#Civil unrest will explode along with the virus | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

newstfionline · 3 years

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Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Fire Season Comes Early To California (CNN) Fire weather is coming early to California this year. For the first time since 2014, parts of Northern California are seeing a May “red flag” fire warning due to dry and windy conditions. The warning coverage area extends from Redding in the north to Modesto in the south, and includes portions of the Central Valley and the state capital of Sacramento. The warning also extends to the eastern edges of the Bay Area. A brush fire that started Friday in Pacific Palisades flared up Saturday due to gusty winds, burning more than 1,300 acres and threatening homes in Topanga Canyon. Topanga State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains is about 20 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. The Palisades fire caused about 1,000 people to be evacuated from their homes early Sunday, with other residents on standby to leave.

Pandemic Refugees at the Border (NYT) The Biden administration continues to grapple with swelling numbers of migrants along the southwestern border. Most of them are from Central America, fleeing gang violence and natural disasters. But the past few months have also brought a much different wave of migration that the Biden administration was not prepared to address: pandemic refugees. They are people arriving in ever greater numbers from far-flung countries where the coronavirus has caused unimaginable levels of illness and death and decimated economies and livelihoods. If eking out an existence was challenging in such countries before, in many of them it has now become almost impossible. According to official data released this week, 30 percent of all families encountered along the border in April hailed from countries other than Mexico and the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, compared to just 7.5 percent in April 2019, during the last border surge. The coronavirus pandemic has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy, erasing hundreds of millions of jobs. And it has disproportionately affected developing countries, where it could set back decades of progress, according to economists. About 13,000 migrants have landed in Italy, the gateway to Europe, so far this year, three times as many as in the same period last year. At the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months, agents have stopped people from more than 160 countries, and the geography coincides with the path of the virus’s worst devastation.

The U.S. conversation on Israel is changing, no matter Biden’s stance (Washington Post) In Washington, support for the Palestinian plight is getting louder in Congress. On Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote a widely circulated New York Times op-ed pulling the spotlight away from Hamas’s provocations to the deeper reality of life for millions of Palestinians living under blockade and occupation. He pointed to the havoc unleashed in recent weeks by rampaging mobs of Jewish extremists in Jerusalem, as well as the questionable Israeli legal attempts to forcibly evict the Palestinian residents of a neighborhood in the contested holy city. “None of this excuses the attacks by Hamas, which were an attempt to exploit the unrest in Jerusalem, or the failures of the corrupt and ineffective Palestinian Authority, which recently postponed long-overdue elections,” Sanders wrote. “But the fact of the matter is that Israel remains the one sovereign authority in the land of Israel and Palestine, and rather than preparing for peace and justice, it has been entrenching its unequal and undemocratic control.” In another era, Sanders would have cut a lonely figure among his colleagues. But he is not alone. A number of Democratic lawmakers, including solidly pro-Israel politicians, issued statements indicating their displeasure with the casualties caused by Israel’s attacks in Gaza. Others were more vocal, accusing Israel of “apartheid.” Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) tweeted: “This is happening with the support of the United States....the US vetoed the UN call for a ceasefire. If the Biden admin can’t stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to? How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights?” Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a center-left pro-Israel advocacy organization that increasingly reflects the mainstream position of American liberals, said in a briefing with reporters last week that the “diplomatic blank check to the state of Israel” given out by successive U.S. administrations has meant that “Israel has no incentive to end occupation and find a solution to the conflict.”

Mexico City is sinking (Wired) When Darío Solano‐Rojas moved from his hometown of Cuernavaca to Mexico City to study at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the layout of the metropolis confused him. “What surprised me was that everything was kind of twisted and tilted,” says Solano‐Rojas. “At that time, I didn't know what it was about. I just thought, ‘Oh, well, the city is so much different than my hometown.’” Different, it turned out, in a bad way. Picking up the study of geology at the university, Solano‐Rojas met geophysicist Enrique Cabral-Cano, who was actually researching the surprising reason for that infrastructural chaos: The city was sinking—big time. It’s the result of a geological phenomenon called subsidence, which usually happens when too much water is drawn from underground, and the land above begins to compact. According to new modeling by the two researchers and their colleagues, parts of the city are sinking as much as 20 inches a year. In the next century and a half, they calculate, areas could drop by as much as 65 feet. Spots just outside Mexico City proper could sink 100 feet. That twisting and tilting Solano‐Rojas noticed was just the start of a slow-motion crisis for 9.2 million people in the fastest-sinking city on Earth. And because some parts are slumping dramatically and others aren’t, the infrastructure that spans the two zones is sinking in some areas but staying at the same elevation in others. And that threatens to break roads, metro networks, and sewer systems. “Subsistence by itself may not be a terrible issue,” says Cabral-Cano. “But it's the difference in this subsistence velocity that really puts all civil structures under different stresses.”

