Category: Home Power

Letter Re: AVGAS as an Alternative Source of Gasoline During Spot Shortages

James, I’m sort of reluctant to share this because, well, I might need to do it someday and its value is in the fact that most people don’t know it. During Hurricane Ike my uncle, who lives in Houston, acquired use of a generator. That’s an interesting story in itself so I’ll divert for a second and elaborate: He didn’t own a generator but his next door neighbor did. Unfortunately, the neighbor had never run the generator and when they needed it, it wouldn’t start. My uncle is a trained mechanic (former career) and was able to fix it. In …


Letter Re: My Hurricane Ike Experience

Dear Mr. Rawles, First of all, my heart goes out to all those who truly suffered with loss of life or property as a result of Hurricane Ike. I only had the minor inconvenience of being without electricity in Houston for five days. (There are still over one million in Houston and the surrounding area without power.) So I had a taste of what it is like to be off-grid and learned a few things to share with your readers. It seems a lot of people here had generators which burn lots of precious gasoline. But after a few days …


Letter Re: Tropical Storm Ike’s Devastation Works its Way North to Ohio

Hi Jim, We live in Columbus, Ohio and had 76 m.p.h. winds on Sunday. We have been without power until late today. Our neighborhood looks like a war zone. Many trees on homes and in yards. There is some good news in that we shared our generator with neighbors. Others in the neighborhood were doing the same. Some of the kids set up a barbeque stand and were selling hot dogs and hamburgers for cost. This helped many to have meals. Everyone helped to clear trees and limbs from the roads and yards. Schools are still closed for Wednesday and …


Letter Re: Tropical Storm Ike’s Devastation Works its Way North to Ohio

Hi James! I heard you this morning on WLW [in Cincinnati, Ohio] radio when you did your quick interview. Nice job. It is amazing here in Cincinnati the level of chaos that exists. The power is still out to over half a million people. My power just came back on about 10 minutes ago, but I’m waiting until it stabilizes before shutting down my emergency power system. We had quite a mess with lots of downed trees and power lines, but overall it wasn’t as bad as Houston – thank God! There has been quite a run on gasoline, and …


Letter Re: Generating Photovoltaic Power When Grid Power is Available

Jim: I agree completely with your comment that [photovoltaic] solar systems should not be grid-tied to run the meter backward [to isolate the photovoltaic system from potentially devastating coupled electromagnetic pulse (EMP).] When the grid is available to home or retreat, I believe it is worth connecting. It is the easiest way to deal with barns, 220 volt tools and wells, but some thought to solar wiring can go a long way. Many custom homes and retreats were built with home-run wiring before the price of wire jumped so high. A number of these homes and retreats can be solar-controlled …


Letter Re: Build it Yourself Farm and Homestead Equipment

Mr Rawles While looking for plans and ideas for a new outbuilding for my home. I found this little gem solid information buried deep in the Countyplans.com web site. It has probably has around 150 plans to build everything from a Turret Lathe and Mill to Cement Mixers and Tractor Scoop Loaders. This stuff is in PDF format, download able and free. The plans are reprints from old do it yourself magazines and are past copyright so there isn’t any legal issues with the downloads Now a lot of these equipment plans would not pass the government’s current nurf world …


Hurricane Iniki – Some Lessons Learned, by B.

Hurricane Iniki, which struck the island of Kauai on September 11, 1992, was the third-most damaging hurricane in U.S. history and provides some valuable insights into how people react when an entire self-contained community loses most of their creature comforts. By way of background, Kauai is the fourth largest island in the Hawaiian Archipelago. It, along with a small, privately-owned island off its western coast make up the County of Kauai. The population in 1992 was about 50,000. On September 11, 1992, Hurricane Iniki made a direct hit on the island with winds upward of 150 miles per hour. Approximately …


