So after the poor people in New York had to resort to huddling around random outlets to charge their devices after Superstorm Sandy, I'm using the opportunity to prep myself for the inevitable societal collapse/zombie outbreak/North Korean invasion. Ok, really I'm just worried about being in my house up here in semi-rural California for a few days after a snowstorm. I've got food, I've got water, now it's just essentials like iPhones. Any recommendations for USB 5V chargers that run off AA batteries?
You should also be preparing for earthquakes. You'll also want a radio that can tune into the weather and emergency bands, ideally one that can be powered by a hand-crank. Also vital: a first-aid kit. A knife wouldn't go amiss, either. Don't forget a couple flashlights, plus extra batteries. It's also generally a good idea to have emergency info for everyone in there (i.e. birthdate, medical conditions, medications in use, and some preferably out-of-state relative/contact).
This. http://www.amazon.com/ReVIVE-Solar-ReStore-BST-Smartphones/dp/B0083MIG4Y/ for USB low-power devices (phones/etc) I have this, works fine for what it does. It essentially is a 1500 mAh battery with a couple of solar panels to charge it up. 1 full charge of an iPhone when the battery is full, 1/10th a charge of an iPad 3, little more than half the charge of a SGS3. (I think people with SGS3s are why the "wtf this doesn't work" Amazon reviews.) For AC, you'll need a decent panel http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-58232-Folding-Solar-Panel/dp/B004HA8J2K/ $170 a 12V battery to store what you suck up http://www.amazon.com/DEEPCYCLE-SOLAR-ENERGY-STORAGE-BATTERY/dp/B008D5YG3G/ $70 and a 12V -> AC converter http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-400-Watt-12-Volt-120-Volt-Inverter/dp/B001RNOHBC/ $30 includes a USB outlet So $275ish to have a solar battery with AC, basically. To compare it to the mini panel above, a fully charged 12V battery stores 35 Ah, or 23 times the size of the Revive battery, so it'll be good for charging most low power devices and probably your average laptop battery (my Macbook Air has a 6700 mAh battery, for reference , and an iPad 3 has an energy-guzzling 11,500 mAh battery) a few times. Haven't got this yet (power outages aren't really an issue here yet) but am considering it. If you want to go full metal survivalist, just get more arrays of panels and batteries. If you want to actually get enough panels to power everything in your house you are looking at a stupid level of investment, but enough to have emergency power on tap is easily affordable. Won't power your gaming rig obviously but will keep your phone, radio and tablet running for disaster connectivity. If you believe that gas is our future, a typical cheap gas-powered generator will run $200 and will run an AC outlet for 9 hours off a gallon of gas. This is a good object lesson in why fossil fuels are still waaaaay more cost effective than solar power (that $200 gas generator is a 2000W generator, the panels I linked are 36W). I happen to believe this equation will change quite quickly but your mileage may vary!
IMHO I'd say this would be your best bet. You could keep your fridge running and still charge your other stuff. Solar is great but it just isn't there yet.
Anyone want to bring up the fact that iPhones aren't going to do shit in the event of widespread power outages?
Anyone want to point out that they did pretty damn well in NYC after Sandy due to the cellphone companies actually being on the ball for once?
Yeah, cell phone / mobile towers are quite resilient post disaster. When a massive cyclone ripped through Queensland last year, the mobile network stayed up for a quite a while and only started dropping ~ 3 days after when emergency power started running out. By that proper power had started coming back and the mobile network wasn't out for too long.
You need guns and ammo for that, not 12V solar panels. I think Xpav is talking about localised disasters that stretch local authorities for a few days but don't actually lead to an irradiated wasteland full of deathclaws and radscorps.
THANK YOU. I have little desire to live in a post-apoc wasteland. I probably would try for the kid's sake and all, but its really just the power-out, lots of snow cases. I'm in the mountains and trees up here, guys. Solar? Whatever So, please, anyone, AA to USB chargers?
Hrm... it's pretty hard to find anything quality with the searches I'm using. Maybe this? iPhone charger off of AAs at Cabela's A Frighteningly cheap AA>USB charger on eBay A Solar Powered emergency charger... you would be a pioneer in buying and testing this thing out.
No they didn't. People were trading locations that had signal on the first morning in Manhattan. The first place I found with cell connectivity was thirty or forty streets north and several avenues over. Some people found spots on Houston during the first day, but most places coverage was entirely out or at best so crappy that one party or the other couldn't be heard. Basically sometime between my last post in the weather thread during the storm and my first post that morning in the same thread, almost all the towers went down. When the power came back signal returned immediately, but other than that it was a communication blackout.
