Category: Home Power

Alternative Power Systems: An Update, by David J.

A couple years back I wrote a piece for SurvivalBlog about alternative energy in the suburbs.  I described a strategy for dealing with a potentially prolonged blackout in suburbia.  Essentially the plan is to keep a low profile, by camping in my grid tied, stick built, difficult to defend home.  This was accomplished by shrinking our energy footprint by using a well-insulated basement, propane heat and small scale solar to primarily power DC appliances.  The article is still available in the SurvivalBlog archives.   It is a sound strategy, well within the reach of most suburbanites and could keep many people …


Tips on Selecting and Operating a Generator, by Gary D.

Those of us who plan on “bugging in” during  upcoming times of uncertainty realize the need to plan for possible extended power shortages or blackouts. These preparations can range from a total separation from anything electrical or electronic to a series of sophisticated alternate power sources designed to completely power a survival location up to pre-blackout levels.  Based on the questions frequently asked by members of the survivalist community in numerous forums, the most common item of interest for the temporary generation of power for daily living seems to be the portable generator. Some of the most frequently asked questions …


From The Mountains of New York, by M.D.L.

In this, the third installment of the chronicles of my preparedness journey (#1 The Secret Prepper and #2 Selecting a Retreat), I hope to share with you the improvements I have made in my retreat home. I have found in the last couple of months that owning a second home is a monstrous headache.  If you only own one home just imagine everything that can go wrong and multiply it by a factor of two to the exponent of Murphy’s Law.  Or worse… my liquid asset value has fallen victim to the inverse square law: The amount of money I …


Letter Re: House Window Blackout Materials

James, I heard you in your recent interview on the SGT Report podcast talking about [the need for] interior blackout material [to stop light from escaping windows when the power grid is down.]    What is the name of the material and tape and where can I purchase it? Thanks, Paul Z. JWR Replies: You will find the information you need in these archived discussions in SurvivalBlog. Also see this theatrical supply company, and specifically this blackout fabric and this blackout tape.


Four Letters Re: Natural Gas Powered Generators in a Disaster–Their Compressors, and Yours

Captain Rawles, I saw the disagreement from the former natural gas industry gent located in Texas about your grid assertions as they relate to potential natural gas outages. Two years ago in Northern New Mexico there was a multi-day natural gas outage to 30,000 homes and it was due to precautionary measures from Texas, caused by rolling blackouts.  New Mexico made the decision to keep the population centers pressurized since it would be more difficult to get the pressure back up in those areas compared to the smaller yet more remote pipelines in the northern part of the state.  I …


Three Letters Re: Natural Gas Powered Generators in a Disaster–Their Compressors, and Yours

JWR, Thank you for letting your readers know about [public utility] natural gas system compressor stations. I, for one, was was blissfully ignorant about them, and had just assumed that natural gas was “always on.” So, now knowing that, I can now see that a tri-fuel generator that can quickly be changed to propane or gasoline would be best. Thanks also for mentioning the capacity limits of generators. That I was aware of, but I hadn’t ever looked at the specs on my GE refrigerator/freezer. Now I can see that I need to do a “load budget”, to determine what …


Letter Re: Natural Gas Powered Generators in a Disaster–Their Compressors, and Yours

James, Thanks for the information you deliver every day. I have recently gone on Social Security Disability and have some money to further our preps. My wife and I will hunker down in place, that being said, we have done what we can to make this as easy as possible. We can heat our home without electricity, but still need a solution for limited electric needs in the event of power outage. We are looking at the Honda EU2000i portable generator with the multi-fuel upgrade. In our years here we have never lost our natural gas supply, but have often …


Letter Re: Some Off-Grid Living Techniques

Mr. Rawles, Thank you for a great blog site.  I’d like to share some techniques we use every day at our off-grid homestead that would be applicable for grid-down living With 280 watts of solar panels in the southern plains, a good Xantrex controller, three marine deep-cycle batteries and an inverter we power a 9 cubic foot freezer-turned-refrigerator fitted with an analog temperature controller, a portable dvd player used nightly for movies and documentaries, 1 to 3 small fans in summer, a netbook computer, and a couple of compact fluorescent lights along with charging cell phones and cordless tools and …


Stuff Hitting the Fan: A Position Paper – Part 3, by R.L.

