Must-have gear to help you survive those never-ending blackouts

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Our national electricity supplier, by all accounts, has some tough times ahead – which means that we’ll be facing rolling blackouts for the foreseeable future.

If there is a solar-powered silver lining to the dark cloud, however, it’s that there are items that can really help out.

A well-stocked outdoor lifestyle cupboard, for example, can help us survive the challenges of those off-grid hours.

Lighten up

Let’s get the basics out of the way. You need light.

Torches are great when you need to move around the house and when you’re looking for things; and lanterns are essential to the general lighting of a room.

Torches and lanterns are measured in lumens and watts. The higher the lumens, the higher the watts. The higher the watts, the more often you’ll have to recharge or change batteries (always keep extras on hand).

Torches

One lumen is more-or-less equivalent to the amount of light given off by a small candle at a distance of about 30cm.

You don’t need many lumens for a torch that’ll be used in the house and garden.

A torch with 2 000 lumens throws a spotlight of 700m in length. Obviously, this is unnecessary for home usage.

At the same time, a torch should be versatile and have, perhaps, some extra kick. LED torches up to 200-250 lumens will be more than enough for most South African households (and gardens and braai areas).

Because LEDs use so little power, they’re light and can easily fit into a pocket.

Lanterns

Lanterns can be both carried and set down in a fixed position for ambient light.

The optimal lighting design in terms of lantern positioning and lumens may be best decided by a bit of trial and error.

Ideally, you’ll want lanterns with obscured plastic to diffuse the light from the LED. A good place to start is a rechargeable LED lantern with 120-250 lumens. More lumens may be necessary for large rooms.

Be a blackout Masterchef

Binging on takeaways can be fun… once in a while.

Making it a regular source of ‘substantial’ nutrition is somewhat less than desirable.

Getting rid of your electric stove and replacing it with a gas hob is an expensive exercise; an effective and much much cheaper option is keeping compact gas or liquid fuel stoves on hand.

Camping stoves are extremely compact; which means that you won’t have to remove kitchen tables, etc., to set it/them up. If you have a non-wood counter, you can also set them up there.

You can get away with using just one if you’re willing to cook items in a sequence, but for home purposes you’ll want two or possibly even three – especially if you have kids and need to cook a larger meal.

Their compactness has the added benefit of making them easy to store and easy to move around, and even a small stove with a small gas canister can give off a lot of heat, and last between one and two hours.

Pots ‘n pans

Whereas some of your pots and pans may be compatible with direct-flame stoves, buying a few that are purpose designed is nonetheless a good idea.

Sets that contain lightweight and warp-resistant pots and pans are readily available.

This is to say that you can still have healthy and tasty meals when your normal kitchen stove has gone on strike.

Flasks

Before leaving the kitchen, however, we should mention how handy a good flask can be.

Car flasks are big (up to 400ml), but larger stainless steel screw top flasks (e.g. 2L) are better suited to home conditions.

A bonus item to have on hand is a gas stove stainless steel coffee percolator – you can heat it directly on the gas stove, and you’ll be able to enjoy some top quality coffee on a chilly evening. Good stuff.

Get to your local Trappers

We have faith that our electricity supplier will sort out its problems (sooner rather than later, we hope), but in the meantime, get down to your local Trappers and stock up on the outdoor lifestyle gear that’ll get you through those power bereft days and nights.

Alternatively, shop online here.