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Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

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Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#141

Post by vbezhenar »

b112 wrote: post #110
briffle wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart sells 5 gallon water totes for $15. that is essentially 5 days for one person. We have a few on hand (family of 4 plus dog) and every six months or so, I empty them, clean them, and re-fill them. Also, there are gravity filters that work great if you have things like creeks near you.. Berkey Filters are pretty good for filtering out contaminants, as well as 2-bag gravity filters that are really popular with b…

If there is no AC, and you are exerting yourself a lot (no car or transportation is down, more work to prepare food, even having to take a dump outside), 5 gallons is barely enough for one person to drink per day. You'll be sweating a lot more in those conditions. Another example is food in winter months. During a disaster, even with winter gear, your houee may not be heated. If it is -20C inside, your body will need…

I drink may be two liters of water per day. Unless Google lies to me, 5 gallons is almost 20 liters which would be enough for 3 weeks for me with rationing.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#142

Post by travisb »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #20
bigDinosaur wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring unrealistic preparations for most of us (such as bunkers and whatever else), an adequate supply of food and water to handle disruptions to logistics for a realistic amount of time must surely be the lowest hanging fruit (e.g. a month?). This is fairly trivial if you aim for things like rice and pasta, and if the grid goes down for longer than a month a lot of us are dying regardless of how we prepare.

The water seems like the hard part. Are there any tricks for cheap, safe hydration for a family? I guess we could just start building walls of unopened water bottles in our basement… (In my teens I saw a family friend had a bag full of food supplies. I asked someone if that was a prep bag, and they said yes. I thought they were a bit weird. Now I’ve come full circle browsing Amazon for cheap doomsday food.)

The cheapest way is to find some cheap, food-safe container(s). Put it into your basement and change out the water every 3-6 months.

55 gallon rain barrels can often be found subsidized and therefore cheap.

Keep a bunch of camping iodine drops around and you are set.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#143

Post by nati0n »

gosub100 wrote: post #75
sillysaurusx wrote: post #3

Can you really call yourself a prepper if you don’t have a faraday cage with a spare laptop inside? (The intersection of doomerism and tech is amusingly cyberpunk sometimes.) Actually, what’s the most useful way you’d prepare for a worldwide grid outage? This isn’t that, but sometimes I wonder if a future CME might be as catastrophic as some say.

Not joking, I have LTO tapes in an ammo can.

What on earth is on them?

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#144

Post by vbezhenar »

holoduke wrote: post #125
belter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or load on ammunition, and be ready for your neighbor to go cannibalistic within 3 months...

Days. After the soviet union fell in Armenia there was no supply of food the first days. Also no gasoline nothing. The first day people were normal. Second day people started stealing. Third day all birds and rats were shot for food. Luckely soon food became a normal thing again. But chaos is quickly there. I believe even quicker in rich western countries. Most men and women cant survive on their own for a week.

You can survive with no food for a week. And you can use water from toilet tank for this week.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#145

Post by ramses0 »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #20
bigDinosaur wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring unrealistic preparations for most of us (such as bunkers and whatever else), an adequate supply of food and water to handle disruptions to logistics for a realistic amount of time must surely be the lowest hanging fruit (e.g. a month?). This is fairly trivial if you aim for things like rice and pasta, and if the grid goes down for longer than a month a lot of us are dying regardless of how we prepare.

The water seems like the hard part. Are there any tricks for cheap, safe hydration for a family? I guess we could just start building walls of unopened water bottles in our basement… (In my teens I saw a family friend had a bag full of food supplies. I asked someone if that was a prep bag, and they said yes. I thought they were a bit weird. Now I’ve come full circle browsing Amazon for cheap doomsday food.)

The genius move I heard of was to throw a few 5-gal jugs of water up in your attic (!!!). It's relatively shelf-stable, standardized size, and "in case of emergency" you can even use it as a gravity-flowed spout to fill smaller containers below.

