Thread by @ai6yrham

Personal #preparedness lessons from the #wind #storm: 1. Upgraded UPS units worked great, much better than UPS-destroying planned blackout. APC 19 inch rackmount units, ex-corporate units. 1/x

2. SMA solar inverter's SPS (Secure Power Supply) worked very well for recharging 2 of the 3 identical model UPS units. Third triggered GFCI outlet I have on the SPS every time. 2/

3. UPS unit powering my switch, Wi-Fi router lasted 5 hours before I had to charge it with the solar. Another UPS--with new batteries from Amazon--powering just few other components lasted 3.5 hours, those batteries are not very good. UPS on desktop only lasted 2 hours. 3/

4. Extension cord from the inverter went in through a window, which caused an awful lot of wind howling (which sent the dog into a frenzy) until I taped both sides of the gap. 4/

5. UPS powering the Frontier FIOS (ex Verizon) ONT was a 7aH battery on top of existing Verizon battery backup. The two combined lasted 13 hours. I had several batteries on hand to swap in on the UPS. No FIOS issues. 5/

6. Small (very) vintage Honda EX650 not stable enough to power computer equipment--probably nothing but lights. Blew my computer speakers. UPS not happy with it running. Need to re-tune it probably. Very surgy. 6/

7. 12V travel fridge ($10 from the thrift store) was very useful again. Even though I could plug the freezer/fridge into the solar inverter, the 12V fridge was used to store stuff needed/bought that day without having to worry about cooling off main fridge/freezer. 7/

8. Solar power setup in the "radio shack" more than sufficient as usual to keep radios powered, a laptop running, and also used it for awhile on the 12V fridge. It's pretty much self contained. 8/

9. Downside of the self-contained power in the "radio shack" was the fridge was inconvenient to the rest of the family, not willing to slog out to the backyard to get their milk. Moved it inside to another 12V source. 9/

(aka "don't go to the man cave")

10. 3.8kwH generator not surgy, but it's loud. Especially when *no one else* in the neighborhood has a generator or lights. Only would need it at night (because of the solar). Didn't have to use it. 10/

11. DirecTV and a LCD television ran fine off a battery jump pack I carry around for jumping the truck. Schumacher SJ1200 (just a lead acid battery in there with inverter/etc.). So everyone was happy there. 11/

12. AT&T cell phone network failed at some point, the local tower ran out of power. No telephone signal. 4G was overloaded by people w/out Internet. 12/

13. No one else in my entire neighborhood had their Wi-Fi up, I need to finish off my setup for providing free Internet with a high-power access point. (flipping through manual on VLANs, firewalls, and guest wireless now). Could have done that. 13/