{"id":49330,"date":"2019-10-31T18:32:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T23:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=49330"},"modified":"2019-10-31T18:32:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T23:32:08","slug":"how-to-deal-with-rolling-blackouts-notes-from-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=49330","title":{"rendered":"How to Deal with Rolling Blackouts: Notes from South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theorganicprepper.com\/backup-power-budget-south-africa\/\">How to Deal with Rolling Blackouts: Notes from South Africa<\/a> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>By now, just about everyone has heard about the difficulties occurring in South Africa. The violence is palpable, the corruption is an everyday fact, and utilities such as&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theorganicprepper.com\/water-restrictions-cape-town\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">water<\/a>&nbsp;and electricity are no longer a given. Not only that, but the cost of these utilities has become prohibitive, so conservation is a necessity. Backup power, such as solar or generators, have become a necessity for many families.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Now people in California are dealing with rolling blackouts due to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theorganicprepper.com\/now-pge-plans-to-cut-electricity-to-5-million-california-residents-to-prevent-wildfires\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PG&amp;E\u2019s new policies during wildfire season<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In this article, a regular reader from South Africa shares some of the tips for starting out with generators and backup power that have made it easier to deal with the continuous rolling blackouts and outrageous prices for electricity.\u00a0 ~ Daisy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Living in South Africa we have had our share of rolling blackouts nationally. The cause: nefarious activities. The result being us forced to find ways to ensure we are not affected as badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is better now, but it has highlighted that it is not just a South African problem, but in actual fact a Western world problem. We all are totally reliant on a massive aging infrastructure that can come tumbling down like a house of cards, with or without help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another problem is the cost to keep the national system operational. In some areas, it is not a priority to resolve the regular failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For getting started with backup power, remember that NEEDs vs WANTs \u2013&nbsp; a huge price difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>UPSs \u2013 with like 2 up to&nbsp;8 100ah batteries. Good for a number of&nbsp;hours depending on use \u2013 most cost-effective solution<\/li><li>Generators \u2013 works for some, but cheap ones cost more as they damage some electrical appliances over time.<\/li><li>Solar inverters and&nbsp;panels \u2013 power failures, what is that? And you save a lot of money afterward IF YOU DO IT RIGHT.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to Deal with Rolling Blackouts: Notes from South Africa Editor\u2019s note:&nbsp;By now, just about everyone has heard about the difficulties occurring in South Africa. The violence is palpable, the corruption is an everyday fact, and utilities such as&nbsp;water&nbsp;and electricity are no longer a given. Not only that, but the cost of these utilities has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[1575,22855,3701,22515,5756],"class_list":["post-49330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-survival-2","tag-power-loss","tag-rolling-blackouts","tag-south-africa","tag-struggling-utilitarian","tag-the-organic-prepper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49331,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49330\/revisions\/49331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}