Letter Re: Advice on Photovoltaic Power Systems

Greetings! I’m a long time reader, first time writer. I have been interested in “off-grid” photovoltaic power systems as a way to generate power should the grid go down. I’m pretty well versed on electricity and concepts, but what name brands would you recommend for the main components (panels, charge controller, batteries and inverter)? Though I have heard of things like Trace, Xantrex, gel battery and pure sine wave, my practical knowledge is limited. I apologize if this has been covered before – point me in the right direction and I’ll check the archives. Also, have you ever heard of …


Letter Re: Low RPM Diesel Generator Availability

Dear James – Thanks for the great article link on “growing fuel” and thanks again for all the information at SurvivalBlog! Low speed diesels [that were recently mentioned in the blog] such as the Lister and Listeroid clones are fantastic, but sadly that ship has sailed. The anemic dollar, high metal prices, rising shipping costs and the hassle of US Customs have pretty much halted importation. Also, word is that [the US] EPA will soon (if they haven’t already) re-block importation of these marvels because they don’t meet emissions requirements for stationary engines. As to that, Listeroids are extremely efficient …


Letter Re: Advice on a Mini Photovoltaic Battery Charging System

Hi Mr. Rawles, I had a question about the article titled Letter Re: For Want of a Battery. In it you said to connect the Northern Tool & Equipment Solar-Powered Trickle Charger — 5 Watt Item # 339973, with this battery pack . How does the panel connect to the battery pack? And does your recommended Accupower AccuManager 20 Battery Charger (a battery charger for AA, AAA, C, D, and 9 volt rechargeable batteries connect to the 12 volt battery pack via the cigarette lighter plug? Also, could you please tell me how many AA batteries you could charge from …


After 10 Years–Some Observations and Lessons Learned by a Y2K-Era Prepper

It was June, 1998. Y2K was a salient topic of conversation. It got my attention. When the electricity went off and there would be no water to drink, and no fuel to move food to the JIT grocery stores, I could see things getting very ugly. I had been willing to fight for this nation as a member of the US Army. Now it was time to fight for my household. I bought a Springfield Armory M1A. I bought a safe to store it in. I bought another M1A (for the spousal unit of course!) I bought ammo. Lots of …



Some Preparedness Implications of Rapidly Escalating Fuel Prices

The recent jump in fuel prices are going to have some far reaching effects on our economy. There is speculation that crude oil may soon spike to $150 to $170 per barrel. As prepared individuals, we need to adapt our plans, accordingly. It is noteworthy that many of us long hence foresaw these dark days, and installed underground fuel tanks, bought alternate fuel vehicles, multi-fuel generators, and at least one vehicle just for the sake of fuel economy. (If you look at the Retreat Owner Profiles–most of which were written in late 2005 and early 2006–you will see a remarkable …


Letter Re: For Want of a Battery

Mr. Rawles: I was working through my “List of Lists” yesterday, and a thought struck me like a lightning bolt: Without batteries–lots of rechargeable batteries–I’m hosed. There are so many items that I’ll depend on in an emergency that need batteries: My weather radio, Kenwood MURS handhelds (thanks for that suggestion, BTW), starlight scope, and my flashlights. (And thanks also for your suggestion of IR [flashlight] filters). Without [those battery-powered items as] “force multipliers”, I’d be at huge disadvantage to looters, who could be wandering the countryside in droves, if and when it all hits the fan. So, with that …


Two Letters Re: Advice on Backup Power for a Ranch in Western Canada

Hi Jim, Regarding the Canadian who was wondering about wind power versus diesel. The Windmill is a good idea if he uses an Amateur Radio “Crankover” type tower, better than the crank up towers [usually sold for small] windmills. However, there is a caveat: If [the reader in Canada] goes with wind power, then have a spare. If he can [afford to] put up two windmills, then buy three, when he buys them[, which will provide one as a spare]. Even a bird hit on a reasonably modern power generating windmill will cause mucho damage. Just my humble opinion. I …