Posted on 03/10/2014 9:10:50 AM PDT by null and void
If you really want a feel for how vulnerable we are through IT, you can spend a few hours at the link:
http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2013ams/materials/
Have fun.
Trucks=toast, agreed. Ships from Korea? As long as it is aboard a Chinese Naval vessel looking to land on the Left coast. LOL. Wasn’t aware of the electrical smelters for the cores. Ouch. Wow, we are so screwed.
We have sometimes had transformers blow and need to be replaced. For some reason, it didn’t really take that long.
Most of the businesses, hospitals, walmart, grocery stores, health centers etc. in our area have their own backup generators that go on automatically when the electric goes off-that way they are not totally at the mercy of the power company’s plan.
Yes. the small local “pole pig” transformers are jellybean commodities, your local power company has scores of them in inventory.
It’s the BIG garage sized ones at the substation that are difficult to replace, they are custom built, long lead time and very expensive.
Your local hospital, etc. has emergency generators that are expected to provide a whopping 100 hours of power a year. It’s by no means certain that even if they are regularly refueled they could run continuously for the several months it would take to rebuild a fraction of the substations in this country.
Would your car last being run 24/7 for a few months?
The power plants at hospitals and hotels are dry-sumped, so the oil can be changed while the engines are running.
There are several diesel generators at the CCCSD treatment plant near Martinez that have been running continuously since early 1993.
Well, I know that the health center bought really heavy duty generators with the idea of a year of power if needed.
Don’t know much about the hospital’s plan. I do know that they are not likely to survive much longer due to the changes in the ACA.
I also know that while the new parts of the hospital are dependent on gas and electricity, the older parts, functional parts, of the hospital are still run on oldfashioned boilers. I think they told me it was run on coal.LOL
Excellent! and as editor-surveyor pointed out diesel generators can be a lot more robust than cars.
At our home we have for heat 2 wood burning fireplaces with heatalator fans, several kerazene heaters which I wouldn’t use indoors unlees I stuck them in the fireplace, but would be useful to keep patio vegetables from freezing.
We also have electric heaters that can run off either of our 2 generators. For heat, and to run the well pump. I have also ordered a rocket bucket so that we could get water from our well manually if needed.
We would probably conserve our generator use and just run it for a few hours spread out during the day. The fireplaces keep everything toasty in the upstairs living area, and nothing else requires constant electricity.
We have plenty of battery operated lights, and fans, and candles. Also some kerosene lanterns and coleman lanterns, and the aforementioned solar lighting along our sidewalk.
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>> “ I think they told me it was run on coal. LOL” <<
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You may not be laughing for long.
Obummah’s EPA has effectively cancelled coal mining.
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Well then I’ll just have to find something else to laugh at. I think it’s ironic that during the last outage, the old fashioned equipment worked while all the new stuff didn’t.
If shtf, we all may be finding ways to use “old” methods.
it’s a lot more complicated than that.
I once had a $250.00 crank shaft bend to save a 07¢ crank shaft key.
W/o power a 3D printer is just an expensive paper weight.
Regards,
GtG
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