Survival as a Type 1

Type 1 and LADA
41

I actually did a little research on the physics of evaporative cooling.

It looks like the limits of evaporative cooling is a drop of about 20F (and it becomes even less effective in humid air). So if it was 90F-100F it might help keep my insulin at 70-80F. Which is a big help for a single insulin vial I’d like to make last a few weeks in hot weather. But not enough help to keep a couple years stockpile stable through an entire summer.

Maybe I should just go buy that generator? I love small engines!

42

Can you dig a deep hole?

I’ve been keeping my sodas in a bucket of water so they stay cool. Haven’t really needed ice. But, I never refrigerate insulin.

1 Like
43

There are quite a number of “thermoelectric” or “Peltier” ice chests and coolers that will cool things 36 degrees F (20 degrees C) less than ambient temperature. That should be good enough for insulin storage even in Death Valley.

They can be powered by 110 VAC if you have power, but your fridge is broken (@mohe0001), by your car battery, or by a solar panel.

Many of them are designed for car camping and are too large for even a big insulin stash. The smaller ones are about the size of a six-pack (I wonder why???) so would be plenty large enough for insulin storage.

Cost is all over the map but you can find TE coolers that are quite affordable. The solar panel is likely to be the most costly item.

Although I haven’t done this myself, your car battery, a TE cooler, and an appropriate solar panel should allow you to keep insulin cool indefinitely without depleting your car battery so much that it wouldn’t start. And, if it did, having one of the Lithium-battery “self jumpers” would fix that.

Stay safe!

John

Note: thermoelectric cooler and Peltier cooler are two names for the same thing.

2 Likes
44

My milk keeps turning into cheese.

45

For those interested in the solar option, I’ve got a lot of first hand experience with it. We’re In the process of self-installing solar for my mother-in-law’s home, assembling a mobile solar power trailer, and a few extra panels to play with at our house. Commercial solar installations are expensive, but the parts are surprisingly inexpensive if you’re a savvy shopper. There are TONS of “YouTube University” info on this, we got a lot of info from Will Prowse (mobile-solarpower.com) and DavidPoz. We’re DIYers and have electric experience, but this is our first time working with solar panels and it’s been a fun project. We set a $14,000 budget for all things solar, and are still under budget thus far. We think all materials have been paid for, but haven’t installed the house setup yet, so some unexpected expenses might come up still.

I’m not going to post direct links, since pricing changes all the time, and the best we found might not be the best currently available, but:

eBay for used or cosmetically imperfect new panels. SanTan solar is a great seller for both. There’s also a whole pallet of Heiliene panels for $0.38 / watt shipped available right now.

eBay batteryClearinghouse for used BYD solar farm 24v LiFePo batteries. 160lbs a piece, but $140/kWh shipped. If you don’t know anything else about batteries go with lithium ion for sure. There’s also 48v server batteries, old ev car battery modules, etc… available if you want something smaller.

eBay diysolarinverters (Ian Roux) has been an awesome seller to work with, answered a ton of our questions before and after sale. Growatt SPF 6000T DVM for a permanent install big setup, one or two 3000TL LVMs (match 24v or 48v to the batteries you buy above), $700 to 1500 shipped depending on what you go with.

Cables, circuit breakers, outlets, etc $300-$600. This part is not hard, but please either know what you are doing or have an electricity savvy friend help!

Total assembled bill of materials for the solar trailer is about $4400, including the price of the trailer, 1kWp solar plus ~7kWh batteries plus 6kW inverters, and all the small parts. Could easily be done for $1500-2000 range of you really wanted.

The solar trailer can be used to power farm equipment (pumps, chainsaws, and whatnot) in the fields, trailered behind a vehicle for trips/camping (our electric hybrid Chevy volt has a trailer hitch), and even driven to someone’s house who is having a power emergency. We successfully ran out fridge and freezer off of it during a scheduled power outage last Wednesday and the solar panels kept her getting turned off because they weren’t drawing enough power and the battery storage was full. Disclaimer though, we do have power-conscious chest fridge and freezers, instead of the typical front opening ones.

(I had to get him to type out the electricity specs, because my eyes start going over when you start talking kWh at me. LOL)

2 Likes
46

Home made route would need some method for measuring insulin strength or dosages would have to be recalibrated for each batch. If I was accumulating a stockpile to cover long term use, I’d stock up on Canadian insulin.

47

I used to know many people (a certain group of ultra-Orthodox Jews) who had low-end, necessities-only whole-house battery systems which cost very much less than $14000. They would recharge off of the normal big-company electrical system during the week.

48

Maybe you could try some small proof-of-principle setup and work up from there. At the moment I’ve got my CPAP machine, my home NAT-router, and a computer attached to 3 tiny UPS systems designed for computers. Two things I’ve already learned:

  1. A CPAP machine machine uses a lot more energy than you would expect, or than my calculations produced. I don’t think that I get more than a hour or two out of mine.
  2. A convenient source of truck-type batteries for the UPS turns into its own supply-chain problem.
49

Maybe my friend is already a member. :wink:

1 Like