Power Outage Review

The power went down for 48 hours.
I wasn't prepared at all, so this
is just what I had ready. It was
still really comfortable but with
a tad more prep, it would have
been really nothing. It's also
nice to be prepared to live
without much power, or to have a
setup for when I'm on the road. 

Big Blu 28w Solar power

I could charge a small 5k mAh
battery pack and my phone at the
same time in full sun. It wasn't
super fast but good enough to
fill in the battery and the phone
during the day. With these two
charged I could probably go for 2
to 3 days with internet
connection. It's great but I need
the sun for that. It's often
cloudy around here.

Connectivity

USB tethering is really nice and
simple from Archlinux to Android.
It keeps the phone charged at the
same time, and the speed is
really good. A lot better than a
hotspot wifi connection.

Since I use my computer in the
console quite a lot, it's really
quick to boot, with the phone
already connected to USB auto
connect to the usb tethering,
download email (I use offline
imap on mutt) and then disconnect
to save data. I read and write
email as needed, then reconnect
to send. It's as minimal as it
gets for power and data
consumption.

But the laptop charge wouldn't
have lasted more than 2 days. It
has 2 battery, with a hot
swap-able battery and I have an
extra battery pack in my bag. The
extra battery wasn't charged
though.

Phone

I have too many email address,
and they are not on my
phone. Starting the laptop to
only check email is a waste,
so I added a couple more emails
to my phone. I think I can
maximize my phone even better for
these situation. I have a 256gb
card in it, and it's fill with
random files I don't use.

I could have movies and music on
there... could I do usb C to
composite video, and connect my
old battery powered projector?

Car charger and inverter

The car was my only other power
source. So we went in the car to
charge the phones. I over plugged
the lighter charger and it
melted. It's a bit of a drag as
it was also a fm transmitter to
listen to music from the phone in
the car.

The inverter I bought will charge
my laptop but quite slowly. I
feel there is a better
alternative for this, since my
laptop only need 24v, it seems
like a waste to have the
inverter, and then I assume my
laptop power brick is another
inverter too?? I have these small
USB dongle to plug my synth,
which change the USB power to
12v, I'll have to look for a
better solution for the car
charging, but at least I have
something for now. I can also
plug other device as needed,
seems like a good tool to have. 

Battery

My 5k mAh isn't bad for charging
my phone twice on one charge.
It's really slim too. So
I assume getting a somewhat
bigger battery could give me
many days of independence.

I am not sure I want to go with a
lithium ion battery though. Seems 
like a fragile technology at this
point. In any case I would like a
battery that can be charged in a
wall socket, US or European, with
a solar panel, or in the car. It
seems also important that the
batter can withstand -30 degree
too. A battery that can't freeze
doesn't feel that useful. 

Generator

I have a nice 5kA generator
sitting outside on the porch. I
need to clean it up and fix it,
once this is running I can run my
whole home on it. It feels silly
to have it there and not being
able to use it. I almost bought a
new one over the weekend.

It's really big and loud
though. I barely could bring it
over to a bush party. I read that
I have to clean the something,
change the gas, make sure the oil
is filled enough, and check the
spark plug. (rolling my eyes
already) 

Food

For cooking, I have a nice
japanese grill, very small and
cute. I have the wood stove for
bigger pots, and I have a small
butane stove, which we used
extensively.

We had a nice diner the first
night, meat on the grill. It
didn't feel like we were out of
power. The butane stove started
the day for both morning. I had a
hand crank to grind the coffee.
A French press, a few eggs and
tacos. The food flow wasn't too
disturbed.

I fetched water at the lake, and
I have a counter top filter, so we
had potable water with no
problem.

I can also boil big quantity of
water on the wood stove for
cleaning up the house, or
bathing. 

Butane isn't ideal though. The
stove is great, and I can cook
quite quickly on it. But I'd like
a refuel-able something. I assume
propane would be the only other
way to go about that. But propane
tanks are so big. The butane is
really practical for this. It's
small, you can have a few can
sitting around. You can fill your
lighter (if you have a
refill-able lighter) with it too.

Light

I have no battery powered lights!

We had a few candles, and a few
oil lamps, but it feels like I
could have had a nice LED lantern
with some battery pack attached to
it. It's been missing in my
camping trip too. Sure we have
our phone, but a dim-able,
weather proof, battery powered
which can double down as a
battery pack, seems pretty sane
idea. 

Music

Music is such a relief when there
is no power. Somewhat a bit of
tech to make the no-power
experience a bit more enjoyable.

I used my battery pack
to charge an old portable Boss
speaker and as soon as the music
started, in the morning of day 2,
it felt already better.

Ebook

On the first night, as we didn't
have light, my daughter went to
bed really early. I turned on my
ebook for the first time in a
long time! It has a light for the
screen, which make it enjoyable
to read. You can even change the
light temperature to make it more
comfortable. I can make this
device a lot more 'power outage'
friendly, since it has a very
long battery life. It's a device
where I can read book, read /
send email, listen to music etc.

Note:

 - Keep the external speaker
   charged
 - Put music on the ebook, that
   can connect to the speaker and
   keep it charge too.
 - The ebook itself and speaker
   can provide a lot of
   entertainment for long term
   power failure.
 - Try to usb tether ebook to phone,
   it can already do wifi
   hotspot.
 - Keep the extra laptop battery
   charged and switch it once in a
   while to make sure it's
   working well.
 - Find a car lighter -> laptop
   charger
 - Research camping batter
   powered lantern
 - Research big power pack
 - Fix generator
 - Check on the state of my
   handheld video projector.