So, let"s say you decide to go with the inverter and the deep-cycle battery. How do you recharge it? Well, you can charge your deep-cycle batteries off of a solar power system, either stationary or portable. The number of batteries and size of the solar system will depend on your power needs. I think you should plan on reducing your energy footprint right now and even more so during a crisis. How much power will you need? You can find that out with a product called an electricity usage monitor. These are sold on Amazon.com and by some brick-and-mortar retailers.
What You Need to Know About Deep-Cycle Batteries Deep-cycle batteries are commonly used in golf carts, boats, and recreational vehicles. They"re also used in large solar power systems.
Their similarity to car batteries is that both are lead-acid batteries and both operate on the same chemistry principles. However, a car battery is designed to provide a large amount of electrical current over a short period of time. The reason is that it"s meant to turn on the car engine during the starting process. A deep-cycle battery is designed to provide a steady amount of current over a long period of time. It"s also designed to discharge all its juice over and over again-a deep-cycle battery can withstand several hundred total discharge/recharge cycles. That would ruin a car battery, which isn"t designed to discharge completely.
Source: How Stuff Works, What Is The Difference Between a Normal Lead-Acid Car Battery and a Deep Cycle Battery?
Use the electricity usage monitor to measure the power requirements of everything you absolutely must run. This includes your refrigerator, some lights, and your water heater (unless you already have solar water heating), and maybe a TV or radio, and so on. Add it up and you"ll know the size of the system you have to get.
But what if all you want to do is run portable electronics-your electric lamps, flashlights, and so on?
In that case, just consider a solar battery charger. You can buy universal solar battery chargers or even 15-50- and 60-watt solar charging kits on Amazon.com and at some major camping stores. You may also want to buy an amp charge controller (also for sale on Amazon.com).
One thing to remember with any solar power system: The cost of these items means it will be years (maybe more than a decade) before they pay for themselves.
Using the Sun to Stay Warm
For people in northern climes, staying warm in the winter is just as important as keeping the lights on. Woodstoves and pellet stoves are very popular, and I"ll get to those in a minute. Solar power can also keep you warm in the winter. There are two basic types of active solar heating systems.14 They are both based on the type of fluid-either liquid or air-that is heated in the solar energy collectors. (The collector is the device in which a fluid is heated by the sun.) Air-based systems heat air in an air collector; liquid-based systems heat water or an antifreeze solution in a hydronic collector. Solar liquid collectors are best for homes with central heating. Air-based systems are best for heating individual rooms.
The costs of these solar heating systems can vary wildly, and some states offer sales tax exemptions, income tax credits or deductions, as well as property tax exemptions or deductions for installing solar energy systems.
Heating with Wood
Wood heat, via a wood-burning stove, is another great alternative, especially if you"re trying to survive up north in the winter. The choice many people face is whether to get a woodstove or a pellet stove.
I grew up in Maine, back in the day when we didn"t have these fancy pellet stoves. Luckily, we could buy cords of wood (from the wood cutters) for cheap, but it still had to be cut to size to use in the house fireplace and woodstoves. So, winter involved a lot of chopping and cutting, and swearing under the breath as we trudged off to the barn through a blizzard (uphill both ways!) for yet another load of wood.
All that chopping and cutting and lugging is why a lot of people switched to pellet stoves-a stove that burns compressed wood or bioma.s.s pellets. However, most modern pellet stoves need electricity to feed the hopper; if the power goes out, there"s no fire. Oops!
Luckily, you can get a battery backup system for a pellet stove. If you"re going to go the pellet stove route, I highly recommend a battery backup. Your local pellet stove supplier should have information on it.
If you live up north, I strongly suggest you install some kind of alternative heating system before the next winter if you don"t have one already. If you don"t have the money for a woodstove or pellet stove, at least get a portable emergency camp stove. You must keep these properly ventilated, but they"re better than nothing and can keep you warm if the lights go off for days on end. Camp stoves usually burn stove Hexamine, Trioxane, or some other solid fuel tablets.
In a severe societal breakdown, you may find it difficult to find material to feed the ever- hungry woodstove or pellet stove. But I "d count on being able to find sc.r.a.p-wood for a stove long after wood pellets have disappeared, which is another point in favor of woodstoves. You"ll need your own ax and access to a wooded lot if and when things get so bad that the woodsman stops making deliveries.
Cut Home Energy Costs Before Crisis Strikes
Here are some other ideas on ways you can cut electricity usage in different areas of your home.15 Every penny you save is more you can put toward buying your survival gear.
Living Room * One compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) uses 20% of the energy of an incandescent bulb of similar brightness and can last up to eight times longer.16 CFLs contain small amounts of mercury (an average four milligrams per each bulb; more in the long fluorescent tubes), so proper disposal is a must. On the plus side, your risk of exposure from a light bulb is minuscule compared to the amount you probably get through eating fish, especially tuna (about one milligram per pound).
