San Diego Gas and Electric has been resorting to public safety power shutoffs as a way to prevent their electrical system from igniting fires in hot, dry weather conditions but doing so leaves residents who are bound by durable medical equipment at risk if they cannot power any potentially life-saving devices during a power outage.
On Nov. 19 representatives from SDG&E, solar specialist Clayton Mauldin, master electrician Craig Greer and Richard Edwords of Kamp’s Propane gathered at the Alpine library to discuss ideas for residents who are seeking solutions to maintain power during hours of shutoff.
The public meeting was a combination of answers from SDG&E representatives and solution-based ideas from Mauldin and Edwords, peppered with advice based on past experience in an informal presentation.
Resident Christina Whipple rounded out the group by sharing her personal solution to maintain her continuous positive airway pressure machine in times of power loss. She had the room of about 100 attendees laughing at her anecdotal stories of attempting to connect with her CPAP manufacturer and SDG&E before she finally took it upon herself to research and created a functional solar-based charging system.
“With $543, using coupons and with multiple trips to Harbor Freight, you too can have a long-term charging system for your medical device,” Whipple said.
She informed the crowd that she is not a medical professional but was happy to share her setup: a power converter purchased from her medical equipment provider to be used with four rotating batteries that can be recharged using solar-powered charging kits.
“When you’re running a generator, take everything into account— running the generator, refilling the fuel, everything,” Edwords said.
He informed attendees that there is a give and take to any fuel and gave the example of diesel.
“Some diesel generators are very efficient, and diesel is pretty safe, but it needs to be conditioned for storage,” Edwords said.
He went on to suggest that residents look at Kohler home generators as a leading industry product with local technicians able to make repairs.