I've taken to trying to have a minimal set of 4 one liter steel water bottles hung in the closet (grab + go) all the time. So convenient to be able to "just grab some water" on the way out the door, and is the start of a solid emergency prep station.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#146

Post by bee_rider »

ryandrake wrote: post #116
bee_rider wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think both sides of this thread agree that most of us (in the US at least) don’t have a robust community in the “community resilience” sense. The only disagreement I think is in the definition of community. We could either say that community is just, like, our extended circle of acquaintances; we’ve all got one and it isn’t very robust against disasters. Or we could say that a resilient community is some deeper thi…

Yes, that was what I was going for. If you consider your community to be only the likeminded, cooperative people you know and associate with and rely on for help, then of course "your community" is great. I was talking about the greater community: the full population of your town, neighborhood and/or surrounding neighborhoods, and I'd estimate (depending on where in the country) a good 50% showed their counterproduct…

I think it is not just a matter of what you consider your community. The comment was suggesting building that community of reliable and likeminded people. It takes work, it is part of the “prep.” I certainly haven’t done it. But of course the suggestion must be to build the good type of community.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#147

Post by travisb »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #131
Syzygies wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a different adapter one can refill camping canisters from a standard propane tank. One "usually" gets away with refilling empty canisters, but these aren't legal for transport in an automobile. Presumably with reason, as in the odds aren't as good as skydiving. I recommend the DOT approved: Flame King Refillable 1LB Empty Propane Cylinder Tank https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MM3GCVO/ It offers some nuanced…

I'm really curious where that presumption comes from. There are tens of thousands of things that are prohibited due to saftyism. If you understand pressure Regulators and can hook up a BBQ, [is it really] more risky than skydiving Edit: Switched a safety assertion to a question

I'm not entirely clear on what your question is, but reused single-use propane canisters are lesser for three reasons.

1. The propane they are manufactured with is carefully dried, but propane out of bulk tanks is not. The single use tanks have thinner walls with less corrosion protection because the high-end propane doesn't need it.

2. The safety over-pressure valve on those tanks has similar design constraints and may corrode shut with un-dried propane. Sometimes people damage those valves while refilling.

3. It's easy to overfill those little tanks such that high temperatures can cause over-pressure problems. Due to (1) and (2) the built-in safety measures for refillable tanks cannot be assumed.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#148

Post by steve_adams_86 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #128
withinboredom wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that advice is that anyone who could bring you supplies is also suffering from the same problems you are.

Nothing is perfect,but 2 weeks is better than 0 weeks, and enough for a wide array of circumstances

Homes being prepared also dramatically reduces the need for distributed aid to these people. That could mean that labour to restore minimal infrastructure is more available. Feeding people in situations like that takes immense effort.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#149

Post by quickthrowman »

wcoenen wrote: post #65
kyleblarson wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a 50kw generac tied into my house with a 1000 gallon propane tank.

I don't understand what 50 kW could possibly be needed for. Part of the electricity bill here in Flanders is based on monthly power peak. I charge an EV at home, and by setting up the charging station to take into account consumption data from the meter, I have no problem staying below 7 kW. Okay, that's averaged over 15 minute time slots, but even the connection for my house is only rated 13.8 kW!

> Okay, that's averaged over 15 minute time slots, but even the connection for my house is only rated 13.8 kW!

In the US we have single-phase (split-phase) 120/240v 200A service drops for houses, 48kW. Houses over 3,000 square feet with electric heating, electric ovens, electric water heaters, and electric air conditioning can push 150A peak demand, and a 200A service drop is not much more expensive for the utility than a 100A service drop. Most houses in my state have gas water heaters and furnaces so 200A is overkill for most people in my state.

A 7kW 240V single-phase load draws (7000/240) 29.1A

IIRC most of Europe gets 230V or 400V three-phase power for houses, so here’s both calculations.

A 7kW 230V three-phase load draws (7000/(230*1.732) 17.57A

A 7kW 400V three-phase load draws (7000/(400*1.732) 10.1A

The reasoning behind a 50kW for a house in the US is (probably a 48kW) generator is you can fully back up your 200A service (240V times 200A = 48kW) and not split out the generator loads into a subpanel.

Older houses in the US might have a 100A service, I’ve even seen 60A house services.

P.S. 1.732 is sqrt(3)

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