but the two 125 AH AGM batteries didn't. They'd been sitting there a long time and had lost a good bit of their charge. I've had them on a maintenance charge ever since.

The inverter is the 1 day backup plan. The propane generator is the intermediate backup plan. I haven't come up with a viable long range plan yet, still working on it...

I went and bought a dorm sized refrigerator and a 5k BTU window AC unit the other day because I'll be able to run then a LOT longer than the full sized refrigerator and central A/C. And if I can get to the BOL by truck, I can easily bring them with me. Whether we bug in or head to the BOL, I think the propane generator will let me refrigerate a small amount of food, make ice, and cool one room, and still have plenty of power for other things.

I guess when the propane runs out, I'll either have to learn to gassify wood, or it's back to the dark ages...

 

[Brent S]

I did some rough calculations on my generator and can do about three weeks plus on the propane I have. That's 24/7' so with rationing could do a lot longer. I would run mayby two hrs a day which would put me about 40 weeks of referigeration and electric motors. Long enough to get thru any normal emergencies, and hopefully long enough to make the transition to the dark ages.

 

[Joe SA]

We have invested a lot in solar, 2 battery banks of a 1000 Amp Hours(2V cells) each, About 2000 Whats in solar panels all 12V. We got a small wind turbine as well now with a seperate bank of 800 Amp Hour Bateries 24 Volt. The main porpose is refrigaration and lighting. We have doubled up on the capasity of the of the solar panels so as to get the battery banks full even on a cloudy day. At the BOL there are 3 water wells and 2 natural springs, one well we have fitted with its own solar panel and pump, provides about 5 000 liters per day the others are fitted with old fashioned windmills, the got seriously damaged about 2 years ago, but has been replaced since then, and we keep a good supply of spare parts. We do have generator (petrol) as well, but will only be used to do some wellding, and emergency water pumping if needs be. We are working on a sun tracker for the solar panels so as to gain the optimum charge from them. Two solar geysers at 200 liters water each will do the hot water. (enough spare tubes for repacement). Thats more or less the setup, any tips on improvement will be highly appreciated.

 

[Gazrok]

Even the US grid, most components date to the 70's, so we're really going way past the expected date on most major components. Because it works though, very little incentive to do anything more about it. WHEN it goes (nearly inevitable), it's going to go big time, and be pretty damn bad for those affected. SHTF? Maybe locally, but man, I wouldn't want to be in one of the affected cities after sundown. Would make the Purge seem tame....

 

[bigpaul]

unless the grid goes down(as the result of an EMP or a collapse of the actual physical parts themselves) I reckon the British govt will just buy extra supplies from Europe probably France as EDF already run a few of our power stations and are building 2 more, which wont be on stream until 2022- probably at great expense which will be passed on to us the consumers and bill payers.