What happens if the lights never come back on? Part 2

(continued from Part 1)  How are we going to become as grid independent as we can? 

We are tripling our solar array.  We'll keep you updated as the project moves along.

As I mentioned in Part 1, we did have some inverter damage.  The first thing we are going to do is have a specialist come and test our inverters.  If we need to we will replace them. 

the second thing we will do is put in surge suppressors to prevent lightning damage again. 

All this type of equipment is becoming less expensive with time.  We found a reasonable source for a new inverter to replace the two old ones if we needed.  So we'll find out soon.

In the mean time, we purchased 14 - 280 watt panels that we have waiting to go up on the roof.  Our current panels are 16 panels at 110 watts each, so the new panels are not quite tripling our power output.

The new panels are much larger in size than the current panels so we are deciding how we are going to fit them all on our roof tops.  We may move the current panels to a different roof and put the new panels in their current location.

I'll have an upcoming post on how to calculate the size of a solar system.

And I'll add another post on how to live an off grid lifestyle.

Become an Expert

I am going to focus on small cooking stoves to illustrate the following point.

Become an expert on your preparedness plan.
What ever equipment you choose, you need to be very good with it. You need to be able to use it no matter what comes up in an emergency situation.

For instance in a "bug out" situation, say a wild fire drives you from your home, you may have to put up in a church or school until things resolve. How will you cook? You may be out in the weather only. What if high winds come up, or rain or hail? How will you cook? How will you keep your shelter/bedding dry?

You need to become an expert on your gear.

So to extend that idea into small cooking stoves, let's look at several types:
See the bottom of this post for image credits.

Which is best: Penny stove, Firelight stove, Aluminum Bottle Stove, Wood gasifier stove, super-cat stove, sterno stove, Rocket Stove, “Best Backpacking Cooking Setup Ever?”

Ok, so here is my experience with these:

The good news is most of them are home made so I didn’t put out a bunch of money. I have built most of these and in our garage or shop they all work great. Some burn longer than others, some are easier to light than others, some weigh less, some are more messy, etc.

BUT, when I tested several of these outside; far enough from my house that it was a pain to walk back for something I forgot, HUGE differences showed up. My first thoughts are:

#1 Where I live the wind blows. Period. So EFFECTIVE wind screens are vital.

Must have balance, Daniel-San

So, we want to strongly point out that the Chicken Little syndrome (The sky is falling, the sky is falling) has never done anyone any good. Going crazy over prepping is counterproductive.  Here are some examples:

I was in a leadership position in the eve of Y-2-K.  Nearly every week I had to endure people who were very up in arms about airplanes falling from the sky, the entire power grid failing beyond repair, people being locked out of all their money resources, etc.  (Actually I am more scared of some of those things today than I was back then.)

I knew those things weren't going to happen  BECAUSE I had worked in computers my entire career and in the Electrical Generation and Distribution industry for over 10 years.  I told them over and over again, that no bank had ignored the Y2k issue on their 30 year mortgage (oops, our computer glitched, you don't owe us any

What happens if the lights never come back on?

 I may wax more philosophical than practical here.

We have NO PROOF of this, but my wife and I have this nagging feeling that one day, the power will go off and never come back on.

As many of you know, we live in a rural area with an electrical utility that struggles to maintain consistent power.  Any given week I may have to reset electric clocks 3 to 5 times.  Usually these are just 1/2 to 2 second power blips.

And lately, if the wind blows or it rains, the power may go out for an hour or two.  Not 70 mph winds or torrential rains, just a little stronger than average, and we are sitting in the dark again.

Well, to prepare for something like this takes a lot more time, effort and money.

Sanity in times of Duress

Ok, the time has come.

 Some disaster happened, you have been forced to evacuate your home.  So now you are displaced and don't know how long before you can return.  How do you occupy your time for, say, the first 72 hours?

