Hurricane Irma left millions of people in Florida without power. Dozens of people died in the aftermath, and eight people died in a nursing home because the air conditioners no longer worked. The state was left in disarray in some areas.
But some households kept their power on. Some people were able to keep their smartphones charged. How? They used a variety of technologies that allowed them to not rely on the power grid. It worked very well. The technologies that were leveraged to keep the lights on, phones charged and gadgets running, include the ones listed below.
IMAGE: 4GREEN
Tesla’s Powerwall
Tesla’s Powerwall helped one family keep the lights on. The unit, connected to the person’s solar panels, kept running. The battery continued to charge when the clouds started to move away from the home.
The unit didn’t allow for the entire home to have power, but the family kept the essentials running, such as:
- Air conditioning
- Refrigerator
- Internet
Powerwall allows users to conserve the solar power that they generate rather than sending it back to the grid. The system can be configured to act as a backup for power, but also has the option to send power back to the grid.
External Battery Packs
[pullquote]Tesla’s Powerwall is expensive, and if you don’t have solar panels, you’ll need another option to keep your power on.[/pullquote] A lot of people turned to external battery packs. These battery packs are different than a generator or Tesla’s battery.
Instead, the goal is to charge all of your small gadgets. A lot of people used these battery packs to recharge their smartphones so that they could mark themselves as safe after hurricane Irma. The packs allow for a lot of different gadgets to be recharged using a small battery pack.
People charged their battery packs prior to the hurricane and used them to contact their relatives and emergency personnel, too. This is an inexpensive way to keep gadgets charged up in a natural disaster.
Generators
A lot of people used generators to power their homes, but there were a lot of problems during hurricane Irma. There were a lot of deaths following the hurricane that was due to generators. Palm Beach county states that 32 residents were poisoned by generators.
Carbon monoxide is the biggest threat from a generator, and if not used properly, death is possible. But when used properly, generators can supply a home with electricity. There are solar generators available, but gasoline or propane are the most common generator types. We have written a fresh list of the best solar generators with sample photos to help you just now at https://billious.com/best-solar-generators/.
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Here Is How Some People Kept Power Through Hurricane Irma
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