I am a proponent of getting off the grid, or at least being able to function if the power grid goes down. However, there are obvious expenses involved, and if you are renting a home or apartment you may not be in a situation to make the modifications required. If that is your situation, then for now focus on emergency power. This is something you can do matter where or how you live. Power in an emergency is not just electricity, but the ability to provide essential living requirements during an emergency. When electricity is not available, your living requirements continue.

Lighting

When you think of emergency power the first thing you might think of is batteries for flashlights, and radios. This is a good place to start. You may also wish to buy LED (Light Emitting Diode) based flashlights. Batteries last many times longer, and they are less subject to damage from mechanical shock. Many people worry about brightness and buy these flashlights with a very large numbers of LED's, if they have a switch so that you can select fewer LED's I would choose that model, or I would by an LED flashlight with no more than 10 LED's and no fewer than 4. The more LED's the flashlight uses, the shorter will be the battery life. Be careful of really cheap LED flashlights, they are sometimes very poorly made. I bought several at a huge discount and found that 2/3's of them were defective in one way or another. Use them and be sure they work okay before you put hem in storage and think you're prepared! Remember that generally speaking, the bigger the battery, the more power the battery can deliver. My emergency flashlights all use D cells. AA batteries allow for a smaller light, but in a pinch the purpose of a light is to light, not fit nicely in your pocket.

We bought some 100 hour candles, and when we got them out they were frozen. The oil contained in the candles which should be in liquid was solid. The candles work properly after thawing, but I'm not sure how they will work if the oil has solidified. I doubt they'll work the way they should. I imagine the wick would bur away, and that would be that!

Kerosene or camping lights are great in an emergency. They do require safety training since we are not used to handling these kinds of lights in our modern homes. Especially when you consider how many flammable items are in our homes. A good spot to hang a light out of reach might be advisable. Where is can't be bumped or spilled. I also think that you need to have a good fire extinguisher handy wherever you are using these lights. I'm not trying to scare you here, but it's good to have a healthy respect for the consequences of an accident, and try to avoid one.

Cooking

Many families have gas barbecues that can be used outside for cooking. You can find emergency stoves, and they aren't very expensive. If you have access to a generator you can use a hot plate, or electric skillet. When you plan for preparing meals you need to know what you have for resources and you can usually do with what you have. Just don't count on Natural Gas or public power. It could take a while for services to be restored.

I would advise you to look at camping equipment, and outdoor cooking supplies for ideas. There are a lot of good outdoor ideas that work nicely for emergency cooking.

Know Where You Put Things

Since emergency conditions are by nature usually unexpected, we need to think ahead and make sure we have what we need in a protected area where we can get to it. If you store these things in part of your house that were to collapse, or become inaccessible you could be stuck. Make sure the whole family is aware of where things are, just in case.

We also need to use risk assessment to determine what kind of emergency is most likely and lay the proper groundwork to deal with them. As you think through these things, you can see common denominators that are consistent with nearly all disaster situations.

They involve:

• The ability to see, in addition to battery operated devices you can use the following:
  • Kerosene lamps
  • Camping lamps
  • So called 100 hour candles, which use a liquid and a wick (also usable for heating food if used appropriately)
  • Candles
• The ability to communicate
  • Radios to receive news and emergency weather and information.
  • FRS emergency radios
  • Cell phones
  • Flares
• The ability to deal with emergency medical situations until you can get help
  • First Aid kit
  • First Aid books
  • Take a course on basic first aid, particularly in treating shock victims
• The ability to stay warm
  • Blankets
  • Heaters
  • Emergency shelter
• Food to eat
  • MRE meals
  • Canned precooked foods (with can opener or easy open cans)
  • Emergency or Camping stove (used outside for safety)
• Water to drink
  • Several days worth
• Portable Potty
  • Some needs continue, emergency or not!
• Keep your car's gas tank over half full
• Disaster Specific Preparations
  • Sand bags, pumps, anything that you might need to deal with disasters likely where you live.

