I disagree, it would be fun, its up to us to make it work, I don't see a problem, have done it in the past and can do it again, no problem, in fact I'm looking forward to it, better than this celebrity worshipping/gadget mad/welfare dependant morass we are living in now, at least people would have to get off their backsides and work to survive, not expect "something for nothing" as happens now.
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you can use a two tank system one tank with diesel fuel and the other tank with vegetable oil, use the diesel to start and warm the engine before switching to the other tank with vegetable oil, given that vegetable oil is high viscosity you need to switch to the diesel and run for ten minutes before shutting down (cleans the lines of vege oil) though you need to heat (build a fire under vege tank to heat the oil since it goes solid when cold) I watched a farmer demo that here, he use used vege oil that ran through 3 cleaning filters and use fresh vege oil with no filters, it worked really good, his son collects used vege oil from restaurants here and stores them. An option to think about?
I'm still working on converting my gen. to LP, as i can run an aux heater and an outside kitchen with it too. I am having trouble finding the right carb. conversion kit, but will before long. I did learn a slightly disturbing fact during my digging around on the topic. LP dosent have as good of potency as gas or diesel, and you loose some of the output of your generating capacity. I'm not sure exactly but the concensus so far is ten to fifteen percent. My large gen. is 10k, which really was smaller than I would like to have, so even loosing ten percent is a bit more than I want. Even so, the long term storage of propane and the 500 gal tank capacity has me sold on the idea. I found a place that gives the first year free on the tank rental and 40.00 per year thereafter. I'll post the carb conversion pictures when I get started soon.
I read that the propane will last hundreds of years, longer than the steel the tank is made from anyways.
Just have two plungers, one for the toilet and one for the laundry!
As a side note here, why would you need a separate plunger for laundry? Its no different than putting underwear with "skid marks" in to the water
Seriously though, I read long ago about how you can put your clothes with soap and a few rocks into a bucket with sealable lid. Then let the kids go "kick it around the yard" for an hour or so. If you really want to get "high tech", you could jack up one drive wheel of the car or lawn mower and strap the bucket to that. then put the vehicle in gear at an idle and come back in 15-20 minutes
"Lather, rinse, repeat" :-DIf you cannot afford a generator, go to harbor freight and buy a 1000 watt inverter. Keep it and extension cords handy. If the power is out for longer than a few hours, connect it to your car battery and run your fridge / freezer every 3-4 hours. Just make sure you run the car to keep the battery up. Could also do the same with a garden tractor. With that though, make sure you have an amp meter on it. Do not shut the tractor down until the meter shows approximately zero amps.
I love this site! I never would have thought of doing something like that. Thanks Neo!
I new a woman who traveled on vac to Shri Lanka, off the coast of India. She was going for two weeks and stayed for five years. She lived in a hut with a dirt floor, cooked over a ring of stones in the middle of it and washed her clothes on a flat rock in the river. She stayed because the place was so peaceful and simple, and told wonderful stories about it. You can live without electricity, but I would start preparing now for ways to make it a little easier when we have to.As a side note here, why would you need a separate plunger for laundry? Its no different than putting underwear with "skid marks" in to the water
Seriously though, I read long ago about how you can put your clothes with soap and a few rocks into a bucket with sealable lid. Then let the kids go "kick it around the yard" for an hour or so. If you really want to get "high tech", you could jack up one drive wheel of the car or lawn mower and strap the bucket to that. then put the vehicle in gear at an idle and come back in 15-20 minutes
I have lived in an old wooden caravan..on blocks..seen better days, grew my own food and snared/hunted for meat, water from the river, cooked over a camp fire..no electric, no mains water or sewage...in fact mains nothing...and loved every minute of it, we can live without electricity and like it.
Every "plan" should include training and exercise. I know there are a lot of city folk who almost never loose power for more than an hour or two once every 10 years.
If you think you are ready for a power outage, test it. Go to the main breaker (you DO know where it is...yes?) and trip it for 24 hours. Record what works and what doesn't in your plan. After you have done this and corrected any deficiencies, put 364 blank papers in a jar (or identical marbles) with one marked one. Pull one out every day. If you pull the marked one (or "odd" marble) that means the power goes off immediately for 24 hours (no "cheating" by getting things around or finishing up first). If its a workday, go to work (if you must) but don't hit a gas station or any shopping while you're out.
This is about as "realistic" as you can get. I would suggest that even if you once lived in a Tibetan monastery when you were young, who's to say you're truly prepared for a power outage now. If you're on "city water", give yourself 10-15 minutes to gather water also. After that, shut off the main water valve (you DO know where it is...yes?). This would simulate everybody draining down the pipes.
