For Crabfoot...

[akirk]

This kind of thing seems to answer the need:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/station-Emer...4333796&sr=8-7
???

Alasdair

[Kay]

For less than £100 too! Why haven't we got one already? That's what I want to know. Now, where this week's shopping list...

[Chabrenas]

With the 17Ah battery in the box Alasdair linked to, just stick to you laptop. Don't let Dave plug his machines in or you won't last 2 hours...

[crabfoot]

this is the third time I've typed a reply -

@Kay -You don't want anything elaborate, and that thing Alasdair found is a sheep in wolf's clothing.

You should be able to find something in the local market. Suitable battery packs cost about £20 wholesale in Brum, so around your way £35 retail would be OTT. Similarly, the in-car laptop adapter should be about £10 - £15 from a GB market stall.

£50 should find some bits that will do the job.

[Kay]

That would be excellent. Thanks for the info. Mostly when we get power cuts, we just down tools and play I Spy or something, but that's not very much fun in the dark. I'm really glad I got a fancy cover for my Kindle. It has its own light attached so you can read in the dark. Very handy!

But, as you say, £50 for a source of back-up power would be a very good move for us. Dave will be pleased with this idea. I got the impression that he wasn't so keen on my exercise bike idea. Dunno why, I'm sure it would have done him some good.

[tke71709]

But, as you say, £50 for a source of back-up power would be a very good move for us.

Do keep in mind that this battery isn't going to last forever. I would imagine that trying to power a PC + monitor would drain it fairly quickly. A laptop would probably last longer plus it already has a fully charged battery of itw own to start with.

[Kay]

Yeah, I usually keep going on the desktop for as long as I can with the UPS and then switch over to the laptop with its own battery power. It's very rarely a problem. Most of the power cuts last a couple of hours at most. But once we had one which went on for about six hours. It was so frustrating because there were things to do and people to 'talk' to. If six hours down time was scheduled, that would be OK, but you never know how long the power cut is going to last. Five minutes, two hours, six hours, two days? That's why it would be handy to have the back-up.

Our ISP is also quite dodgy at times so I have dial-up with a different ISP company. It's just a back-up and it's not great but it's a heck of a lot better than not being able to get online at all. It's really important for me to be online when I want to be.

We travel a lot and these days I only want to stay in places with good WiFi. I don't mind whether they're luxurious, upmarket, or downmarket. I just need to know that I'll be able to get online easily.