Mr. Rawles;
Given that even the smallest of windmills driving an automobile alternator can keep a 12 volt DC battery charged, and from that you can run a myriad of small devices, what is your opinion of Amazon’s Kindle [mobile book reading screen] for keeping all the documents you might need, like the entire archives of SurvivalBlog? Amazon is now offering “Version 2” [of Kindle] , which seems easier to load with personal documents. Is it worth it as a backup library, or is it too fragile? – Sandy W.
JWR Replies: Buying a shiny new Kindle for that purpose is like “putting all your eggs in one basket”. I would much rather put all my archived preparedness reference documents on multiple copies on CD-ROMs and then buy two or three used laptop computers with cosmetic defects. (The ongoing corporate layoffs in the US will surely mean that the market will soon be flooded with high quality used laptops for under $200 each, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some offered for under $100 each.) Store those laptops in 40mm ammo cans to help protect then from EMP. Redundancy is the key. One of my mottos is: “Two is one, and one is none.”
Here at the Rawles Ranch we recently obtained a Brunton Solarport 4.4 (4.4 Watt) compact photovoltaic (PV) panel for testing. These produce .29 amps (at 15 volts) in full sunlight, which is enough to charge flashlight batteries or a cellular phone, but not enough to power a laptop. (But up to three Brunton PowerPorts can be “daisy chained” together (in parallel) to provide additional current.) I consider the Brunton PowerPort a “micro” mobile solar power solution. A more practical “mini” at-home or RV power solution is to buy a 10 watt PV panel (such as those sold by Northern Tool & Equipment or comparable panel such as the and a portable automobile “jump pack” gel cell battery, (available at any local auto parts store, or from a variety of Internet vendors). By placing the PV panel inside a southern-facing window (indoors or inside a vehicle, to protect it from the elements) you can trickle charge a jump pack and easily get one hour of laptop use per day.