We had a major power outage the other day. This was a planned one by the state power company, Western Power (there are no private power companies in WA as there is in other states), and we were informed it would happen a fortnight prior.
But what was supposed to be a 7am – 3pm loss of power went to a 7:30am to 6pm, or in other words, a full working day and then some.
As well as the stuff that I do, my wife Jacqui runs a busy music academy from home, and her day in particular starts at 3pm when school comes out, and on this day she had 7 students booked in.
I was on a deadline for a few stories, so was also in a bit of a quandary as with no internet, they couldn’t be posted.
To fill you in here, we have a full-on fibre to the home system here, but due to location, little or no phone signal, so using a phone as a hotspot was not an option.
But I did have a couple of tricks up my sleeve that got us successfully through the day with minimal disruption.
Regular readers may remember I did a short stint at Jaycar during COVID, and if I learnt one thing from that sojourn, it is the power of 12v electrical systems. It would surprise many to learn just how many devices that use 12v are available – not just lights, but stoves, fridges, kettles and more all have 12v equivalents.
Whilst working there, I picked up a pair of portable power centres. These are devices that are basically a fancy rechargeable battery that have power outlets for not only 12v devices via cigarette lighter adaptors and 12v connections, but also USB, and importantly in this case, 240v using an inbuilt inverter.
This made it a simple affair to power our DLINK AQUILA PRO AI AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 Smart Mesh System, so we had full access to the internet. The second unit was placed in the music studio to power a plugboard for the keyboards, drums, amps etc.
I have a decent number of 12v lights from Zhiyun and Aputure, and these were pressed into duty to provide lighting in the studio.
For writing my stories and editing video I normally use a Dell desktop with 3 screens, a Blackmagic Design Resolve Speed Editor, Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Pro and RØDEcaster Pro II, but with no power, these were obviously out of the question, so instead resorted to my Gigabyte Aero laptop which has more than enough grunt although the battery life does get a bit constrained at around 6 hours under full load.
In short, we managed to get through the day with minimal fuss that without the pair of power management systems (retail $189 each) just would not have happened.
There are bigger and better ones units about – DJI has just announced a monster unit, the Power 2000 with 2048Wh capacity (my little units have 155Wh each) but this costs over $2400. But I guess if having consistent power, and lots of it is important, this might be a bargain to many. Possibly even a lifesaver in some circumstances.