by

Handling a Power Outage with Aplomb

There was a planned power outage scheduled from 6AM to 2PM today. My laptop battery can last most of a day if I do a few tweaks to conserve power, so my only concern was internet access since my modem needs power. Of course, if I was home, power wouldn’t be an issue, but I’m not so well equipped in Mexico.

In case TelMex was also down, I made sure last night to buy some data for my phone so I could get internet through Telcel today. I picked their 1GB package good for a week as that would ensure enough bandwidth for the day while not being a huge investment if I ended up not needing it.

The first thing I did today was string an extension cord to the truck from my office window. The power went out at about 6:40, so I plugged my modem into the extension cord, went out to the truck, plugged my inverter into one of the truck’s 12V outlets, and came back in to see if I had internet. I sure did! That was fantastic since it meant that I could keep working from my office instead of having to do so outside with all the mosquitoes! As a reminder, that’s because I only have TelCel internet with a cellular booster, which needs to run off the truck battery as well.

To preserve computer battery life, I left the computer in sleep mode when I wasn’t actually working and instead checked my emails on my phone. This meant that by the time the power came back on at 1:30, I still had 10% computer battery life left (about one hour of run time if I kept it in power saving mode or 30 minutes if I had to work)! If the outage had gone on, I would have used a bit more truck battery capacity to charge my computer, no biggie.

The only thing I would have needed for today to be totally stress-free is small solar trickle charger to keep my truck battery topped up during the day. It’s one of those things I keep forgetting to get because I’m still so used to having everything I own with me at any given time. But I knew that one day of running the modem wouldn’t kill my battery (I mean, I ran my booster for several days when I first arrived), so, really, I wasn’t particularly stressed today.

Those of you who follow me on Facebook know that I did have one power-related emergency today: I forgot while I still had power to grind coffee beans for my second cup of the day. My solution to that was not a joke. I put some beans in a baggie, put a cloth around the baggie, and then put the cloth-wrapped baggie on a smooth rock from my yard. I then used a rounder rock to grind the beans. The cloth kept the rock from going right through the baggie and getting ground beans everywhere. My ‘primitive’ grinder worked perfectly!

24 thoughts on “Handling a Power Outage with Aplomb”

    • 1) I’m surprised you don’t have a solar setup in this climate.

      2) What did you need the genset for in the seven or so hot hours that the power was out for that an inverter and your batteries couldn’t have handled?

      • He hooked his generator up the Tres Amigos RV Park internet for an hour so that he and those who wanted it could have internet. For his personal RV he was just fine as we all were. Only one person used their generator now and then having discovered they had fried their batteries and that their solar panel had no controller.

        • Well, no need for a genny to run the modem. Would have done just fine on an inverter plugged into one of the rigs with solar.

          I’ve just never been a fan of gensets (loud, smelly, bad for the environment, expensive to run because fuel isn’t cheap) and find that many RVers fire them up when there are better ways to achieve what they want to do.

          But whatever works… 🙂

          • I think it was too far away to do that. We were busy dealing with the RV tech at the time. Most of our repairs are completed except for the big one, replacing the slideout seals. A three day job in January sometime.

            • Good thing the tech could still do his thing while you had no power! That’s one place where a genny would be very useful, if power tools were needed, for example.

              Did you end up delaying the palapa repair or was that not as big a job as it was supposed to be?

  2. In a pinch, you can also just turn the truck on and keep charging your battery with your alternator. No trickle charge solar system needed. I suppose it is not too green, but then it is just a short term thing. I did like your solution to the coffee grinder situation. I remember seeing a demonstration in a Texas State Park where re-enactor from frontier days used a frying pan to toast / roast his beans and then used his rifle butt to grind them to make coffee.

    • I take it you landed safely?

      I actually did some research and testing about battery charging while idling. It just isn’t worth the fuel. You get maybe a 10th of an amp, and the charge goes down the longer you idle, at least for an older Ranger.

      • It may not be the cheapest electricity, or the best way to get a good charge, but I was thinking in terms of keeping you working and the idea of “any port in a storm” if you need to get the work done.

        • I’ve done it in a pinch, but I know that I could charge my computer for several days before I ran the battery down too much to not be able to start the truck, so I wasn’t that desperate. I did run the truck several hours to get even that nominal charge the first week that I was here and having to run the booster off the battery.

  3. I can’t reply to your reply…..no reply link to click on.

    It is Mexico and the palapa has been delayed to January.

    • We hit the limit on how many replies we can make to one comment (they only nest so deep). 😀

      I think it worked out well that you had the delay, what with the holidays going on.

  4. Brilliant coffee grinding solution. You should package and sell them! 😉 I have a small 12 volt solar panel double face taped to the dash of the Honda that works very well keeping the charge topped off. Never have to worry about a dead battery. I think I paid $15 or so on Ebay.

    • Thank you! 😀

      Whenever I’m somewhere that I could get a solar panel like that, I don’t need one and forget to get it. When I do need it, I can’t easily find one! How do you run the cable to the battery?

      • It plugs into the cigarette lighter socket. You just have to make sure the socket is ‘always on’ and not switched on and off with the ignition.

        • AH. Brilliant. One of mine works that way. The other needs the ignition turned to on, but the engine doesn’t have to be running.

    • You are actually on the right track with that thinking. 🙂 PB stands for plumbum, the Latin for lead, which is where you get the word plumbing in English and plomb (lead) in French. Aplomb can also mean ‘plumb’, as in a plumb (straight) line, because the weight (plumb) was made of lead.

Comments are closed.