* Also, the amount of energy saved by a CFL, thus reducing the amount of coal burned for its use, results in a negative mercury value for the environment (there"s plenty of mercury in coal, too)-far beyond the four milligrams in the lamp. See also: Another alternative is a light-emitting diode (LED) bulb. LED bulbs can last 100,000 hours-10 times longer than CFLs, and 50 times longer than ordinary bulbs. And LED bulbs don"t contain mercury. Good luck finding LED lights at your local hardware store, but you can buy them online at or similar web sites.
* Many electronics-DVD players, VCRs, TVs, stereos-draw as much as 100 watts an hour even when turned off. Avoid the drain and plug them into a power strip that you turn of when not watching TV.
* Plasma TVs use almost four times the energy of standard TVs. LCD flat panels use somewhat less than plasmas.
Kitchen * Run the dishwasher only when it is full. You"ll save an average of 20 gallons of water per day.
* Grill outside on hot summer days. You"ll avoid heating up the house with oven and stovetop cooking.
* Refrigerators account for 14% of electricity bills. Replace any ill-fitting door seals, and don "t stand in front of a fridge, with the door open, looking for something to eat.
Laundry Room * Wash in cold water. 90% of the energy used to wash clothes is used to make hot water. Almost all but the filthiest clothes will be washed equally well in cold water with a cold -water detergent-really.
* Avoid dry cleaners. Try cleaning fragile garments at home with cold-water hand washing.
* Hang clothes outside to dry. Not only will you save roughly 6.5 pounds of greenhouse gases with every load; you"re not adding heat to your house in summer.
Bedroom * Use fans in summer to make the air feel cooler if you set the thermostat higher.
* Close window curtains while you"re at work to keep the heat out in the summer or to be a better insulator and keep heat in during the winter.
Bathroom * Take shorter showers. Every minute you spend in the shower uses four to six gallons of water. So get clean and get out. Try a Navy Shower :* Turn on the water.
* Immediately wet the body.
* Turn off the water.
* Soap up and scrub.
* Turn the water back on and rinse off the soap.The total time for the water being on is typically under two minutes. A 10-minute shower takes as much as 230 L (60 U.S. gallons) of water, while a Navy shower usually takes as little as three U.S. gallons; one person can save 56,000 L (15,000 U.S. gallons) per year.17 Alternately, use a low flow showerhead. Normal shower-heads use four to six gallons of water per minute. A low- flow showerhead can cut that to less than two.
* A leaky toilet will waste 200 gallons of water every day. And yet it takes only a few minutes to replace a toilet"s inner parts. Toilets account for 40% of a home"s water use, or about 9,000 gallons of water per person per year. Cut that by 60% by switching to a high-efficiency toilet.
And if disaster never comes, then at this point, you"ll have gotten to know your neighbors, saved some money on electricity, and made your house safer and more energy efficient.
Tools You Should Have (or Have Access to)
If and when TSHTF, the plumber may not answer the phone. Or if your job disappears, you may not be able to afford a plumber. So what tools should you add to your home workshop and/or tool closet?
Let"s start with the 12 basic tools that you should already own:1. A claw hammer. Few problems exist that I can"t pound into submission. A 16-ounce claw hammer is heavy enough to do the trick, but not so heavy that you"ll break something without trying. One choice you"ll have to make is whether you prefer a wood or synthetic handle. Wooden handles will break eventually; synthetic handles will last longer, but I"ve had them bend and then break when I least expected it.
2. Adjustable pliers. Problems that can"t be beaten into submission can usually be twisted into acquiescence.
3. Plumber"s (pipe) wrench. That goes double for plumbing problems. Hey, drippy faucet-I"ve got my eye on you!
4. Adjustable (crescent) wrench. When you get sick of stripping nuts and bolts with adjustable pliers, you"ll buy a crescent wrench-a wrench with a jaw that moves when you rotate a screw mechanism.
5. a.s.sorted flat-head and Phillips screwdrivers. The Phillips screwdriver was invented by a rogue n.a.z.i scientist who wanted to take out his revenge on the world by having us all strip our screws. (Not really-Henry F. Phillips invented the Phillips-head screw in 1936. He was not a n.a.z.i.) Nonetheless, you need Phillips screwdrivers in varying sizes; use the wrong size and you"ll-you guessed it-strip the screwhead. Flat-head screwdrivers were good enough for my granddad and they"re good enough for me. You "ll need an a.s.sortment of flat-heads, as well.
6. Leatherman-type multi-tool. A collection of tools that is the half-a.s.sed solution to any problem under the sun. A multi - tool usually includes needle-nose pliers, which you also might want to buy separately.
7. Tape measure. You can get them short or long, but a 25-foot tape measure covers just about any project.
8. Vise grips/locking pliers. When you need an extra hand (or want to accidentally pinch your finger for painfully comic effect), vise grips will do the trick.
9. Utility knife. Useful on just about every project I "ve ever done.
10. Cordless drill. As long as you have power, you"ll find this useful for drilling and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g.
