Arthur Francis Tyde III

The Typhoon seemed to hit from nowhere as alarm sirens blared. I was in line at a street vendor grabbing some quick mystery-food (fish balls, all the best parts I suspect) when the power suddenly went out shortly after 5:00 PM. High winds were pushing over utility poles, billboards were shredding, roof tiles were smashing windows and wires were sparking in the wet streets. A huge steel display structure breaks off from a pole, plummets 5 stories and obliterates a 7-11. Absolute chaos! Making a run for it, I jumped into a rickshaw, rushed back to the apartment, and hiked up 23 floors. The view was incredible – the clouds were moving by the building in fast-forward, the noise from the wind alone was impressive and you could feel the pressure against the building in your body. The generator failed so, in the bedroom, I unpacked suitcases by candle light - sort of cool in a very Gilligan’s Island way. I was wired and excited having just returned from a successful business trip to Korea, landing smack at the head end of a tropical storm my plans for a productive weekend appeared to be in jeopardy. Sadly, my systems though flush with power filtration technology lack a decent UPS. So I am sitting in the dark thinking about all the things I should have done, or could do to get back on the net. I did have dial tone! For example, should I try to connect a spare charged notebook battery to the AC inverter I happen to have in the junk box? The crazier ideas get more and more plausible as the sun goes down. My phone and DSL are a unit (Sputnik AP160-> Vonage -> DSL), so I am thinking it makes sense to have a big UPS on that system. If I had thought of that before, I would be on the net sending Korean businessmen thank you notes and following up on meetings vs. camped in the dark sharing my disconnected tale of woe. Throwing out the crappy line powered phone that came with my DSL unit also, now, appears to have been the wrong move. But the fun has only begun as typhoon Xangsane slams into my city.

Tuning around on the radio all I could find were religious broadcasts and crappy Asian pop music. Not a single news or weather broadcast. It was like everyone hit the auto-crap button and fled the radio stations. Windows in other buildings were exploding into the street, so I open mine enough to pressurize the apartment and use vice clamps to lock them in place. Looking outside I can see the windows of a nearby McDonalds have blown out. The McPlayland inflatable thing full of plastic balls is hanging out of the restaurant snagged on broken glass and thousands of little rubber balls are streaming down the street. As the wind accelerates them they become little agents of McDestruction hitting people and breaking things as they gain speed. I go for my digital camera, only to find the battery sitting dead in the charger.

Power was restored a day later, it came on at approximately 2:00 AM and the brown outs, spikes, and other problems associated with a leaky third world grid continued for a couple of days. Cable TV was out, cell phones worked throughout the entire event but keeping them charged was somewhat of a science project. Trees has been uprooted everywhere and blown around in the streets like loose garbage. Signs, utility poles, anything not made of concrete showed clear signs of being “adjusted,” by the storm. The most amazing part of the whole ordeal however was how quickly the city bounced back into action. While millions of dollars worth of damage has been done, people were immediately back in the business of survival through commerce.

Back in the US, I put the mother of all UPS systems in my small RV. Substantial enough to provide persistent power for treks to Burning Man and other desert destinations. The UPS is a small 500 VA APC that I hacked significantly. I added four deep cycle golf-cart batteries, a charge controller, and 500 watts of solar panels on the roof. Designed and installed a brass and glass type power control center, and installed red UPS outlets all throughout the RV. When I am camping in the desert, I can kick the UPS into inverter mode (thanks APC), and basically I can’t use the power fast enough. By the time the sun comes up, the entire array charges back up before noon. When the backup AC power system is fully charged, it switches over and charges the RV batteries (another bank of marine deep cycle batteries). The RV, and the backup AC power system can be switchd to run from one bank or the other. In short, every possible angle has been covered. When in the desert at Burning Man or exploring abandoned mines – I always have power, net and air conditioning. I do love tinkering! However, in a condo, lacking roof space for solar and wind solutions, I will have to get a bit more creative… I wonder how much hydrogen I could store in the space above the suspended ceiling?