Category: Home Power

Being Prepared: A Tale of Two Hurricanes, by N.D.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita In August of 2005 Hurricane Katrina had slammed into the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi.  I really don’t need to tell you the destruction and subsequent aftermath of that storm as it is well documented for all to see.  We had lived in New Orleans for sixteen years and had moved to Houston five years prior to Katrina so were used to living in hurricane alley. We thought…. September of 2005, a month later, the Houston area was threatened by Hurricane Rita.  Rita was the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. The paranoia at the …


Three Letter Re: Using Tea Candles for Urban Low Light

Dear Sir,   I’ve been making “permanent” candles for years, using empty cat food cans, pipe cleaners, and store-bought paraffin wax. The cans are quite stable and, because of their volume, the wicks don’t “float” until they’ve been burning a long time. Rotating candles solves that problem. The wicks don’t burn up – they wick – unless you touch them and knock the built-up carbon off them. If that happens, you can easily repair them using lint from a clothes dryer – a good thing to have anyway. The candles must be fed to keep ‘em burning and to adjust …


The Backup Plan to a Backup Plan for Telecommuters, by Tamara W.

Assumption: “If it snows or storms, I can work from home and telecommute.”  Assumptions are not always correct. The major ice storms at the end of January and start of February 2011 prompted creating this plan for my husband and myself. (Or first backup plan was alternate transportation routes.) Lessons learned day by day: Day 1 When power goes out at the house, such as during the first day of the storm for about 6 hours, the only way you can work from home is by using precious generator  fuel or laptop batteries. Due to my husband’s higher pay rate, …


Letter Re: Prepping Paid Off in Midwest Snowstorms

JWR: As you know the Midwest experienced a large snow event this past Tuesday and Wed that left many people dealing with a large amount of snow and the associated problems that come with a large scale storm. I am fortunate that I was able to be safe with my family due to my preps however many were not as fortunate. This storm was predicted for several days and beginning as early as Sunday 1/30/11 the shelves at the local stores were getting thin. By Monday night there was large swaths of empty shelves and staples such as Bread and …


Earthships: Sustainable Living for TEOTWAWKI, by Sgt. P.

How much did the average home owner in the United States pay for utilities last month?  Last Year?  How much will they pay for utilities by the time they pay off their mortgage?  If they averaged $250 per month in utilities, which is below the national average of “$264.33 per month” (Statistic quoted by White Fence) the answer is shocking.  With the average home loan lasting 30 years, without taking into consideration rising costs, utilities would be $90,000!  For that amount of money this homeowner could put one child through a four year-degree at a very nice university.  What if …


Alternative Energy Sources For Emergencies, by Smiledr

Being in preparedness mode opens your eyes to a number of factors, not just Beans, Bullets and Band-Aids. As a battalion coordinator for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s CERT program, I was asked to give a presentation on Alternative Energy sources for an emergency situation. My research into this was very enlightening, and I found a number of great ideas. This does not encompass everything available, but it is fairly thorough. So, why Alternative Energy? In an emergency, such as a major earthquake, there can be a loss of power, gas and water. If it is a short-term problem e.g. …


Letter Re: The Downward Trend for PV Panel Prices

Jim, I’ve had the impression for some time now that from all the so-called alternative energy sources, photovoltaic (PV) panels appeared to be the only one capable of really having an impact on traditional fossil fuels. Years ago the lowest prices you would see for solar panels were about $4 per watt. Not long ago a batch of new startups entered the marketplace producing thin-film solar cells, which could be manufactured with far fewer materials and some of these companies (Nanosolar) claimed their cell production cost less than $1 per watt, which was a symbolic price point that represented competitiveness …


Letter Re: Minimizing Generator Noise

Hi Jim and readers, After reading C.J.’s piece mentioning the negative attention he got from generator noise. I recalled how we reduced that awful noise in Viet Nam. We built a sand bag wall up about four feet high making an enclosure large enough to work around the generator comfortably for servicing and over lapped the door with a sand bag return wall, This insured good noise discipline, and a better work environment. The enclosure also makes an good firing position. Modern generators are nowhere near as noisy as the old Army 1.5, 5, or 10 KW generators, but the …


Letter Re: One Man’s Approach to Preparedness

Sir: Just to let everyone know, I am new to the prepper lifestyle, and new to the kind of changes one must make in one’s life to begin saving as opposed to spending, or maybe a better way of saying it is to say “ changing what your spending your money on ”   where before it may have been a new dirt bike, man toy,   or flat screen television, now my extra cash (after my tithe and savings) is going to preparations.   My change in spending habits quickly brought about a realization , that some items that …


Preparedness: Asking the Right Questions, by Grace T.

In the last year my husband and I have been blessed to be able to sell our house and move to our bug out location (BOL) in the mountains.  It is a learning experience!  We have been watching the signs of these times.  It seemed prudent, for us, to prepare for emergencies – be they natural disasters or an economic meltdown.  About four years ago we began our journey to learn as much as we could and fumble our way through obtaining supplies and equipment to become self-sustaining.  What follows are lessons we have learned and questions we have asked …


Building a DIY Generator From Salvaged Parts, by David N. in Tennessee

I have long wanted my own generator, but a $500 and up price tag kept me from purchasing one new.  After some internet searching and sleepless nights I found a good tutorial online.  What I liked best about the tutorial is that Brian at epicenter has already worked out the kinks and sells the materials.  I have no connection with epicenter, and the only things I have bought from them were for this project, but what dealings I have had with them were fair and honest.              A co-worker gave me an older Craftsman brand lawnmower for this project. It …


Preparing for the Aftermath–Lessons from the 1930s, by J. E.

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It’s one or two years after an EMP attack and you are safely tucked away in your retreat somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  Your storage foods have mostly been used and your high tech electronics is useless.   The really bad stuff is mostly past.  Now it’s try to stay fed and alive and pray that civilization as you know it is coming back.  You’re going to have to work your environment to live.  Ever wonder what life might be like?  What would it really be like to have no running water, electricity, sewer, newspaper or Internet?  No supermarket or …


Letter Re: Low Power D.C. Lighting

Awhile back I put up several strings of same color strings of  LED Christmas tree lights from Inirgee. They have been just wonderful to deal with over the years. The blue strings work great in the outhouse at night because you don’t lose your night vision. Outside around the house, I tried the cool white but the warm white strings worked much better outside under the eaves. They make a very nice non-obtrusive lighting around the house at night and they are extremely conservative on power. They really make it nice on the driveway and walks. Then I found a …


Letter Re: Low Power D.C. Lighting

James Wesley; Vlad wrote at the end of his piece, “Wish I had a better closing line but it is getting late and I need to go dig up a potentiometer for this lamp.”  Unfortunately, that isn’t going to do a lot of good.  Because an LED is a diode (the D in LED) it is pretty much on or off.  Dimmable LEDs are usually dimmed via Pulse-width Modulation — essentially, turning the LED on and off very quickly.  This doesn’t harm the LED, but it needs a particular circuit to do it.  Reducing the voltage will dim it — …


Letter Re: A Firewood Sawing Reality Check

Hello Jim;   In reference to the recent letter on using a muscle-powered crosscut saw:   For about four years now, I’ve been doing much of my wood cutting with a DC to AC inverter (AIMS 5000) that I purchased for $299 back then – they are now listed at $399.  I hook it to a used deep cycle battery that was given to me by someone who works setting up remoted gas wells.  I throw the battery, inverter and either a Husqvarna electric chain saw (for deadfallen trees) or an old Skilsaw (for old pallets) in the van and go foraging for …