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CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 21 Oct 2010, 13:22

What you storing for water purification Adam2

Post by **adam2** » 21 Oct 2010, 13:34

andrew-l wrote:What you storing for water purification Adam2

Chlorine tablets, both the small ones that treat a litre of water, and much larger ones that treat a water butt or bath full.
Also a Katadyn (sp?) filter, that although not everlasting, is said to treat many thousands of litres.
Also fuel for boiling water, this is more suitable for winter use to make up dried or condensed soups, or to boil pasta etc.

Mean Mr Mustard · Post by **Mean Mr Mustard** » 21 Oct 2010, 13:40

adam2 wrote:
andrew-l wrote:What you storing for water purification Adam2
Chlorine tablets, both the small ones that treat a litre of water, and much larger ones that treat a water butt or bath full.
Also a Katadyn (sp?) filter, that although not everlasting, is said to treat many thousands of litres.
Also fuel for boiling water, this is more suitable for winter use to make up dried or condensed soups, or to boil pasta etc.

Where did you get these from? That looks like an excellent investment.

Post by **adam2** » 21 Oct 2010, 13:49

The small chlorine tablets may be purchased from camping and outdoors suppliers, usually in packs of 100 each to treat 1 litre of water.

The larger tablets are available from specialist industrial suppliers, you may need a trade account to obtain these.
I have used this firm
http://www.oasiswaterpurification.co.uk/

Water treated thus does not taste very good, but should be safe.
Note that treatment with chlorine kills all common diseases, but WONT remove heavy metal, pesticides, or radioactive fallout.

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 21 Oct 2010, 13:55

I have Instachlor PR-1000 rapid release chlorine tablets, 1 per litre for sterilization fluid and 1 per 200 litres for drinking water, from contaminated. They're a fairly common water treatment supply.

A katadyn is also a must have IMHO.

Eternal Sunshine · Post by **Eternal Sunshine** » 22 Oct 2010, 23:55

Which Katadyn filter do you recommend? A quick search has produced this:

http://www.DODGY TAX AVOIDERS.co.uk/Katadyn-Hiker-W ... 974&sr=8-1

Not sure if this is the type of thing you mean?

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 23 Oct 2010, 01:34

There's a full range available from here, although no prices

http://www.katadynwatermakers.co.uk/

Eternal Sunshine · Post by **Eternal Sunshine** » 24 Oct 2010, 00:14

Thanking you.

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 24 Oct 2010, 17:34

I have this one. It's currently £220 from DODGY TAX AVOIDERS

I'm really glad I bought mine when you got $2/£1...

Still might be able to get a deal from 'Murican ebay.

Señor · Post by **Señor** » 27 Oct 2010, 16:59

Mean Mr Mustard wrote:Hola Señor

The buses will, or at least should, have priority for diesel stocks in a severe shortage. But just about the only groups without some priority need in a fuel emergency would be hairdressers and fashion designers...

Another hot tip - keep a corded landline phone. It means you can be contacted during a power cut.

Cash is better than a credit/debit card, being as they rely on power for use, and ATMs also need road fuel for securty van re-stocking.

Even cash has limited utility these days, with EPOS meaning the shops need power just to make any simple transaction. Market stalls don't have that problem, though they too need fuel...

What I mean is that cash would be largely futile in the event of a big crash. People won't be interested in what would largely become paper, they would want goods. This is obviously a worst case scenario.

The tip about the landline is certainly an interesting one. How does it work? Would you be able to store it in a cupboard and just get it out in the event of a powercut?

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 27 Oct 2010, 17:31

Most telephone exchanges have, or used to have, a battery backup to keep them going in case of power cuts.

Post by **adam2** » 27 Oct 2010, 23:01

kenneal wrote:Most telephone exchanges have, or used to have, a battery backup to keep them going in case of power cuts.

Absolutley, they still do.
A standard direct dial landline telephone will work fine in a power cut, being powered from the battery at the exchange.
This must be directly plugged in to a BT telephone socket, not via a modem, cable TV box or anything else.
Cordless phones wont work without power.

I doubt that the exchange would work for more than a day or two in a TEOTWAWKI situation, but for short term or rota power cuts it should be fine.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 27 Oct 2010, 23:38

We have always kept a corded (old style) telephone and have used it many times over the last 20 years when power cuts have occured. Absolutley essential, especially when short term power cuts occur (4 - 48 hour events) usually caused by winter storms.

PS. I say old style, but I clearly recall using the real old style telephones in the 70s where you had a dial and you put your finger in the number and brought it round to the stop and then "dialed" the next number, then the next, then the next! Not that long ago before push button digital phones came in.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 28 Oct 2010, 07:31

And the first three turns of the dial were letters not numbers. They were the first three letters of the exchange name. Mine were SYD, short for Sydenham. Each position on the dial represented a group of three letters except #5 which just had MN.

All part of the cultural history our young 'uns may have missed.

woodpecker · Post by **woodpecker** » 28 Oct 2010, 08:30

In around 1963, my grandparents acquired a rather fab wall-mounted brown Bakelite telephone with a long brown twisted cloth-covered cable, when they installed a first telephone connection. My gran moved about ten years ago, and the telephone company said the phone still belonged to them(!), despite 40-odd years of rental, but my mum managed to half-inch it and install in the new place. I still have photos of me clutching this huge thing (big cups on either end of handset, and very heavy) while smiling at the camera, aged approx 3 and 3/4, shortly after installation. Not quite sure what the phone company thought they were going to do with a 40-yr-old telephone.