Today’s the day: British holidaymakers return to Portugal as travel ban ends (Reuters) Sun-hungry British visitors descended on Portuguese beaches once again on Monday as a four-month long ban on travel between the two countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic ended, in a much-needed boost for the struggling tourism sector. Twenty-two flights from Britain are due to land in Portugal on Monday, with most heading to the southern Algarve region, famous for its beaches and golf courses but nearly deserted as the pandemic kept tourists away. Visitors from Britain must present evidence of a negative coronavirus test taken 72 hours before boarding their flights to Portugal and there is no need to quarantine for COVID-19 when returning home. Back at home, most British people will be free once again to hug, albeit cautiously, drink a pint in their pub, sit down to an indoor meal or visit the cinema after the ending of a series of lockdowns that imposed the strictest ever restrictions in peacetime.

Afghans who helped the US now fear being left behind (AP) He served as an interpreter alongside U.S. soldiers on hundreds of patrols and dozens of firefights in eastern Afghanistan, earning a glowing letter of recommendation from an American platoon commander and a medal of commendation. Still, Ayazudin Hilal was turned down when he applied for one of the scarce special visas that would allow him to relocate to the U.S. with his family. Now, as American and NATO forces prepare to leave the country, he and thousands of others who aided the war effort fear they will be left stranded, facing the prospect of Taliban reprisals. “We are not safe,” the 41-year-old father of six said of Afghan civilians who worked for the U.S. or NATO. “The Taliban is calling us and telling us, ‘Your stepbrother is leaving the country soon, and we will kill all of you guys.’” At least 300 interpreters have been killed in Afghanistan since 2016, and the Taliban have made it clear they will continue to be targeted, said Matt Zeller, a co-founder of No One Left Behind, an organization that advocates on their behalf. He also served in the country as an Army officer. “The Taliban considers them to be literally enemies of Islam,” said Zeller, now a fellow at the Truman National Security Project. “There’s no mercy for them.”

A Desperate India Falls Prey to Covid Scammers (NYT) Within the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak, few treasures are more coveted than an empty oxygen canister. India’s hospitals desperately need the metal cylinders to store and transport the lifesaving gas as patients across the country gasp for breath. So a local charity reacted with outrage when one supplier more than doubled the price, to nearly $200 each. The charity called the police, who discovered what could be one of the most brazen, dangerous scams in a country awash with coronavirus-related fraud and black-market profiteering. The police say the supplier—a business called Varsha Engineering, essentially a scrapyard—had been repainting fire extinguishers and selling them as oxygen canisters. The consequences could be deadly: The less-sturdy fire extinguishers might explode if filled with high-pressure oxygen. A coronavirus second wave has devastated India’s medical system. Hospitals are full. Drugs, vaccines, oxygen and other supplies are running out. Pandemic profiteers are filling the gap. In many cases, the sellers prey on the desperation and grief of families.

Full-blown boycott pushed for Beijing Olympics (AP) Groups alleging human-rights abuses against minorities in China are calling for a full-blown boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a move likely to ratchet up pressure on the International Olympic Committee, athletes, sponsors and sports federations. A coalition representing Uyghurs, Tibetans, residents of Hong Kong and others issued a statement Monday calling for the boycott, eschewing lesser measures that had been floated like “diplomatic boycotts” and further negotiations with the IOC or China. “The time for talking with the IOC is over,” Lhadon Tethong of the Tibet Action Institute said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. “This cannot be games as usual or business as usual; not for the IOC and not for the international community.” The push for a boycott comes a day before a joint hearing in the U.S. Congress focusing on the Beijing Olympics and China’s human-rights record, and just days after the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee said boycotts are ineffective and only hurt athletes.

