We had the first cool weather of the season last night in south Florida, and with it rolling blackouts all night long. People here don't have proper heat and resort to using the electric range or plug in resistance heaters. It's even cooler tonight, so I hope FPL has made arrangements to buy extra power.
My alarm clock was plugged into a small UPS, rather than the Aims inverter on my battery bank. I didn't like the idea of leaving the Aims on 24/7.
But I couldn't sleep with the power failing every hour or so and the UPS alarm going off. Eventually the UPS battery failed, so I plugged the clock into the inverter anyway. If I'm late to work, my employer might give my job to someone else, and the way things are, I'm lucky to have a job.
I cracked the case on the alarm clock and a spare I had recently bought from Walgreens hoping to find a way to run them from dc. Unfortunately both clocks use at least 2 voltages and the both use low voltage ac to run the the clock. Reading the fine print I discovered the newer clock won't even sound the wake up alarm if the power is out. Both clocks use a 9 volt battery to keep settings in a power failure, but there is no display in backup mode.
After hurricane Wilma, I didn't have electric for almost a month. If that happens again, I'l have to charge AA batteries from a car adapter charger hooked up to my battery bank and use them in a travel alarm clock I have.
When I was growing up my father used a wind up alarm clock. I'm not sure those even exist anymore.
