Ottawa as well as a swathe of the rest of Ontario and into Quebec is experiencing power outages in May 2022 due to a derecho thunderstorm.
This is the second major event since the 2018 Ottawa-Gatineau Tornado power outages. Although Ottawa-focused it also has general information about power options.
Short Term
These days the smartphone is the centre for information and contact, so one concern is finding sources of power for the phone.
Some power options:
- A portable speaker with USB out is basically a big battery
- A laptop is also a big battery that offers USB out
- Any modern solar or crank powered radio should have USB out
- Any Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is also, by definition, a big battery
- You might have some other devices like electric handwarmers or flashlights that provide a small amount of power via USB out
- You may also have some portable batteries / power packs / power banks that you usually use for travel
Sources of information:
- CBC Radio One 91.5 MHz FM has pretty terrible signal, at least for analog tuning radios in some areas of Centretown.
- If you have the power and signal and data plan, you're better off just using the Internet for info whether by streaming the radio or just reading news sites and Twitter.
Ottawa Radio
If you're not used to listening to the radio on the actual radio, you may not know the local station frequencies.
- CBC Radio 1 FM = 91.5 (MHz) has various news and talk related shows
- CBC Radio 2 FM = 103.3 (MHz) is the CBC's music station
- CityNews (Rogers) AM = 1310 (kHz) has continuous news with lots of ads
- CityNews (Rogers) FM = 101.1 (MHz) has continuous news with lots of ads. I wasn't able to find it though; that area of the FM band has a lot of competing stations.
- CFRA (Bell Media) AM = 580 (kHz) has CTV news (typically on the hour) and lots of ads
You can find a better list from Ottawa Start - On the air in Ottawa and Gatineau.
CityNews provides basically continuous news coverage, for the other stations don't expect non-stop coverage unless it's a major emergency.
Ottawa Weather Radio
There is an entire North American system of weather channels that do nothing but broadcast the weather forecast in a continuous loop, along with any weather alerts. You need a specialised weather radio to get these channels; most modern solar/crank emergency radios will have these channels.
- CZN626 162.550 MHz Ottawa-Gatineau (alert channel 7)
Long Term
Portable Solar Power
For small portable solar I like Power Traveller, specifically the Extreme Solar, which just has a standard USB (USB-A) output at 5V/1A,
but their products are hard to find these days; I think the ones I use have been discontinued.
Note that you will only get a trickle keep-alive charge directly from a small portable panel. A better combination is to charge a battery from the panel, and then charge your device from that battery.
You can get solar power and batteries from Canadian Tire, although unsurprisingly they tend to be larger products for home use, not portable.
Home Depot has similarly industrial scale solar options.
For Canadian Tire or Home Depot, try searching battery bank or power bank for small portable batteries with USB output.
Best Buy has a very small selection of Solar Panels and Chargers available online only, here are links filtered so that only Best Buy is the seller (rather than all of their marketplace sellers):
The Source has a small selection of solar power options.
You can get an assortment of solar power gear and batteries from Mountain Equipment Corporation (MEC), if you don't mind the fact that they're now owned by an American hedge fund, a long way from their roots as a co-op.
In Canada you can get Power Traveller from Terra20:
Power Traveller Extreme Solar Charger
Note that the Extreme Solar Kit is a combination of an Extreme Solar portable panel and a 12000mAh battery with USB-C input/output.
Power Traveller Extreme Solar Kit
For more options see
https://terra20.com/pages/search-results-page?q=solar
Power Banks / Battery Banks
If you have a phone that can charge wirelessly (Qi wireless charging) consider getting a power bank that has this capability as it means one fewer cable you need to search for.
Aukey and Anker both offer a wide range of battery banks. I've found it hard to find ones with wireless charging though.
Note that MagSafe is a specific capability for newer iPhones (iPhone 12 and above). It basically means the charger uses magnets to get a good alignment and tight connection to the iPhone. Unless you only want to charge newer iPhones, I wouldn't get a specific MagSafe charger.
The Problem with Alkaline Batteries
Many small devices such as emergency radios or flashlights use AA or AAA batteries. The problem with standard inexpensive Alkaline batteries (e.g. regular Duracell or Energizer batteries) is that they don't last well when not in use, which is not good for emergency devices that may sit in a closet for months or years. Also when left unused in a device Alkaline batteries tend to burst, leaving a messy and somewhat toxic white powder.
One solution is to never leave batteries in your unused devices; just take the batteries out and keep them in a e.g. a plastic ziploc bag. But it's hard to remember to do this.
A much better solution is rechargeable nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. Not only do these hold charge much better, with some vendors reporting they can hold substantial charge unused for over a decade, but they also have a much lower risk of bursting.
You can get Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable NiMH batteries and chargers e.g. directly from Panasonic Canada. The site is shopping.panasonic.ca or go directly to the Eneloop products. There are of course other brands as well.
Emergency Radio
I like the Kaito Voyager KA500 solar/crank radio, with simple analog tuning and controls. You can get it e.g. from Walmart or Amazon Canada.
In general for an emergency radio I would look for analog controls over digital controls.
Note you do not need to put batteries in the Kaito Voyager KA500; it already has a built-in rechargeable battery.
The classic crank radio was made by Freeplay, but they seem to have almost disappeared from the marketplace.
I want to warn against the Eton FRX5-BT (or the FRX3) solar/crank radio, with incredibly complicated digital tuning and controls. The big solar panel may make it look like a good option, but the controls are so badly placed and designed I'm not convinced you could even use it to tune in regular FM radio in an emergency, let alone figure out how to use it for weather radio.
Solar Power Needs The Sun
It may seem obvious, but if you have an emergency radio with a battery that charges by solar panel, it needs to actually be sitting somewhere on a ledge in the sun all the time. If you store your emergency radio in a box or on a dark shelf, its battery will never have power when you need it in an emergency.
Emergency Preparedness Power Recommendations
- Have some portable batteries (battery packs with USB out) and keep them charged.
- Have a portable radio, with appropriate batteries / charge.
- Have some flashlights, with appropriate batteries / charge.
- Have some (preferably NiMH rechargeable) AA and AAA batteries on hand if that’s what your devices use.
- Have a crank power / solar power battery that provides USB out.
- Leave solar powered devices in the sun (e.g. on a windowsill) so that they have a charge when you need them.
- Know where all your emergency devices are.
Note: For radios/flashlights that use AA/AAA batteries, you may want to leave any Alkaline batteries out of most of the devices, otherwise without a regular replacement schedule the batteries will eventually die and burst in the device. A better solution is to use NiMH rechargeable batteries that are much less likely to burst.
You could consider e.g. having a box of emergency devices in one place, and writing the battery replacement date(s) on the box, and put a calendar reminder to check it once a year.
Expert Advice
You probably want to follow actual expert preparedness advice from the federal government and the provincial government rather than my cellphone-focused musings.
Recent Comments