For those of you not paying attention, Tassie has a bit of a crisis with electricity right now. No water in the hydro dams and some fool cut the cable to Victoria so we can't import any either. No rain in sight, and repairs to the cable indefinitely delayed (with winter in Bass Strait unlikely to help there).

So - what to do. We have already established on another thread that going off-grid is not an option for me (I have yet to win lotto), but I can survive quite happily without lights, and again, with winter coming on, cooking is pretty well sorted for me.

Primary needs would be charging the phone, running the pump for water and the recirculating pump on the solar hot water, and keeping the food in the freezer fresh. Lights would be handy but I am happy to consider them an optional extra. The freezer may not be a problem as the sorts of blackouts they are talking about would only last 24 hours, but then, maybe they don't want us to panic.

There is a company flogging generators for around $600, and they tell me it will cost another $750 to adjust my meter to allow the generator to be plugged in. The location, however, is immediately adjacent my psychotic neighbour so it not terribly appealing in terms of fallout, even if I limit running to daylight hours.

I did spot some portable solar panels at the sustainability expo that they told me could be used for short power outages, but forget what they are called - basically they are like the ones for caravans, but work for 240v.

So, put your thinking caps on and come up with a solution for me please (pretty please) - I was fairly sanguine about this to date, but now I have realised this may actually go on for several months, I rather feel I should do something about it before the panic buying starts.

PS I will be on the mainland for the first week of April, so can pick something up up there if it is not something available locally (travelling in Vic in the ute).


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