Almost every situation that I just mentioned can be mitigated to a degree by having some electric power available, either in the form of battery power, or as household AC power. If you have an appropriate location for a generator then by all means buy one and keep some fresh fuel around in case you need it. I advise a 5KW gas (Briggs and Stratton based) for portability and reliability.

If your car escapes injury a small inverter that you can clip on to your car battery might be worth the investment. You can't run an electric space heater, but you can use a 1,000 watt inverter to run a TV, a few lights, and a radio. Your car will need to be running to keep the battery from getting low. This is not the best option because of the fact that you might need the fuel in the car for an escape, and your car idling uses a lot of fuel, but it some cases it works out well. Be sure to have spare fuses available for the inverter

A good 72 hour kit is a great investment and covers some of the issues listed here.

What Is An Emergency?

Up to this point in the article I've been describing what some people might think of as a camp out. However it's important to consider that circumstances could change the 'almost fun' camp out into a life threatening situation. Especially in the case of an injury or other medical considerations. A lack of needed preparation can turn an inconvenience into a serious emergency.

The term emergency can mean different things to different people. I would say that an emergency is any situation where life and property is in danger without special preparations. For example, let's say that I need a respirator for breathing at night. If this is the case then a simple power outage could be a serious health threat. What is an inconvenience for most people can present a real threat for others.

If you are properly prepared, many injuries and potentially deadly situations can be avoided. If you live an area subject to very cold weather or heavy snowfall, your preparations will be different than for someone living in the southwest desert. Take into considerations your specific needs when you prepare, don't just rely on what one 'expert' advises you to have and do. Prepare to suit your specific needs and environmental considerations. Become your own expert.

Role play in your mind what you would do under various conditions, starting with the most likely emergency and you'll see what you need and how important even a simple pocket knife can be to your survival. Buy books and read articles about people who have had to work their way through similar emergencies. Don't immerse your self in the subject of survival, just read something every month on the topic, and keep preparation in mind when you go shopping. Simple!

Make Your Home A UPS

One of the best solutions that I know of for emergency power is to turn your home electrical system into a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) which does require an investment, but which can add great peace of mind.

The feasibility of this kind of system is determined by the importance of maintaining power. If you work at home using computers, or have medical conditions that put you in a position where power outages cause significant inconvenience or worse, then this might be a great way for you to go.

First you need to do is identify home power circuits that you consider emergency minimums. For example the bathroom, living room, computer room, hall lights, garage lights, etc. You then measure the loads to see how much power you need to support that areas of the home and electrical circuits you have identified. Have an electrician route these circuits to a separate distribution box, and then feed this emergency core electrical system of your home from a high powered inverter and battery system. When the power fails, the zones you have sourced by the emergency system distribution box will run on batteries until power is restored. You can combine this with a backup generator system to start if the outage persists.

I've lived where power outages were an almost daily event. This kind of system can keep the lights on and the home functioning through these outages. Especially if the outages are relatively short. If the outage is severe a generator will be needed. A high quality inverter can run for many years, but the batteries can only supply a certain amount of power before recharging is required. The battery investment climbs as you increase the time you want to keep the power on. This can be offset by keeping loads to a minimum for your core emergency system.

The length of time your batteries will last is dependent on load. For example, let's say you have a 24v battery bank with a 20hr rating of 400 amp hours. Assuming the batteries are fully charged and in good condition, you can expect to get about 4500 to 7500 watts of power from the batteries. The lower the power consumption he longer they will last. If you need 3,000 watts of emergency power you can keep everything running for about 1.5 hours. If you need 500 watts or less you could run for > 15 hours. I'm talking about average power consumption here, not continuous.

If you just want to maintain power 1/4 of that time, then you could use 100 amp hour deep cycle batteries which are much less expensive.

Once power is restored, the batteries recharge automatically and you're ready for the next outage.

As I have written elsewhere on this site, I think an emergency generator is a necessity for protection against extended outages. Even if you are in a position to go completely solar powered. Even if you live in a desert area where storms are few and far between there are possible equipment failures. Murphy's law applies to all of us...

Give yourself options.