(Level II Scenario, continued) Utilities For me, a 1,000 Gigawatt generator is not needed. Just 12 volt deep cycle storage batteries and a photovoltaic panel to charge them up, along with with a homemade generator from a lawnmower engine fan belted to a Chevrolet car alternator will be enough to power some communication electronics and spot lighting.  Deep cycle batteries are preferable to regular 12 V car batteries as they last much longer, but car batteries will certainly do in a pinch.  Incandescent lights need more power than fluorescents which need more than white LED arrays. Do some experimenting.  Another …


Water: PV-Powered Water Pumping and Storage, by A. Haggard H. Rider

All sources of preparedness information stress the importance of water. Without water everything else is put at risk. You cannot drink bullets, beans do not have a lot of moisture and sucking on a bandage will not help. The ideal situation is to have some form of safe running water on your property. But what if you don’t? Hopefully you have a well, but if your electric goes out your pump will not work. A hand pump will work, but it takes a lot of energy to get that water, and then you have the situation of Operational Security (OPSEC) …


Letter Re: Don’t Forget the Fuses

For  those of you planning on bugging out with a knife and a backpack when the SHTF, read no further because nothing in this article will be of value to you. For those of us who, for one reason or another, have to plan on bugging in, this might serve as a reminder to stock some cheap but necessary items that you may not have considered. Judging by the number of survival threads and articles that I have read, a number of us plan on maintaining, if possible, some sort of energy source should EMP, flood, hurricane, terrorist act or …


Letter Re: Coping with Obstructive Sleep Apnea When There is No Grid Power

Mr. Rawles – I have been living with a CPAP for many years now, and am one of the persons for whom it has worked very well. I also know how bad things can be after not having my CPAP for three days when an airline lost it. After three days I was almost totally non-functional and was ready to lay out the $2,000 out of my own pocket to get a replacement machine. Fortunately my machine was found by the airline. More recently I had 3 nights in 2 months where power outages deprived me of the use of …


Letter Re: Stealth Wood Cutting and Splitting with Electric Tools

James, I wanted offer some praise to J.J.S. and is thorough submission titled Heating with Wood 101. I’m following his lead and wanted to offer your readers some additional ideas on wood processing with some stealth after TSHTF. Running a 50cc chainsaw and a 34-ton log splitter is all fine and dandy when there’s no one around meaning to do you any harm but its completely inappropriate in a TEOTWAWKI situation. If you are lucky enough to have a renewable energy source its advisable to switch to electrical tools because they are so quiet. Either of the big box stores …


Letter Re: Low-Budget Photovotaically Charged Drill Batteries

Dear Mr Rawles, This letter is in response to the piece on using photovoltaics to charge batteries by C.K.. I feel I should spend some time discussing some potential problems with charging Lithium Ion (“Li-ion”) batteries the way C.K. proposes. However first a few general notes. – I am all for scavenging if you know what you are doing like some of us. But ‘newbies’ are better off not trying to disassemble anything more complicated than a desktop power supply for safety reasons as JWR pointed out. I should add that the process that causes the ‘bounce’ after discharge also …


Low-Budget Photovotaically Charged Drill Batteries, by C.K.

I’d like to discuss some practical aspects of power tools. Some posts in the past have been mentioned about them but I am going to discuss making solar power tools. And not just buying the pieces and making them (which you could do if you wanted) but actually making them from salvaged “junk”.   I’ll be the first to admit that while I love and own all types of traditional (non-electric) hand tools, using them does take considerably longer and more effort than the powered ones. (Not surprisingly).   My background is that of a professional tinkerer, and a trained …