Thought question; what the best way to spend $50 for hurricane preparation?

Assuming you have all the standard house tools, edc, etc.

The first question is, do you have a first aid kit?

Jeanette Isabelle

If my house was secured (meaning already had plywood to protect the windows, nothing loose outside)...maybe a tank of gas or two to get out of town?

Chocolate chips by the bag.

Chocolate will get you through times of scarce money better than money will get you through times of scarce chocolate.

Water containers would be a good thing. IMO it doesn't make sense those big runs on bottled water- you can buy a lot of jugs and containers for what it costs to buy it bottled, and then reuse them. Probably batteries is another good item to have. I've never been through a hurricane but been through plenty of blizzards and there's some overlap in issues (eg can't out to the stores, power may be interrupted, etc). Good chance that in the aftermath the water may be contaminated so storing some is a good idea. You might look at the WaterBOB which allows you to store 100 gallons in your bath tub and keep it clean.

Flexifit rainwater downspout diverter, Home Depot $21.99.

Whatever amount of water I store, it would be better if I could harvest water in case of a long term emergency. Same argument for solar panels and batteries in addition to the gas generator.

Add a water filter, since rainwater is poison falling from the sky and must be filtered.

Collect the water in garbage pails lined with garbage bags.

What don’t you have already? Think of the rules of 3’s and shelter, water, food... Make sure the basics are covered.

Agree with containers for bulk water storage. Water is needed for drinking and it’s also good to have around for hygiene.

I’m not a fan of buying gear just because a storm is on its way. Buy stuff that’s useful with or without a storm. Water filtration is something that’s useful and in some coastal communities the tap water on a good day tasted brackish. I’ve been using water filters with “potable” water since 1985 when I lived near the coast in Virginia. The water was awful without a storm let alone with compromised system.

You should probably add a few gallons of bleach to your shopping list.

If you have all the standard tools, etc. then hang onto the dough. you will face the need for expenditures during the aftermath and cash is very versatile. My bug out gear includes a money belt with cash. I was glad to have it when we did but out a while ago.

It all depends on your particular situation, what you have and what you lack.

if the essentials are covered... a good multi day cooler (ice chest) if you have a lot of perishable food....my county Emergency Management distributes ice.. even my old 7 day had partially frozen gallon jugs on the 8th day of outage in 2004 ...the cooler had not been accessed as I had a second cooler to which I obtained ice when we went back to school for the last 4 days of outage

for comfort... a good, repeat good, battery powered fan to allow you to sleep with some relief to the heat...my original design of a D powered tent fan motor with model airplane propeller to spin my ceiling fan can run 9 hours on a new D, and for around 6 on a couple of re chargable AA Eneloops... for Irma I had added a Ridgid contractor fan that runs off the 18v Ridgid battery, but would be slightly over your $50 budget

Thanks Les. I hadn’t considered a battery powered fan, but after I checked, there are battery powered fans and USB powered fans. I happen to have a few power banks available from my solar panel experiment and this would be a good application. Even warm air can cool if it’s moving.

Russ... after the 2004/2005 season I was looking for a way to cool the bedroom down a little, without running a generator and portable A/C... I have an old frame home with jalousie and awning type windows, but inside temps were around 90F until after midnight... we started school back after the first 5 days of the 9 day outage, and it was tough to get up at 6AM with poor sleep...I retired in 2009 and worked on the problem.. the tent fan had been used in 2004, the idea to spin the ceiling fan came when a friend gave me a propeller adapter collet used on electric model planes...

I use the Ridgid fan on my gun cart (baby stroller with ATV gun mounts), along with a beach umbrella for matches during the hot months here in Florida

I found what looks like a pretty good fan that can be clipped to all kinds of objects for expediency. Internal li-ion battery can be recharged by USB while it’s running if your USB can push 2 amps. I’ve got a number of USB sources from wall plugs to power banks to that Goal Zero Yeti 400, afaik only the wall plugs push 2A.

While I was looking at USB fans I also found the AC Infinity USB Fan which I’m thinking might be useful for fabricating a USB powered swamp cooler. Just a thought.

yes. search for "camping fan" or "tent fan"

I received the Opolar 10000mAh 8-Inch ... Fan yesterday and tried it last light, running it on low, plugged in to charge the internal battery in the process. At a distance of about 7’ I could not hear the fan (on low) and could feel air movement — nice and easy to disregard. Neither the sound or air movement would interfere with sleep.

It’s running on battery now. At 3.5’ I can just hear the fan above ambient noise. I tilted it up so it blows just over my head — cool but not irritating. The clip shown acts as a stand if you have a flat surface to set it on. I haven’t needed to use the clip.

