What do you when the power goes out

[Ridge Runner]

Light a candle or light a fire ? Cue barry white, nudge nudge wink wink lol

That song of Kevin Wilson's comes to mind, Ya wake up sunday morning and ya wake up ????? LOL. :inlove:

 

[Gem in I]

power went off about 2 hrs here in the city all the neighbours running around like it was going to be purge night.
pulled out camp cooker/billy made everybody coffee/tea. Power came back on and I couldn't get rid of them. :lol:

 

[Goldchaser1]

Kal got hit hard last year with a storm,there was nothing open for at least a day wishfull,atms and petrol was first back on line within maybe 24hrs,woolies and coles were shut for 4-5 days i reckon,a few takeaways fired up after a cuppla days and capiltilised,iga near us opened up,cash only,we were out for 3+ days as most of the town was and a few areas were out of power for up to 5 days,it was a bit chaotic but the emergency services and community banded together and all was good,alot lost everything in there freezers if they didnt have a genny but i think western power compensated alot of them.....

 

[Campfish4x4]

Ctxkid how many watts is your inverter in ya 4x4 and whats the set up your got in it cheers

 

[Dirtdemon]

rechargable batteries in headlamps , ( few sets of batts always charged ) couple of little camp lanterns that take the 18650 batteries ( always charged ) , laptop with internet usb dongle prepaid , couple of portable gas cookers , FREEVIEW FV app on my phone to watch TV , and an old school kero heater if the power goes out in winter .
So any blackout doesn't slow me up to much.
all battery chargers i own have car socket leads as well as 240v , so for extended periods can run the waeco in the car as a fridge and charge laptops , cameras , batteries etc in the car via the AUX. Battery using a 150W "can inverter " if need be.

 

[Wishfull]

Back in 2016 when S.A. had a major storm we lost all power. My phone battery died. The Internet and phones went down. Everything just stopped. I did post here at the time that I said to Mrs Wishfull that there was nothing in this storm. Couple hours later I was hearing freight train type wind. So yeah Internet out and mobile phones went down. I got rid of my land line years ago, saved us money but, in a big storm it usually still works.
I like the inverter idea. What batteries and solar set up would you need minor stuff like 12v lights and tv and a car fridge etc. ?

 

[ctxkid]

Ctxkid how many watts is your inverter in ya 4x4 and whats the set up your got in it cheers

1500 continuous, it is a powertech , running off a 120amp agm, charged from the forbie by an idc25 projector dc to dc 3 stage charger :Y: when stopped charged from a powerfilm solar mat

 

[ctxkid]

 

[Campfish4x4]

Nice set up ctx similar to mine but i run a ctek 25 dc to dc cheers cf4

 

[Meller9.3]

You guys should live in cyclone country and check out how some of the places up here are setup. Conversely, its always fun to watch those who have become complacent raiding supermarkets and coles, once they hear a big blow is on the way

For us, we are permanently off grid and have multiple redundancies for long term power losses. Solar arrays, battery banks, two inverters, lister diesel generator and two 4.4kva petrol generators. 20kL diesel tank, 5kL petrol tank, 4x 35kL water tanks, continuous year round running freshwater stream, bunyip powerless pumps. Cattle, goats, orchard and hydroponic setup. But the key component is guns, knowing how to use them and ammo. Lots of ammo :lol: :lol:

Bring on the zombies i say, its not like society couldnt afford a little thinning out imo.

 

[condor22]

When we had the big blackout, the wife decided to go to bed early. I went out to the caravan, fired up the 12V TV (Yes the TV was transmitting, but watched a DVD), switched on the diesel heater and sneaked a couple of cold ones. Was there for near 3 hours until the power came back on.

Was warm, entertained and the sleeping pills (in some cans) worked well...

Don't know what all the fuss is about

 

[Sweeper]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...10/1538566817_wp_20180929_11_53_26_pro_li.jpg

Not sure I'd fancy having an item that with a bit of momentum would become a tonne in weight that close to my head? Hope it's strong wood

 

[Occasional_panner]

I like the inverter idea. What batteries and solar set up would you need minor stuff like 12v lights and tv and a car fridge etc. ?

If you wanted something for just infrequent backup power a keystart gen is probable smarter and better bang for buck.
If you get repeated outages then a small off grid setup could be put in.
Millions of scenarios, if you are planning for outages over a few days then you'll need to charge the batteries too so solar panels or other dc charge source are required.
A gen with decent charger could also top them up and leave the inverter running at night when everyone wants some quiet(bit rude running a get at 9.30pm).

If the system is intended to be used for say 5 hours or so then you could just have an inverter hooked up to batteries and simply have it on a mains charger, when power goes off you rely on the battery bank, when the mains comes back on the batteries will get topped up again.

Sizing the inverter can be tricky as some appliances require huge start up power, 240 fridges are like this, when running they use relatively small amount.
For a tv car fridge and 12v lights then you would be looking at a small setup like many in 4wd's have. 1500w pure sine wave inverter and prob 200ah of batteries would be good.
Something to run 240v fridge would need a pretty big inverter and maybe 400ah+ of batteries, it entirely depends on how much the appliance/s draws and how long you want to run it.
Do the maths yourself or look at some calculators on the net like this https://www.rjbatt.com.au/deep-cycle-battery-calculator/

Don't forget to allow for max of 50% draw down from the battery, so 200ah will only give you 100ah minus losses of usually 10% so you really only have 90ah max available if the battery is in good nick and fully charged.

@Meller, sounds like a ripper system, what inverter, battery bank, panel watts are you running?

 

[ctxkid]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...10/1538566817_wp_20180929_11_53_26_pro_li.jpg

Not sure I'd fancy having an item that with a bit of momentum would become a tonne in weight that close to my head? Hope it's strong wood

you only live once layful:

i built it strong ower: ower: ower: ower:

an b , didn't have anywhere else to put it :Y:

 

[Meller9.3]

@occassional-panner, not sure on brands but we have 2x 10kw solar arrays, 1ea on the shed and house. German foronus? Regulators for each and the battery bank is approx 300 ex-telstra 150Ah repeater station batteries which I have a virtually unlimited access to replacements. I have no idea what brand the inverter is as it came with the house :

 

[Occasional_panner]

Very impressive, 20kw of solar!!! You obviously run ac a lot during the day.
That Fronius sounds like a hybrid inverter, nice.
Geez I'd love to have access to batteries like that, you have 43kw hr of battery there.

 

[Ridge Runner]

What do I do when the power goes out ? Hmmm,

Normally shout %&$ It,,,, coz it normally happens on the best bit of the movie or when someone scores a Goal 10 seconds later before I get time to switch the power over, ] :argh: 8.(

 

[Wishfull]

Dam it Janet. Last night at 2.30 am power went out becaus of a storm. Today at 7.00 pm power went out not even a cloud in the sky. Power supposed to come back on at 1.30 am. Actualy it's fun tricking our granddaughter with switching lights on and tvs. Just one of lifes lessons.