Wednesday, November 23, 2022

I was thinking about the logistical problems created by Russia destroying the Ukrainian Electrical infrastructure with missiles

 And what this will tend to do this winter to people in Ukraine. 

Those that cannot leave Ukraine to survive for one reason or another will have to be very innovative. One method to get water and some power of course will be to buy gas or diesel electric generators when people can afford to do this. Another partial solution is to be underground where the ground below a few feet will stay usually around 60 degrees Fahrenheit year around. This enables people to use much less to heat a place like this but then again you still need enough fresh air to breathe too.

Another solution regarding all this is solar panels if there is enough sun in the Winter in Ukraine to do this and to run water pumps through small tubes that could be powered by solar and then run a small amount of water through smaller tubes to supply bins or water tanks for gravity feed for water. Heating often can be accomplished by burning wood if you have access to wood. For example, where I used to live in Mt. Shasta almost everyone I knew in the 1970s and 1980s there got a wood gathering permit from the forest service and went and got wood in the forests wherever this was permitted then. However, this becomes more of a problem when you live in the city far away from forests or usable downed trees for wood. However, where there's a will there's a way to survive. However, without electricity in a larger city this becomes much more problematic for everyone because often heat in a larger city is also electric and not gas or wood or other fuels.

So, generally speaking if you have a wood source and a good wood stove you can survive pretty good wherever you are through the winter as long as your home is well insulated too. And water can be obtained often through a solar panel or panels and small tubes to pump water when the sun is out into bins or water tanks with gravity feed water for you to use. But, you also have to think about freezing water in a place like Ukraine in the winter  too in order to have your water system work for you.

Another idea in regard to keeping water unfrozen is to coil copper water pipe around a stovepipe of a wood burning stove to cause the water coming out and going into a water tank not to freeze so you have the use of this water and it doesn't freeze. A friend of mine was repairing his pipe recently in Mt. Shasta doing MIG or TIG welding to accomplish his goal. I haven't ever done this so I cannot fully describe what you need to do to accomplish this task. But, I'm sure if you look this sort of thing up on Youtube you might find someone showing you how to do this in a video.

The other thing to be aware of if you don't already know this is that hot water pipes freeze for some reasno before cold water pipes do (when the water is not moving). I'm not entirely sure why this is which is why people in freezing outside temperatures often leave their water dripping to avoid freezeups of hot and cold water pipes.

In around 1992 we had temperatures down to 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit and our hot water pipe in Mt. Shasta froze so all the water to the house started making ice sculptures under my house at these temperatures. I had a friend come over and I tied a rope to myself because I couldn't wear enough clothes under the house to stay warm so I tied a rope to my leg in case I got so cold I couldn't get out from under the house and my friend could pull me out by the leg in an emergency. I bought the repair pieces of plumbing and replaced the broken pieces that had broken from the pipes freezing and chiseled out the ice sculptures it made enough to fix it. So, we once again had hot water to our washing machine in the house then.

Though I was shaking from the cold from not enough warm clothes on I got the job done that day and fixed the water pipe that had exploded from the freezing cold under the house.

This was important so I could turn the water on again for the whole house then. I think I also wrapped the new pipe with some kind of insulating foam so it wouldn't do this again.

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