Grief Mounts as Efforts to Ease Israel-Hamas Fight Falter (NYT) Diplomats and international leaders were unable Sunday to mediate a cease-fire in the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed to continue the fight and the United Nations Security Council failed to agree on a joint response to the worsening bloodshed. The diplomatic wrangling occurred after the fighting, the most intense seen in Gaza and Israel for seven years, entered its deadliest phase yet. At least 42 Palestinians were killed early Sunday morning in an airstrike on several apartments in Gaza City, Palestinian officials said, the conflict’s most lethal episode so far. The number of people in killed in Gaza rose to 197 over the seven days of the conflict, according to Palestinian officials, while the number of Israeli residents killed by Palestinian militants climbed to 11, including one soldier, the Israeli government said.

Israel, Hamas trade fire in Gaza as war rages on (AP) Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on what it said were militant targets in Gaza, leveling a six-story building, and militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel on Tuesday. Palestinians across the region observed a general strike as the war, now in its second week, showed no signs of abating. The strikes toppled a building that housed libraries and educational centers belonging to the Islamic University. Residents sifted through the rubble, searching for their belongings.

Israel’s aftermath (Foreign Policy) In Israel, the aftermath of days of violence in mixed Arab-Israeli towns has led to a one-sided reaction from state prosecutors: Of the 116 indictments served so far against those arrested last week, all have been against Arab-Israeli citizens, Haaretz reports. Meanwhile, Yair Lapid, whose centrist Yesh Atid party’s chances of forming a coalition government has crumbled since the violence broke out, placed the blame on Netanyahu. If he was in charge, Lapid said on Sunday, no one would have to question “why the fire always breaks out precisely when it’s most convenient for the prime minister.”

Long working hours can be a killer, WHO study shows (Reuters) Working long hours is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year in a worsening trend that may accelerate further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said on Monday. In the first global study of the loss of life associated with longer working hours, the paper in the journal Environment International showed that 745,000 people died from stroke and heart disease associated with long working hours in 2016. That was an increase of nearly 30% from 2000. “Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard,” said Maria Neira, director of the WHO’s Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health. The joint study, produced by the WHO and the International Labour Organization, showed that most victims (72%) were men and were middle-aged or older. Often, the deaths occurred much later in life, sometimes decades later, than the shifts worked. It also showed that people living in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific region were the most affected.

#headlines #news

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greehnery · 4 years

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Just Tell Us What to Do

“This great fire will consume us and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. For who out of all mankind has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the fire, as we have, and lived? Go near and listen to everything the Lord our God says. Then you can tell us everything the Lord our God tells you; we will listen and obey.”

— Deuteronomy 5:25-26

It goes without saying that we’re living in uncertain times right now. Pandemics, politics, protests…it seems there’s fire all around us. Condemnation and judgement abound everywhere you look, regardless of party lines. “Wear a mask.” “Don’t wear a mask.” “Don’t believe that headline, it’s obviously a political ploy.” “Don’t you care about spreading this virus to someone especially vulnerable?” “A vote for this guy is a vote against this cause.” “Not voting is a vote for that cause.” “Speak out against racism; silence is conformity.” On and on it goes. And this has all exploded within a matter of months.

No matter who you talk to, all (or most, at least) would agree that we’re ready for the great societal and economical unrest, as well as the myriad injustices plaguing our world right now, to come to an end…or in smaller, more comfortable terms, for a sense of peace and normalcy to return to our daily lives. To have things under control, perhaps. The trouble is, not all (or most, in fact) agree on just how to approach this lofty goal.

Whether we admit it or not, whether we’re even aware of it or not, we all have a dog in the race of civil righteousness. The law may be written on all our hearts, but we all want to own it, to be right by it, to be its masters and judges, not so much for the good of others…which is just what the law was given to expose in us (Jeremiah 17:9).

Frankly, we just want to be told what to do. Which includes every should, ought, and must you can think of. Because we not only think we can do it, but that we will do it. Such haughtiness was the case with Israel back in Moses’ day, and it’s no different with us today. We’re not only desperate self-justifiers at heart…but there’s really no one we trust in this world more than ourselves, if we’re being honest. And the more the law is haplessly thrown around as it is in our current cultural climate, the more it destroys our ability to trust one another. Left to the legal sphere of this fallen world, we can but ask, as Pontius Pilate once did…”what is truth?”

