Electricity is widely used in everyday life for a variety of tasks. Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that the home is de-energized for a long time. This is especially true in rural areas and dachas in remote areas. Of course, sooner or later the repair crews will restore the supply of electricity to consumers, but these few hours must be somehow lived.
Here are a few little tricks, the recourse to which at least partially compensates for the loss of mains voltage and restores the usual level of comfort.
Their implementation provides:
- the performance of various electronic devices;
- normal lighting in rooms;
- solving various household problems.
1. Long-term preservation of the smartphone's performance
To increase the duration of the smartphone's operation from the charge that remains in its battery, it is enough:
- reduce screen brightness, incl. switching the gadget to night mode, Figure 1;
- disable rarely used applications.
It is also useful to have an additional external battery.
2. Turning on the computer via UPS
One of the features of suburban power grids is frequent short-term power outages and not too good quality of the supplied electricity. In such conditions, it becomes necessary to protect the computer, which is effectively solved using an uninterruptible power supply, Figure 2.
The battery capacity of the source is selected taking into account the power consumed by the computer and the desired battery life. The latter should be at least not less than the duration of normal operation and data saving.
3. Back-up electric room lighting
To illuminate the room in the event of a power outage, a battery-powered or rechargeable LED desktop lamp is best suited. This function can also be assigned to a tourist lantern with a suspension, Figure 3. It is desirable that it has a flat base so that it can be placed on a table.
4. Improvised lamp from a smartphone
A pretty good temporary table lamp can be assembled from an ordinary smartphone. The built-in lamp of this gadget is poorly suited for room lighting due to its high directivity. However, this drawback can be corrected by using an improvised diffuser, the functions of which are performed by a bottle with water, Figure 4. At the same time, it takes over the functions of a heat sink and cools the smartphone well.
Due to the small capacity of the battery, such a source will not last for a long time, but it performs its functions quite efficiently.
5. Alternative light source
The functions of an emergency light source, the brightness of which is sufficient to illuminate the room, can be performed by both ordinary candles and lamps, Figure 5.
The latter are preferred for the following reasons:
- burn constantly;
- they function at one gas station much longer than candles;
- in some cases, they serve as a design element and room decoration.
Of course, the brightness of the lamps is not enough for full lighting, but at least they will help you not to bump into furniture when moving around the room.
If it is necessary to provide brighter illumination of the table, then decorative candles, which can have a variety of designs, are well suited in this capacity, Figure 6.
6. Improvised refrigerator from washing machine
An impromptu refrigerator will help to save perishable food when the light goes out. The best for this purpose is a horizontal loading washing machine, Figure 7, the bottom of the drum of which is filled with ice from the freezer of a normal refrigerator.
The lack of thermal insulation of the body of such a cooling makeshift, which leads to accelerated melting of ice, is more than compensated by the fact that the melt water immediately goes into the drain.
7. Drinking and industrial water supplies
A power outage is often accompanied by a shutdown of the water supply system. In this case, it is advisable to have a supply of water at home, which is best stored in disposable plastic bottles with a capacity of 5 - 10 liters, Figure 8. An additional advantage of such a container is the presence of a handle that allows you to conveniently pour water into a kettle or a saucepan, as well as use such a bottle for flushing the toilet.
8. Availability of an autonomous generator
The most radical means of protection against sudden blackouts is the use of an autonomous gas generator, Figure 9. If you interlock it with a UPS with an increased battery capacity and implement an automatic start system, then the previously described techniques become superfluous. With all the profitability of such a device, the high cost of its implementation noticeably hinders its widespread use.