Ukrainian blackout Experience: Life and Work of a Web Developer
In October 2022, Khuylo* gave the order to “plunge Ukraine into darkness” — and the orcs began to carry it out.
Since then, the occupier’s army has launched 15 massive missile attacks and 18 drone strikes against Ukraine’s energy facilities.
The occupiers fired more than 1,200 missiles and drones in total, and 250 of them hit their targets. That’s why we will endure every Ukrainian blackout, because the most important thing is people and their mutual support. That’s how the hardest winter in Ukraine’s history so far began…
How Ukrainians Adapted to Life Without Power
Will Khuylo achieve his goals and force Ukrainians to capitulate?
Look at the preview of this publication and you’ll know the answer.
This is Kyiv during the blackout. No traffic lights, no streetlights, in winter driving is very hard — but look again at the organized traffic flow.
The same happens all across the country. People help each other — and that’s the most important thing.
Restaurants, cafes, and shops installed generators, and they let people charge their phones or laptops for free.
In addition, every city set up special tents — where people can charge their phones, get Wi-Fi, drink hot tea or coffee, and even receive clothes.
Ukrainian Blackout and the Challenges for a Web Developer
As for me — at that time I had already bought a gasoline generator. Also, besides my main PC, I had a laptop.
So I could work for a few hours without electricity, but it wasn’t comfortable or productive work…
The drawback of the generator — it’s noisy and consumes a lot of gasoline, so 1 hour of work turns out very expensive.
The drawback of the laptop — it has a small screen, and only one. Any developer will tell you that for productive work you need 2 monitors.
I connected an external monitor to the laptop and worked in the mode “one small screen, one normal screen.”
Better than just 1 small laptop monitor, but worse than 2 full-size monitors.
Currently, 43% of Ukraine’s main power grid facilities are damaged. Almost every TPP of our country was hit, all major thermal power plants were damaged. Power is available for 2 hours, then off for 2 hours.
Finding Solutions
So we need to think about additional options to increase our autonomy. That’s why I decided to buy a power station.
On YouTube there are many reviews and comparisons, but you must understand — this is Ukraine, so such things are in deficit.
I talked with one of my current clients, he understood my situation and agreed to give me part of the payment in advance.
After that, I bought myself an EcoFlow RIVER Pro power station in Poland. It allowed me to work about 3 hours on my PC with two full-size monitors.
Thus, my total autonomy (considering PC + laptop) is about 5 hours. In the mode “2 hours with electricity, 2 hours without” — that’s more than one working day.
And the weather also helps us. The winter was quite warm, with very few truly frosty days. Such abnormally warm winters happen once in 20–30 years.
But the most important thing is not the weather and not the equipment. The most important thing is people and their mutual support.
That’s why we will endure every Ukrainian blackout, because the most important thing is people and their mutual support.. And Khuylo will go the same way as the ruZZian warship.
* Khuylo — the most famous nickname of the russian dictator. Wikipedia