Yet in spite of our great sin, starting with the First Commandment on down…we have been given something greater than law—that is, something to do, which incessantly, ceaselessly, and mercilessly condemns and kills each and every one of us, for the law demands absolute perfection at all times. No exceptions (Matthew 5:48).

Rather, we have been given a promise. Something done for us, perfect and complete, from before the foundation of the world. One of forgiveness and restoration, not as a condition, but as a person. Life!

“But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed — attested by the Law and the Prophets — that is, God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.”

— Romans 3:21-26

We are forgiven and free on account of Christ (Isaiah 43:25). Full stop! Christ is the end of the law for all who believe (Romans 10:4, Galatians 3:24). In baptism, His death, burial and resurrection become ours in a way that can be seen, felt, grasped, and remembered, just as surely as the water washed and the Word spoken over us. Along with all of God’s promises in Him, from now until He returns for His bride, the church (2 Cor. 1:18-22). The same for the Lord’s Supper, wherein His body and blood are consumed, and His holiness, in a very real, immediate, and tangible way, is taken in.

But then this begs the question posed in the title of this piece, and by our current circumstances…right? A promise is great and all, but we still need to be told what to do…right? Faith is wonderful, but some marching orders set before our eyes on tablets of stone (or aluminum and glass, or even just pencil and paper) would be a lot less scary (not to mention less risky)…

Right?

As Martin Luther once put it,

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”

That’s quite a conundrum. But such is the Christian. Put another way (also by Luther), we are simul justus et peccator. Simultaneously justified and sinful. This is far weightier than the common evangelical saying that we are sinners saved by grace—which could easily, and often does, imply that we are far more righteous and far less sinful in ourselves than we really are. To the contrary, the simul calls a thing what it is—“I the sinner, God the justifier”. That is, we are and always will be, in these fleshly bodies, 100% sinful, and in Christ, entirely outside of ourselves, declared 100% righteous.

We need to hear the law preached in all its terrible weight. Not as a friend, for that is Christ. The letter kills. But the Spirit—the Word of Christ and Him crucified that is the Gospel—gives life. This we need to hear in all its surpassing glory and scandalous freedom! For it is the very power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16-17). When push comes to shove, we live by faith in God’s promises, not the sight of the law.

And that is the point of all this theological talk. To declare just how free we are in Christ, and to proclaim that very freedom to wretched, damnable, self-absorbed captives like me and you. In a very real and present way…what more can be said, when all is said and done? It is finished! Christ is risen and seated at the Father’s right hand, and for His own sake we are forgiven.

“Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost!”

Isaiah 55:1

Freely we have received. Freely give!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

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socialjusticeartshare · 4 years

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Tear Down America's Immigrant Prisons

In the age of coronavirus, they are a danger to the lives of people both inside them and outside.

America's immigration detention system was a travesty before the coronavirus outbreak. But now it has also become dangerous, not just to the health of those in it but also those on the outside. It's way past time to release the detainees and dismantle this awful edifice.

One does not need a degree in epidemiology to understand that the cramped and unhygienic living conditions in the 22 detention camps and hundreds of county jailsused by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are fertile breeding grounds for the virus. ICE isn't known for transparency—it took a whole year to report a 2018 mumps outbreak—but it is already reporting that nearly 1,600 of its inmates have contracted the coronavirus, compared to 287 on April 23. Last month, COVID-19 cases in Texas' 10 detention centers quadrupled in two weeks.

Thanks to its grossly inadequate capacity, ICE has tested less than 8 percent of its 35,000 or so inmate population—but close to 50 percent of those tested have come back positive. A few detainees have already died from the coronavirus, and the actual death count might be higher, according to the University of Denver criminal immigration law expert César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández. Why? Because the agency might be releasing those with symptoms so that they die at home instead of on its watch.

ll of this is causing unrest among the detainees. Hunger strikes are raging in several ICE centers. In the Farmville detention center, about 160 miles southwest of D.C., hundreds went on strike during the initial weeks of the pandemic.

The conditions in the camps are straight out of Orange is the New Black. In Louisiana's LaSalle facility, 80 people are crammed into dorms lined with bunk beds. They have six toilets, three showers, one microwave and eight sinks between them. They even have to fight over bars of soap. And in those in repurposed county jails, the situation tends to be even worse.

