This adventure begins with a windstorm after which it took crews days to repair the severely damaged power lines. At that time we had been using a pair of old end-of-life batteries rescued from a Cummins diesel pickup truck connected to a conventional marine battery charger as our backup power. We waited all day as our freezer continued operations, powered by these old batteries. Towards dusk, I finally dragged out the generator to power the rest. Surely, there was a better way. That summer, I finally made it a priority to get solar panels installed up on the roof and the batteries upgraded.
We now have choices. Some of the backup power systems available these days involve slick turn-key solutions which neatly integrate all of the main components into a single opaque package that even the less adept user can manage. Some such systems are even available with solar panels already mounted on a trailer base in case one sets up camp away from the primary residence.
While package systems are generally good and helpful to achieve a noble end, they do not facilitate understanding which would at times be most helpful. Moreover, they tend to be exceedingly high tech, expensive and highly controlled by proprietary interests. For this reason, my focus is to round out knowledge dealing with modular components, so as to nurture a fundamental understanding that will be useful in a longer-term stuff-hits-the-fan (SHTF) event.Continue reading“Weather the Storm with Backup Power – Part 1, by E.R”
