Category: Home Power

Letter Re: Inverters for Disaster Preparedness

Jim: There have been several recent articles on UPS systems and inverters. Most of the current inverters use MOSFETs or similar sensitive solid state switching devices. These are the hardest stressed components of the inverter. Spares should be a consideration. In addition many modern inverters use custom chips that may not even be available now, so not at all after TEOTWAWKI. Consider this, inverters have been around for quite along time. The best design that I have worked with and designed circuitry for is the McMurray-Bedford inverter. It is a simple design that originally used thyratron tubes and later, SCRs. …


Letter Re: The Little Things

This experience was thought-provoking, and many of D.M.L.’s ideas were interesting.  But there were two ideas that have not been tested or proven, so at this point they are only ideas.  First, J-B Weldwill not repair a cracked Briggs & Stratton two piece fuel tank.  They are made of black HDPE, and there is no proper glue for that.  I have personal experience with this.  HDPE is heat welded when two pieces must be joined.  You have to determine your Briggs & Stratton model number and order a replacement gas tank from Amazon.com.  I got mine for my Briggs & …


The Little Things, by D.M.L.

So, you think you’re prepared? So did I. Until Hurricane Irene destroyed the infrastructure around here. The roads were blocked to all the local towns, all three routes out of here. If it wasn’t trees down, it was flooded, or power lines and poles leaned over the road in the ‘maybe’ zone (maybe you would hit them and maybe not, but why take a chance on thousands of volts? If not those, it was pieces of somebody’s house across the road. And this was only a Cat 1 storm? Sigh.   Before she hit, I, being confident that we were ‘prepped up’, …


Two Letters Re: Hurricane Irene Lessons Learned

Jim, I thought I’d share with you some thoughts and experience I’ve had with Hurricane [later Tropical Storm] Irene. I live in southwest Connecticut in a city slightly less than 100,000 population.  We are about 50-65 miles from New York City. As of this evening, I am still running my generator five days after being hit by Tropical Storm Irene on Saturday evening.  As of this evening, the power company said they will restore power “by middle of next week”.  If that ends up happening, we will be without power for around 10 days.  We shall see.  A few details …


Six Letters Re: Hurricane Irene Lessons Learned

Dear Mr. Rawles: We’ve been without power for 3-1/2 days and Internet even longer, so I’m late in writing, but I wanted to say that the grace of God and deep preps won the day, here as hurricane Irene blew through. When the power went out, we went to our generator, so we had water for ourselves and less prepared neighbors.  Those votive lights, the ones in the tall glass containers that often have saints’ picture on them were perfect for our windowless bathrooms, and they’re fairly cheap.  They burned safely almost the whole time and there’s still a day …


Letter Re: My Home Energy Backup System

James, The advice given by J.M. from Oklahoma regarding computer UPS systems could be dangerous if followed as cavalierly he/she laid out for charging and using batteries! UPS systems come in several flavors as it relates to how the batteries are used and charged. Using the wrong type or capacity of battery in a UPS system can lead to overcharging either through length of charge or how much power is sent during the charge cycle. This can cause batteries to swell, leak and explode! J.M. is correct that UPS systems are often disposed of because the batteries have gone dead …


Five Letters Re: My Home Energy Backup System

Sir: As a solar power contractor/installer, I can tell you that David L.’s power plan is a solid one. One thing he left out was the 30% Federal Tax Credit (not just a deduction) offered against the cost of residential renewable energy systems, including of course solar. A synopsis of the Federal tax credit as well as all available state credits (some huge) is online at the Database of State Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE). Also, Eco Business Links keeps an updated listing of the lowest available prices on solar panels, inverters, and both on and off grid systems.  230 Watt panels like David used …


Four Letters Re: Hurricane Irene Lessons Learned

Mr. Rawles, I am in northwest N.J. I wasn’t affected as badly by the hurricane as others were, but I did learn a few lessons about my preparedness. 1. Inspect your gear on a regular basis. I live on a dead-end street, and the road goes over a country stream, which flows underneath through a 2-foot culvert with a paved berm built over the top of it. Yesterday, that country stream became a 40-foot wide river about 10 inches deep and flowing rapidly over the road surface. To get across that, I got out my waders — and discovered that …


Letter Re: Converting Body Motion and Heat Into Electricity

Jim: The piece that you linked to was simply copied from GizMag. (They did so with credit, as if that makes it okay.) It looks like volumatrixgroup.com is one of those sites that uses stolen blog posts to get hits for ads. The technology itself is a scam under a thin veneer of science. Their “20W” figure is about three orders of magnitude too high, for one thing. That figure describes all of the energy losses in walking, including the energy losses inside muscles and joints and the energy that goes into warming the surface under the shoe. The part that …


My Home Energy Backup System, by David L.

Introduction My home energy backup system was originally conceived to make a little bit of power for a very long time.  Rather than backing up the whole house with a generator for a relatively short power outage of just a few hours or days, I wanted a system that would function in an extended power “grid down” scenario.  I was working from the self declared principle that when the grid is down at night, a single light bulb makes a huge difference in how you feel.  In addition, I wanted to preserve critical refrigeration and freezer functions indefinitely. So why …


One Big BOV, by KC-4-JC

In my prepping, one of the hardest things for me currently was the bug out vehicle (BOV), so as with any prepping activity I made my list. I first made my list for a “normal” BOV; 4×4, diesel, four doors, trailer hitch front and back, winch front and back, spare rims and tires, and enough storage for our stuff. Since we currently do not have a retreat location, we would have to be able to carry a large amount of supplies and equipment to the location we will be hunkering down at. Continuing the thought process I decided we would …


Letter Re: Hurricane Preparedness Steps

Jim: Now is the time for those in the Southeastern United States to check their preparations for hurricanes.  Below is a list of steps I go through anytime there is a hint of a potential storm.  These steps were derived from past experiences and lessons I have learned from other Survivalblog.com posts.  I do this prep so as not to get caught up in panicked crowds on the days immediately preceding the storm.  Should the storm not hit me directly I consider this prepping chance to practice and shore up my supplies. 7 Days Out 1)    Water (1 or 5 …


SHTF Electricity Basics, by M.N.

Most of us are accustomed to having safe, easy, instant access to electricity. After a disaster electrical power is low on the hierarchy of needs.  On the other hand, avoiding electricity may become a priority.  Damp clothes and wet, lacerated skin make us much more vulnerable to electrocution.  By definition, improvised or post disaster grid power won’t be as safe as we’re used to today.   After a disaster, electricity becomes an elemental threat that can kill you dead if you miscalculate. If you’re lucky enough to be able to prepare a bastion with solar and generator power, do a good …


Letter Re: Making Good Use of the Hissing Well

Mr. Rawles, A s a distributor of oil and gas parts, it warmed my heart to read R.J.’s article. I would note a couple of things, however. First, when you reduce the pressure of gas you also reduce its temperature. In the aforementioned case, that pressure reduction would drop the temperature by around 10 degrees F. Ordinarily this isn’t a problem, but in the winter an already-cold regulator could seize or internal parts could break. With higher pressures, the problem becomes much more significant. To solve this problem, most installers would use two regulators with some pipe between them. Each …


Making Good Use of the Hissing Well, by R.J.

When shopping for our retreat property a few years ago our family was looking for something that could sustain several families besides our own and have as many features common to a retreat that most readers would recognize as desirable for TEOTWAWKI.  Water, security, location, population, soil, and local wildlife (four and two legged) were all things we were concerned with.  When we came across our current retreat property we were shown what was supposed to be a 400 foot deep, 10 Gallon Per Minute (GPM) well.  Luckily we were serious and bought a new pump and had a well …