Social distancing is impossible. Detainees have complained to investigators from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) that ICE does not even provide them safety information or adequate disinfecting supplies. LaSalle guards don't always make it a point to wear protective gear inside the facilities. And when the detainees protested, POGO reports, they were met with pepper spray. Unsurprisingly, days after POGO published its report, scores of inmates tested positive for the virus. The families of two guards—not ICE itself, mind you—revelaed that they died from the virus.

ICE says it has made adequate arrangements to protect those in its care. But what does that mean? In New Jersey's Hudson County Correctional facility and elsewhere, coronavirus positive detainees get quarantined and everyone else gets locked up in their cells for 23 hours a day, apparently to reduce the amount of communal time. Detention centers have completely stopped all visits by family members, and some segregate immigrants in separate floors, depending upon whether they have been exposed to someone who has tested positive. But that doesn't protect them from non-quarantined ICE staffers who go home every evening. Worse, detainees told POGO that ICE routinely ignores people presenting symptoms and doesn't provide timely medical care, leading sometimes to horrific situations.

And ICE stonewalls family members when their loved ones fall sick, hiding behind privacy laws. ICE would not even tell the family of a coronavirus-positive detainee at its Otay Mesa facility, one of the worst hit, whether he was alive, let alone what kind of care he was receiving. He was suffering from pulmonary embolism, ulcers, and a hernia yet ICE was refusing to release him. "They treat them like animals," wailed his mom.

That particular prisoner, Noe Perez, 41, was awaiting deportation because, evidently, serving a 22-year prison sentence for assault with a firearm as a teenager wasn't enough. That sort of record is far from the norm: As the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University points out, most civil immigrant ICE detainees do not have a single criminal conviction. In March 2020, in fact, 61.2 percent of the detainees had no conviction, not even for a minor petty offense. Even among immigrant detainees who do have a conviction, few are for the sorts of serious crimes that pose a threat to public safety. As of July 2019, just one in 10 detainees—less than 6,000 detainees nationwide—had a serious criminal conviction on record. That's a five-year low.

That's not surprising, given that the Trump administration scrapped the late-Obama-era policy of apprehending only serious criminals during interior roundups. It also started locking up asylum seekers rather than releasing them while their application is considered, even if they had passed an initial screening showing they had a "credible fear" of persecution or harm back home.

All of this has caused the detained population to explode. At its peak last July, Garcia Hernandez's data shows, 55,654 immigrants were in detention—an all-time high—even though Congress had previously appropriated funds only for around 39,000. To confine the extra population, the Trump administration repurposed funds from elsewhere in the Department of Homeland Security.

Nothing in the law actually mandates that these folks be kept under lock and key. It's an administrative policy choice meant to advance Trump's harsh anti-immigration agenda. There is little risk to public safety from releasing asylum seekers. And few of them would want to abscond before their final hearing, since they don't want to give up their shot of living in the country legally. If the government is really worried that they will, it could keep an eye on them much less invasively—and, in the the age of coronavirus, much more safely—by fitting them with electronic ankle bracelets.

After the pandemic erupted, the detained population has shrunk by about a third. Some of that might be attributed to fewer interior roundups. But the bigger and more perverse reason for the reduction, according to Garcia Hernandez, is that the administration has been using the coronavirus as an excuse to illegally turn away asylum seekers without any due process, even unaccompanied minors. It recently even tried to reinvent its notorious child separation policy by offering migrant parents the choice of abandoning their asylum petitions and accepting deportation in exchange for letting their kids get out of detention and remain in America. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority declined.

Migrant rights outfits have filed close to 50 lawsuits and secured the release of a few hundred medically vulnerable detainees, arguing among other things that consigning them to illness and death for these immigration infractions violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Yet when Attorney General Bob Barr ordered federal prisons to "immediately maximize" the release of prisoners to home confinement to prevent the spread of the virus, he demanded no systematic review of the imprisoned immigrants. Even as federal prisons release Americans who committed real crimes, immigrants who committed no crime are likely to remain locked up.

But individual ICE facilities don't need permission from the top to release immigrants. They have total discretion to "parole" anyone not subject to mandatory detention—that is, the majority of those in their custody given that they are in for civil not criminal violations.

