Most effective defense constructions in Die2Nite

So far, I know of the following:

• Water. This only works once per day.
• Food. This only works once per day. (Note, that some food, such as a Meaty Bone can cause an Infection which could get you killed!)
• Drugs. Most drugs will restore AP to full, however, while under the influence, your forum posts will be affected, and there is a chance of addiction. Once you are addicted, if you do not take drugs every day, you will die.
• Alcohol. This only works once per day. Drinking will refill your AP gauge, but it will inhibit your ability to perform some tasks, including searching, combat, and posting to the forum. The day after drinking, you will be hungover and unable to consume alcohol.
• EMS System. This can only be used if you are not injured. Consumes 1 Battery, restores AP to 5, and instantly injures you.
• Dice. Can be used once per day, small chance to restore 1 AP via scales and triples.
• Cards. Can be used once per day, small chance to restore 1 AP via aces and queen of hearts, smaller chance of terrifying you.
• Siesta Time™ (hero only). The basic version of this house improvement gives you a daily 33% chance of recovering 2 AP per day.

• Do you need APs to kill zombies with them? No. Caveat: There are town-based weapons that require AP to fire out of the town,but personal weapons are fired at no AP cost.

• How many zombies can you kill with one? It varies; some 1 only, some more than one. I think there is a random element with some weapons.

• How do weapons differ from each other? I think each have a probability of a successful attack, a probability of failing/breaking and a quasi-random element of damage (i.e. you may kill more or less Zs with similar attacks)

• Which weapons are effective, and which should I ignore? The $64k question. The most devastating weapons costs more in terms of resources - resources that may be better used elsewhere. In my limited experienced, the weapons are fairly well-balanced - I haven't discovered a preferred weapon yet.

• What are the risks of attacking zombies with weapons? There is a very serious risk that one or more zombies will get hurt! In reality, you won't used weapons until as a last resort when you are trapped. I've never been injured while attacking with a weapon, but I imagine it is possible with certain weapons, but unlike hand-to-hand, I suspect the probability is very low.