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The disaster under discussion is a power outage during a heat wave. I've thought a little about how to prepare for such a disaster, and the most viable-seeming
by hollerith 2y ago
The disaster under discussion is a power outage during a heat wave.
I've thought a little about how to prepare for such a disaster, and the most viable-seeming solution is a freezer full of ice. Then when the power goes out, you mix the ice with water, then pump the chilled water through a flexible hose that snakes its way through a vest worn by the person to be protected.
Fire departments use such systems (vests connected by hoses to a pump and to a large cooler filled with ice and water) to cool firefighters down "in the field" (at the site of a fire) to reduce the amount of time needed before a firefighter can re-enter the fight against a fire. I.e., such cooling systems are available for purchase now (for a few thousand dollars IIRC for a system that can cool 4 people at a time).
- cratermoon 2y ago> pump the chilled water What powers the pump?
- hollerith 2y agoI don't recall. They've got huge fire engines (and permission to keep the engine running as long as they are fighting a fire) so the solutions now on the market might run the pump off of electricity generated by the engine. For disaster preparedness, my initial guess is that alkaline batteries (e.g., D cells) would be a good solution because unlike lithium-ion batteries, alkalines remain healthy and keep their charge through years of storage.