They should do that. And Congress should defund a detention program whose only purpose is to terrorize peaceful immigrants looking for jobs or safety in America—along with creating more expansive guest worker and asylum programs, so that no one has to live here illegally. And the undocumented immigrants already in the country should get legal status pronto, ending the draconian interior roundups that are breaking up and traumatizing Latino communities. The small subset of criminally inclined intercepted at the border or picked up in America can be held in other venues until they are deported.

This is not just a matter of returning some humanity and fairness to America's immigration system. It's a matter of protecting general public health. Many of these detention centers are located in rural areas with rudimentary medical facilities that struggle to meet basic health care needs even in normal times. It won't take much to overwhelm them, or for secondary outbreaks to ricochet through their communities.

The pandemic has thrown the hidden dangers of America's institutions of mass incarceration into sharp relief. These institutions are particularly tragic when they are used to lock up peaceful people whose only crime is to search for a better life for themselves—and to provide one for Americans. These detention facilities had no good reason to exist before the coronavirus. They have even less now.

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#america's immigrant prisons #separated families

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grassroutes · 4 years

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Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Backup Solar Generator Review: Be Ready for Anything

Our verdict of the Maxoak Bluetti EB150: An affordable all-round great performing backup battery that stores an epic amount of energy. Combine with a solar panel or two (cable included) for complete electrical resiliency.1010

I thought I’d never see the day that supermarket shelves are empty, but as recent events have demonstrated, our modern societies are more fragile than we’d like to believe. It’s more important than ever that you’re prepared for emergencies: whether that’s a virus pandemic, a natural disaster, or civil unrest. These events can happen, and will increasingly do so in the coming decades.

One important aspect of emergency preparedness is electrical power. It’s no good having six months of food in the freezer if it’s all going to thaw in a day. So today, we’re taking a look at the Maxoak “Bluetti” EB150; also marketed under the PowerOak brand in the UK. It’s an enormous 1500Wh energy store with 1000W AC output, and includes an MPPT controller for direct connection to large solar panels.

Design and Specifications

Inputs: AC adapter or solar (16-60V 10A), 9mm DC connector

Output: 2 x AC sockets, 4 x 2.1A 5V USB ports, 1 x 45W PD USB-C, 1 x 12V 9A car port

Total Capacity: 1500Wh

Maximum Output: 1000W continuous, 1200 peak

Battery Technology: Lithium-ion

Charge time: AC 10 hours, solar variable (minimum 4 hours)

Weighing 38 pounds (17kg), the Maxoak EB150 is about the size of a small office PC. There are no ruggedization features like rubber bumpers or covers for the sockets, but the case itself is solid metal with a secure ABS handle and front/rear panels. It can certainly take a beating unless said beating involves any element of water. This is not waterproof, or even splashproof. Keep it away from rain.

The Bluetti will easily withstand the odd zombie or animal attack

Also, as a large lithium-ion battery, you shouldn’t attempt to pierce it, as that may result in a fire. So keep it away from bullets or crossbow bolts, too.

The AC sockets are located at the rear, with everything else around the front.

Two AC sockets around the back (this is the UK model; the US model has 3-pin 110V sockets)

There are three buttons for power, AC, and DC output. Outputs are activated by holding down the relevant button for a few seconds. A small display screen indicates the current battery level (an estimate via five segments), and exact numbers for input, AC and DC output wattage.

4 x USB-A ports, 1 x USB-C PD port, and a car socket provide plenty of DC output options for all your devices

Although I had no problem seeing the LCD screen in direct sunlight, I was only able to capture it indoors. If I have one complaint about the Bluetti, it’s that the battery remaining indicator is too vague, consisting only of five segments. The aspect aspects of the display give an exact figure, but not for the battery. A simple percentage would have been preferable here.

How is This a “Solar Generator”?

Strictly speaking, the Maxoak Bluetti EB150 doesn’t generate anything itself, but it does include the circuitry necessary to charge the battery from standard solar panels, and even includes the right cables. It can also simultaneously charge and discharge at the same time.

Built-in to the Bluetti is an MPPT charge controller; these are superior to the older style PWM, particularly on cloudy days, as they’re able to balance the conversion to get a greater charge.