At first you will be just finding a place to settle. Then you will want to get in touch with family members not immediately with you (you have a plan and equipment for that, right?).  Of course you will be monitoring local police and news stations (and you have some way to listen to emergency stations too, correct?). Hopefully you will sleep for 20 to 24 hours of those 72.  Then what? 

 The answer is very dependent to your home/family situation.

If you have young children, they may be quite scared, or they may take this event in stride and think of it as an adventure.  But either of those will wear off and they will want something to do.

The next thing to consider is how electronics dependent you or your children are.  If they feel the best quality time of the day is alone in their room with facebook, you have two things to consider:

#1 do you currently have an internet connection?  Laptops and many tablets rely on nearby WI FI connections.  In an emergency, you can easily find yourself hunkering down somewhere with no internet connection at all!

72 hour kit, Why 72 and not 80 or 67 hours?

I think this topic may blossom better from the comments than our original content.  Please tell us any thoughts, ideas or experiences that go along with this.

So why 72 hours?

Many churches and agencies give 72 hours as a critical window of time in an emergency.  They draw their conclusions from the many events that we see happen each year.

There are several reason 72 hours is the magic time frame.

Preparedness Assessment

If you are going to get serious about being prepared, one of the first things you need to know is "What do I need to be prepared for?"  Everyone is different, their situation is different.  So you will come up with unique answers to that question.  For instance, say someone in your family is on insulin or hear medication or dialysis.  These each have their own specific needs that you would need to be prepared for.

We have created a Preparedness Assessment that you can use to answer this and other questions.  Once you have a better idea, you can focus on parts of your life and your local situation that will bring the most benefit first.

We think the 80/20 rule here is a good thing to consider:
"What one thing can I do

Try it before you embrace or reject it

Although I am focusing on preparation items, this principle actually applies to many aspects of life:

• Green eggs and ham,
• A vacation spot
• A new hobby
• A book series
• Etc.

But you certainly don’t want to try anything just out of curiosity that is dangerous, life threatening, or addictive.  Enough said.

Ok back to prep Items:

I have spent a lot of time researching, including on the internet, (General Search, YouTube, etc) for emergency stoves, Tarps/tents, 72 hour kits, alternate energy, and the list goes on.

What I have found is that many, many people are really gung-ho about a particular item or style of item that is “the best.”

But I am somewhat skeptical, so I have been doing my own research to find out for myself.  And here are my conclusions:

#1 DON’T buy or make anything and then let your life and/or family’s life depend on it until you have tried it in real life.

Example: Backup Generators.  I know people that have caused severe damage to electrical appliances in their home when they had an extended power outage and they just cracked open the box on their brand new generator and plugged it in.

There are several steps to take to use a generator safely.  If you follow them, you can have great, safe, backup power.  If you don’t, you can blow out refrigerators, TV’s, Computers, and much more!    (If anyone would like to submit a step by step plan to setup and use a backup generator for their home, I would gladly post it here with appropriate credit given)

# 2 Practice, Practice, Practice, in real life

Example: Back packing stoves.

I applaud a YouTube video that tells about a couple that wanted to lighten their pack, so they pulled their tried and true (but heavier) backpacking stove and replaced it with a “Super Cat” alcohol stove.

They then went on a 4 day back packing trip on the Appalachian Trail.  They got home and threw the super cat stove out.  She said that they could never get the water to boil.  
They may have practiced in a closed or low wind area,  but I don't think they took it out into the bush somewhere to give it an adequate test before they really depended on it.  You MUST try your different equipment in different situations to know what you have and what it takes to make it work well.

This leads me to conclusion #3.

NEVER go camping, hiking or Bug Out with only one form of anything: Heat, light, cook stove, shelter, etc.  The quote that goes along with this is:  “If you have two, you only have one; if you have one, you actually have none.”

That couple didn’t know why the super cat stove wouldn’t boil the water.  Altitude, humidity, temperature of the alcohol?  It could have been any, or all of those or something else completely.  But they only had one form of cooking available, and it failed so they “actually had none.”

Tell us about something that happened to you where you put trust in some equipment but it was only as good as you were prepared.