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Use your laptop to boil water - during a power cut?

NewsWireless returns to normal today, after the disruption of flooding in our Cheltenham offices, and we're grateful for assurances that electricity won't be switched off. Being laptop-based, our staff were reckoning on having only three hours of power when the mains went dead.

In these circumstances, the main concern wasn't the Internet connection, but the water supply. Plenty of water available!  only, it's pretty dirty.

The solution to the problem is technically simple: get a portable water-maker. Only $700-$800 for the hand-operated one above, which will process two pints per hour.

Pragmatically, there are easier ways of doing it. You start by collecting  flood water using a watering can or kettle. That allows you to use the spout. Push it under the surface, and you'll avoid skimming all the surface muck off the water. Fill a BIG bucket with this.

The trick then is to wait until all the mud settles to the bottom. You could try filtering it through coffee filters, but don't bother; you'll waste dozens of paper filters because this very fine mud clogs the pores of the paper in seconds. Wait till it looks mostly clear.

At this point, use the coffee filter. If you have a catalytic filter, you can use it, but I'd still wait till after the paper filter has done its job. Then, the catalyst will take most heavy metal salts out of the water. And at this point, you can fill the kettle, and boil it, to kill any biologically active nasties.

Have to say, all the pompous "boil your water first" advice on telelvision pronounced by local busy-bodies in the same sentence as they explained that power supplies had been cut off... joined-up thinking? Were they expecting us to boil the water on candles?

Not every home has gas, kids!