The Maxoak Bluetti can be used with nearly any kind of solar panel, but with a couple of specifications. It must ran at 16-60V, and a maximum of 10A. The total possible input power is 500W. For testing, I hooked it up to an old monocrystalline panel rated at 175W, and was able to generate about 120W at peak (mid-afternoon on a clear UK spring day). I don’t have a watt-meter to test exactly what the voltage the panel was putting out, but it seemed to work: the Bluetti was showing roughly 50% after a day of gloriously good weather and was fully charged after another. I should also note the fan was running almost constantly when charging or using the AC.

If you have multiple panels but they’re under-voltage, you can wire them in series to increase the voltage to the required range. Or if they’re the right voltage already but well under the maximum current, you can wire them in parallel, which will increase the current while keeping the voltage the same. A combination of parallel and series wiring can also be used.

Under ideal conditions, it could take as little as 4 hours to fully charge the Bluetti from solar. If you’re doing the math, you might be wondering why it isn’t 1500 (the total capacity) divided by 500 (the total possible input)–or 3 hours. That’s due to an inherent inefficiency in any charge controller; in this case 25% of the electrical energy is lost in the process. This isn’t a flaw of the Bluetti, it’s true across the board when doing this kind of conversion.

The Bluetti includes overcharge protection, meaning that once the battery is full, it won’t continue charging and explode. That’s always a good thing.

Charging from AC

A standard AC charger (168W) is also included should you wish to charge from the grid, and since this is a fixed input we can tell you it would take 10 hours to do so. This must be from an AC electrical output; there is no way to charge from a car battery.

One of the few compromises in the Bluetti is that there’s only a single input. So you couldn’t, for example, combine a solar panel on top of your campervan with a wind turbine. While this would have been a nice feature, it’s probably of less use to most people and would have increased the price significantly.

The Maxoak Bluetti is rated to 1500 charge cycles, which is about average. A cycle is anytime the battery is used then charged again (even if it wasn’t fully discharged). While this sounds like a short lifetime, in reality, it means you could run the battery down and recharge daily for about five years; and at that point, it would still function but at a”degraded” 80% capacity. It’s difficult to test these claims extensively, but Maxoak provides a 1-year warranty. If you’re at the point where you’re having to use this as your only source of power for years on end though, you probably have bigger concerns.

Discharging: What Can It Run?

The Bluetti is rated to 1000W continuous and 1200W peak (for a few minutes). That’s a combined total for everything plugged into the device (AC and DC), not just any single device. If two AC sockets isn’t enough, it’s okay to plug in an extension lead; the additional sockets don’t inherently draw extra power, it’s just a case of ensuring the devices plugged into it are within the total limits. Exceeding the limit shouldn’t damage anything though, it will simply result in the unit shutting down.

In real terms, what does 1000W look like?

A deep freezer may take anywhere from 30-100W. CPAP machines are about 30-60W. The oxygen concentrator that keeps my father alive peaks at 300W. The Bluetti could comfortably run all of them, at the same time, along with multiple smartphones charging, and my Macbook Pro. On the other hand, an electric chainsaw is around 2000W; it could not run that. Nor could you plug in a kettle, which may be anywhere from 1500W to 3000W.

This is only half the picture though; the other half is how long it’ll stay powered for. To find this out, divide the total capacity in Watt-hours (Wh), and divide by the total power being drawn (in watts). This will give you a number of hours. So a 100W freezer, from a full 1500Wh charge, would last 15 hours.

We tested the stated capacity of the Bluetti with a total 750W load, consisting of a plasma TV, gaming PC, lamp, and dehumidifier. Sure enough, it lasted around the two-hour mark, as would be expected.

That’s a lot of stuff plugged into the Bluetti!

Taking it to the extreme, an average smartphone battery is 10Wh. If you fully discharged your smartphone and used the Bluetti to charge it up, you could survive for roughly six months.

Should You Buy a Maxoak Bluetti EB150?

The Maxoak Bluetti provides more than enough power for most people and at a sensible price point. You’ll find models from competitors with a higher peak output, even if they don’t have a greater total capacity; these will cost more, but perhaps your specific use-case demands that. You’ll also find models that can charge faster, which might be more suitable if you want more solar panels, or the ability to charge from the grid in only a few hours. But again, those will either be more expensive or compromised elsewhere. The Maxoak Bluetti is a good all-rounder for most people.