This was a great suggestion. Thanks Les.

This one runs on an internal battery that you have to charge. I realize your application seems to be non-emergency. But for emergency use, wouldn't you need something that runs on replaceable external batteries? The website says the fan has up to 20 hours of run time per charge (I assume that means running at the lowest setting, under ideal conditions). If we plan for a 3-day blackout, then that may not be enough unless you run a generator.

I'm thinking of getting a battery-operated fan for blackouts during the hot season. But there are so many out there that it's hard to decide which one suits my needs.

This will be fine for an emergency, SOCAL has pretty good sun. After I use the solar panels to recharge power banks and top off cell phones, there may still be some sun left.

my original tent fan that turns the ceiling fan runs 9 hours on single D cell... while I have two generators, my back up is a 7w Goal Zero panel, which can charge 4 AA Eneloops in about 3 1/2 hours of direct overhead Sun light... a two cell AA>D adapter will run the fan for about 6 hours... I've never run the Ridgid fan for more than 3 hours continuously at a match... I'll stand by my decision to power my portable hurricane lighting and radios to re chargeable AAs....

I'll repeat.. my two best lessons learned from Irma two years ago was to have a single power strip that could manage the multiple chargers, including those for AA, cell phone, and the contractor fan off a single wall outlet.. if I feed the house with the smaller generator, it feeds only 120v to select circuits

the second was to have a utility trailer and hitch on the John Deere mower to provide portability for the heavier generator so I could supply power to two neighbors plus myself on a rotating schedule... the use of a siphon fuel system allowed fuel to be taken directly from their containers

Whoah, I just learned of the existence of multiple AA to D adapters. Eneloops makes a 1 cell AA to D adapter, which seems to me to be a bit underpowered for an appliance that requires D batteries.

You electronics wizards out there, let me know if I'm on the wrong track:

AA and D batteries are all 1.5 V. A D battery produces 4.5 Ah. An AA battery produces 2-3 Ah. I assume the adapter wires the AA batteries in parallel. So that means an adapter with 2 AA batteries can produce 4-6 Ah, and an adapter with 3 AA batteries can produce 6-9 Ah. So why would they sell 3 cell AA to D adapters?

Because D cells are obsolete! They're expensive, sometimes not readily available and not very useful outside of a few applications. AA and AAA are very wide spread and inexpensive. The AA in a D adapter will work fine, it just won't last as long. But it's an Eneloop so presumably that's not a huge issue- just charge more often.

1.5V is a nominal voltage. Depending on the history of the cell the actual voltage may vary. The Ahs are the nominal capacity of the battery, i. e. a nominal current can be drawn for a nominal time. With more cells in the adapter a higher current can be drawn. It can also reduce the drop in voltage under load and result in a higher actual capacity. The drawback with parallel multicell adapters is the possibility of currents flowing between the cells when the cells have different voltages.

Check the 1D Flashlight Kit by Maratac. The flashlight comes with a 4xAA to D-cell converter (battery holder). Using four Eneloop cells you’d get 8800 mAh.


One of my D-cell rechargeable batteries is rated at 10,000 mAh, so the four AA’s aren’t quite a match, but have you ever recharged an 10,000 mAh D-cell? You can recharge four AA Eneloops much faster than a single D-cell — four charging ports versus one... if your battery charger can even accommodate D-cell batteries and has the ability to pack 10,000 mAh through one charging port.

Bottom line is that if you want to use D-cell lights and prefer rechargeable batteries, get the adapters. I didn’t do the math ahead of time and bought the D-cell rechargeable batteries which it turned out I couldn’t fully charge because the only charger I had that could accommodate D-cell batteries didn’t have the electronics to reach 10,000 mAh capacity. So I bought an EBL charger that was spec’d for it... I’d have been way better off with the adapters and more AA Eneloops.

Unfortunately, the 4xAA battery holder is not marketed separately, so the 3xAA converters available on Amazon and at Battery Junction seem to be the best option.

Great info, thanks!

before trying a couple of brands of commercial AA>D adapters, I built a couple DIY, using a couple of brass washers (dimpled on the (-) end to contact the flat ends of the Eneloops..flat head aluminum bolts inserted into a section of model airplane fuel line holding the contacts in place, circumference held with a section of bicycle inner tube... the 3 cell battery pack worked best, and would fit inside a MagLight tube.. since fabricating the ceiling fan motor, have had only one outage (Irma) and I usually get a bulk pack of D cells expressly for the fan motor on hand, so have not had to use the adapters...