11. Handsaw. A good crosscut saw will probably fill 90% of your needs.
12. A level. A good tool to get things hanging straight the first time.
You probably have all of these. Heck, you probably inherited some of these from your dad. But if you"re getting prepared for TEOTWAWKI, you might need more. You also might consider buying spares now while they"re available-either for your own use later or for trade.
Popular Mechanics came out with a list of "50 Tools Everyone Should Own" in its May 2009 issue. You can read it online at addition to the 12 tools I just mentioned here, Popular Mechanics" list includes the following:* Sledgehammer * Center punch * Putty knife * Safety gla.s.ses * Socket wrench set * Metal file * Combination square * Combination wrench * Bow saw * Jig saw * Coping saw * Hacksaw * Side-cutting pliers * Snips (a.k.a. tin snips) * Round-nose shovel * Needle-nose pliers * Drill bits * Circular saw * Spray lube (WD-40) * Dust mask * Nail set * Machinist vise * Allen wrench * Wood chisel * Chalk line * Earm.u.f.fs * Flashlight * Bow rake * Volt/ohmmeter * Cold chisel * Ball-peen hammer * Multi-bit screwdriver * Extension cord * Gooseneck bar * Pry bar (flatter and shorter than a gooseneck bar, and often used to remove trim and paneling) * Square-nosed shovel * Tongue-and-groove pliers * Extension ladder * Pick * Stepladder * Rope Popular Mechanics has a pretty good list. I"ll never have the need for both a gooseneck bar and a pry bar, but I guess that"s just me. One tool they don"t have on their list that I consider an absolute necessity is a rubber mallet. And I"d also make room for an ax.
More Tools You Can Consider
While doing research, I came across a fascinating book called Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them by Rolfe Cobleigh. This is a reprint of a 1909 book, written in a day when farmers expected to work without electricity, which may be eerily similar to the times we"ll experience in the semi -near future. The book is full of useful information; old-time farmers invented simple machines that were downright ingenious.
Let me quote from the book"s introduction, in a section called "The Farmer"s Workshop":Some of the tools that will be found useful are the following: A rip saw, a crosscut saw, a back saw, and a compa.s.s saw; a jack plane, a fore plane and a smoothing plane; a shave or drawing knife; two or three chisels of different sizes for wood-working and a cold chisel for metal; a gouge or two; a good hatchet; two or three hammers, including a tack hammer and a bell-faced claw hammer; a brace or bit stock with a set of a half dozen or more bits of different sizes; one or more gimlets; a mallet; a nail set, a large screw driver and a small one; a gauge; a spirit level, a miter box, a good carpenter"s square-No. 100 is a good standard size; compa.s.ses or dividers; cut nippers, a pair of small pincers and a pair of large ones; a rasp; a large, flat file; at least one medium sized three-corned file and a half-round file.
While some of the tools mentioned in Handy Farm Devices are still common, others are unknown to me. I wonder how many have disappeared into the mists of history and are only sold now as curiosities in antique shops and barn sales. And yet the writers of this book back in 1909 expected any self-respecting farmer to have these tools and more in his workshop. This crystallizes a problem that will likely bedevil the United States in any powered-down future-we don"t even have the tools to make what we"ll need, never mind the materials.
Here"s one more pa.s.sage from Handy Farm Devices: It is poor economy to buy cheap tools. Of course extravagance is to be avoided, but be sure that you get first-cla.s.s material in every tool you buy.
That hardly describes the made-in-China junk we"re all buying now, does it? How long will that stuff last, anyway?
Bottom line: In a serious economic crisis, good, high-quality tools may become less available and more expensive. You might want to stock up on them, and start scouting around for tools that will do the job just as well if and when there is no electricity.
The Least You Can Do * Stop thinking about your home as an investment. Think of it more as a shelter and a refuge from the world.
* Get a strong lock on your front door. Try to make other entrances less accessible to burglars.
* Make sure you have a week"s worth of water, and you might want to get extra buckets for sanitation.
* Stock up on:* Flashlight with extra batteries * Candles and matches * Manual can opener * Battery-powered radio-even better, get one of those emergency radios that you can recharge by winding * Wind-up or battery-powered clock
CHAPTER 12.
Education and Entertainment I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
-Mark Twain There are some upsides to a power-down, civilization-changing event. One is that, if you"ve prepped properly, you"re going to have some spare time on your hands. That means you"ll have more time for education and entertainment. In this chapter, we"ll cover entertainment solutions for your family when there is no more b.o.o.b tube, as well as how to prepare by incorporating education as entertainment, building a survival library, and using resources on the Web-and why you should access them before the Web goes dark!
Rethinking Home Entertainment
When you say the words home entertainment, most people think: television. Personally, I think that come h.e.l.l or high water, TV is one of the things the government will work hardest to make sure Americans have access to. Why? Because TV is the drug of choice in the United States. The fact that we can watch 200 channels of American Idol, Sports Center, sitcoms, and cartoons is what keeps us from getting Hulk-Smash angry over what the villains in Washington and on Wall Street are doing with our money. In a long-term crisis, TV could be an effective way for the government to control an otherwise restless population.