The package doesn’t include solar panels, but that’s probably a good thing–it’ll be much cheaper for you to source them locally, or used. There’s no need to buy perfectly new panels or with a brand name attached, they are much the same and have a longer life span than batteries. While you could just charge the Bluetti from an AC outlet, you’ll be a lot safer should anything bad happen if you have a permanently free source of energy.

Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Buy Now On Amazon $1,399.99

If you do need even more capacity, Maxoak have you covered there too. The EB240 stores a whopping 2400Wh of power. The continuous and peak rating are the same, but it’ll last longer. If you’re powering critical medical equipment, it’s a good idea to buy the largest battery you can afford.

I wish we didn’t have to recommend a backup power generator at all if I’m completely honest. It’s a lot of money to spend on something you should hopefully never need. But I think we’re all coming to the realization that we have a very fragile existence. Please don’t let the next major catastrophe catch you unaware: build resilience into every aspect of your life. What would you do if faced with a week-long power cut?

Money Off Coupons for the Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh

We’ve secured some coupons to make the Bluetti even more affordable.

US readers: Maxoak Bluetti EB150 on Amazon US. Use the code “bluetti1500” at checkout for $140 off; combine with the voucher that can be applied on the Amazon page for a total of $290 off. The EB240 model currently has a promotion for $390 off the purchase price of $2000 (no coupon code needed).

UK readers: Poweroak EB150 on Amazon UK. Use the code “IBQWIGRI” for a £70 discount; combine with the £130 voucher that can be applied on the Amazon page for a total of £200 off.

We also have one Maxoak Bluetti EB150 to give away to one lucky reader! Enter below, but please note this competition is open to US residents only.

Enter the Competition!

Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Solar Generator

Read the full article: Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Backup Solar Generator Review: Be Ready for Anything

Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Backup Solar Generator Review: Be Ready for Anything posted first on grassroutespage.blogspot.com

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droneseco · 4 years

Text

Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Backup Solar Generator Review: Be Ready for Anything

Design and Specifications

Inputs: AC adapter or solar (16-60V 10A), 9mm DC connector

Output: 2 x AC sockets, 4 x 2.1A 5V USB ports, 1 x 45W PD USB-C, 1 x 12V 9A car port

Total Capacity: 1500Wh

Maximum Output: 1000W continuous, 1200 peak

Battery Technology: Lithium-ion

Charge time: AC 10 hours, solar variable (minimum 4 hours)

The Bluetti will easily withstand the odd zombie or animal attack

Also, as a large lithium-ion battery, you shouldn’t attempt to pierce it, as that may result in a fire. So keep it away from bullets or crossbow bolts, too.

The AC sockets are located at the rear, with everything else around the front.

Two AC sockets around the back (this is the UK model; the US model has 3-pin 110V sockets)

4 x USB-A ports, 1 x USB-C PD port, and a car socket provide plenty of DC output options for all your devices

How is This a “Solar Generator”?

Built-in to the Bluetti is an MPPT charge controller; these are superior to the older style PWM, particularly on cloudy days, as they’re able to balance the conversion to get a greater charge.

The Bluetti includes overcharge protection, meaning that once the battery is full, it won’t continue charging and explode. That’s always a good thing.

Charging from AC

Discharging: What Can It Run?

In real terms, what does 1000W look like?

That’s a lot of stuff plugged into the Bluetti!

Taking it to the extreme, an average smartphone battery is 10Wh. If you fully discharged your smartphone and used the Bluetti to charge it up, you could survive for roughly six months.

Should You Buy a Maxoak Bluetti EB150?

Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Buy Now On Amazon $1,399.99

Money Off Coupons for the Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh

We’ve secured some coupons to make the Bluetti even more affordable.

UK readers: Poweroak EB150 on Amazon UK. Use the code “IBQWIGRI” for a £70 discount; combine with the £130 voucher that can be applied on the Amazon page for a total of £200 off.

We also have one Maxoak Bluetti EB150 to give away to one lucky reader! Enter below, but please note this competition is open to US residents only.

Enter the Competition!

Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Solar Generator

Read the full article: Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Backup Solar Generator Review: Be Ready for Anything

Maxoak Bluetti 1500Wh Backup Solar Generator Review: Be Ready for Anything published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

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