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1. I have found retrofitting your generator with a automotive muffler, placing the generator on a thick rubber mat, think Horse Stall Mat for vibration reduction and placing a straw bale wall (well AWAY from the heat of the Generator) will do much to muffle a noisy generator. A well built INSULATED generator shed is also useful.

   However useful a generator is IF it draws Dangerous Pests is it worth it?

   Solar’s main disadvantage is it’s Visual Signature. Every morning I can see a flash from across the valley as a neighbors solar array becomes for a moment a mirror to the rising sun. Far better than the constant loud drone of a generator giving even city folks something to follow through our scary NH Woods (Bears, man, BEARS) but something to ponder.

   Also I am concerned given the Burn Loot Murder type folks intent to destroy things. A few pot shots at a large solar panel array is perhaps an attractive target?

   Personally I plan to go dark until the smoke clears if the grid goes down. Portable Solar Panels can be deployed carefully to keep enough batteries charged for the critical refrigeration, water pumping needs. Also those panels are the same voltage as my main panels so they can replace damaged panels.

2. I highly doubt the mobs we see in the city will leave the city any further than the suburbs. However out here in rural America the local criminal element will be looking for whatever they can steal. More than normal. We might see them even doing home invasions. Depends on how bad things get. I am hopeful things will turn around. All we need is Americans as a whole to wake up to what is going on and put the brakes on this BS. The log splitting addressed above is good info. After the last storm we are blessed with many cord of maple firewood to be processed. We are surrounded by camps used by city types, who unfortunately are too lazy to cut there own firewood and routinely steal what you have worked so hard for. We use a small barn to store ours which is now kept locked. When it was stacked outside it disappeared on weekends when people were up to their camps. It’d be nice to live where there were no thieves, but its everywhere, I’m afraid. Let’s hope it doesn’t get worse. But be prepared…

   1. Greg, you make a good and important point. The criminal element is everywhere. It’s easy to see it “out there” in the big cities, but we must also pay close attention to these same bad actors who are much closer to us in rural areas than we might imagine or want to believe. When we first had our home in a very rural place, the few people who were here slept with their doors unlocked. It was just that safe. People did not harm one another and there was no theft. The words “home invasion” were not part of anyone’s thoughts or vocabulary. We live in very, very different and much more dangerous times.

3. What a great article, Tractorguy! …and timely too. We are looking seriously into the question of solar power, and trying to prioritize our endeavors given our concerns about the Grand Solar Minimum, interaction of our sun with the approaching plasma sheet, and the increasing risk of a solar EMP or solar excursion. Your article has been tremendously helpful, and we thank you for sharing so much information with all of us!

4. Very good information , what you may not have in upper body strength …you make up well in brains. Stay safe and as others say, don’t be so sure of the bad element even in rural areas. Thanks again for the solar ideas.

5. Hey Tractorguy, thanks for this article, lots more good info I can use.

   Amen to what you said about night lights. My cabin only has a 600 square foot footprint with additional space in the loft, and one little night light (still 115v for now) pointed downward, gives me all the light I need at night if I’m checking on something. I have a second one in the bathroom and it’s all the light I need in there most nights. For an entire year, it only uses 1.46 kilowatts of electricity which comes to 11¢ per year. I’ll definitely be looking at how to hook up some 12v ones as you did and get some of the shop lights you mentioned.

   “Shortly thereafter, I was watching a liftgate truck unload at my job and the lightbulb went off in my head…”

   Don’t you love it when that happens? I don’t know how many times I’ve been working on a problem around the homestead and have had a particular problem that I just couldn’t come up with a satisfactory solution for. If I just let it ruminate for a couple of days or weeks, an answer will eventually pop into my head when I see something like you did with the lift gate. I had one of those “ah-ha!” moments while reading your article this morning so many thanks for that.

   For me, probably the biggest post-TEOTWAWKI problem as far as self-reliance goes, is how to cut firewood. It just not practical to go out with an axe, chop down a giant oak tree, cut it up with an axe and then split it so I’ve been picturing myself like those folks in third world countries carrying a big bundle of sticks on their head for firewood. If you have a few people to share the load, and using a big two-man crosscut saw, I can see it. But I had never thought about an electric chainsaw before. I never thought to really do any research on the, thinking they were just tiny ones for city folks to trim the occasional limb off the maple tree in the front yard. Your article just inspired me to google electric chainsaws this morning and I had no idea they were so cheap, that they came in 18″ models, and that some big name companies even make them. As cheap as they are, you could afford to buy five of them to have in your post-SHTF preps.

   Now I’ll do some serious research into electric chainsaws. If anyone has any recommendations, I’m all ears!

6. This is great information! Thank you for sharing.

   1. Check out Zombie electric chain saw

7. The Rise of Sol-Ark!! (Retrofitting Sol-Ark Inverter [EMP-proof] and New Batteries)
   (YouTube Video, 16:41)
   Engineer775
   Premiered Aug 27, 2020
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCpmtWcRePY

   In this installation video, we went to a previous customer’s property to update their solar system with different batteries and an EMP-proof inverter (the Sol-Ark 12k). Watch to see what all went into making this retrofit work!

8. funogag – I have an electric Ryobi chain saw with an 18″ bar. Unfortunately it is 120v/13A, but that gives it almost 2hp to work with and anything smaller then 36″ is pretty much toast. I have used it on live hickory 24″ in diameter and it went right through it. Also have a smaller(16″) Homelite that does a pretty good job on the smaller stuff.
   If you are thinking of battery powered tools I would recommend the Ridgid line as they as close to pro stuff as can be had. I own and use DeWalt, Ryobi, and Ridgid power tools and the batteries for the Ridgid are far superior to those on the others – as well as having a lifetime warranty.
   FWIW for everybody, Ryobi, Milwaukee, and Ridgid are by the same company.

   1. The saw would used 1560 Watts of power. Any decent inverter would provide this from your solar array. Easy to make a 12vdc extension cord, and then use a short 120 volt cord in at least 14 gauge wire to plug the saw into and you would be making little ones out of big ones in short moment.

9. Thank you for fine article.
   Iron sharpening iron.
   I use a 1500 watt modified sinewave inverter fixe to the back of the front seat of my farm truck. The battery has a 300 amp switch and fuse. I use this to run electric chain saws, pole saws for clearing brush etc.

10. For indoor LED lighting at night you can also buy those small solar powered yard lights that you see at Lowe’s and Home Depot. Charge them during the day, then bring them indoors at night. Doesn’t require any special wiring.

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