Lastly, I would suggest this regardless of whether you plan on "bugging in" OR "bugging out"
If you think you are ready for a power outage, test it. Go to the main breaker (you DO know where it is...yes?) and trip it for 24 hours. Record what works and what doesn't in your plan. After you have done this and corrected any deficiencies, put 364 blank papers in a jar (or identical marbles) with one marked one. Pull one out every day. If you pull the marked one (or "odd" marble) that means the power goes off immediately for 24 hours (no "cheating" by getting things around or finishing up first). If its a workday, go to work (if you must) but don't hit a gas station or any shopping while you're out.
This is about as "realistic" as you can get. I would suggest that even if you once lived in a Tibetan monastery when you were young, who's to say you're truly prepared for a power outage now. If you're on "city water", give yourself 10-15 minutes to gather water also. After that, shut off the main water valve (you DO know where it is...yes?). This would simulate everybody draining down the pipes.
Lastly, I would suggest this regardless of whether you plan on "bugging in" OR "bugging out"
During the summer storm season, not unusual for us to lose power for a few hours at a time at least two or 3 times during the season. Never really been too much of an issue. Which is a double-edged sword. My other no-power preps (stored water (as well pump is out), gas grill, battery powered motion lights, oil lamps throughout the house, and our love of books and boardgames) make it hard to sell the wife on a complete no-grid backup power solution.
The only way it would really be worthwhile, is if we lost power for more than about 10 hours, enough time for the house to really get hot without AC, and chances of food going bad in the freezer and fridge. Since that really doesn't happen, hard to sell her on the idea of what I want (a large buried propane tank and propane generator for the whole house).
It's a pricey investment (around 15K or more easily), but basically, if you lose power, it's business as usual. You won't even really notice it much, and it will automatically kick in. In a SHTF scenario, you could do some power rationing and management to really stretch that propane supply (and possibly raid or trade for more propane).
The only way it would really be worthwhile, is if we lost power for more than about 10 hours, enough time for the house to really get hot without AC, and chances of food going bad in the freezer and fridge. Since that really doesn't happen, hard to sell her on the idea of what I want (a large buried propane tank and propane generator for the whole house).
It's a pricey investment (around 15K or more easily), but basically, if you lose power, it's business as usual. You won't even really notice it much, and it will automatically kick in. In a SHTF scenario, you could do some power rationing and management to really stretch that propane supply (and possibly raid or trade for more propane).
talk with the power company first,to let them know your plans..then sneak to the breaker box some day.and turn all power off to the house..
Unfortunately, we're all familiar with the breaker box. My wife has a borderline paranoia about fire, so we actually turn off the breaker to the double oven at night (or if nobody is home). I get it though, oven controls are touch, and our cats have been known to turn on a burner once or twice, accidentally. Sometimes, I long for the good old fashioned controls.
It's the first thing they'd check though (breaker box).
It's the first thing they'd check though (breaker box).
Exactly, what would you do if it became reality and TSHTF tomorrow, you're gonna have to find some way to cope without A/C.
Winter you don't need A/C but would be a good time to see how you'd cope without it.
I've often thought along those lines too. Coordinate with other people who you know and trust and come up with a group plan on what to do when TSHTF and maybe have somewhere for a group bug-out location which would be a lot safer and secure as there would be more of you to take care of security and patrolling the area/perimeter.
I've been thinking about getting a jenny to power our house when TSHTF, I've been looking at petrol ones but then read something and that reminded me of the price difference of petrol to diesel and changed it to wanting a diesel one.
I'd want to try and get it rigged up to the house via the fusebox where the mains comes in and replace it with the jenny.
I'm also looking into trying to hide it somewhere where it would be quiet and hidden away but with a good ventilation system so that it can breathe and also expel the fumes.
I'd want to try and get it rigged up to the house via the fusebox where the mains comes in and replace it with the jenny.
I'm also looking into trying to hide it somewhere where it would be quiet and hidden away but with a good ventilation system so that it can breathe and also expel the fumes.
My son built a house (dog house) that is attached to the house, he uses fire retardant sound deadening insulation, the exhaust is piped up to the roof line, when its running we don't hardly hear it inside and not overly noisy outside.
Thats brilliant! Not only does it look nice but is camofloged from potential thieves. During one of the hurricanes I went thru a gennie or a gas can had a short life expectancy if left unguarded!
Neither does stored food but many preppers still stock 30 days, 6 months or even a year, I think preppers should prep for short term not just long term and a generator is a short term prep in most cases. We have gone roughly 6 weeks without power one winter, without power our well pump is dead a generator would keep the pump and heat going in the well house. at -15deg F with 30mph sustained winds it doesn't take long for a well house to freeze without power, my wife thought it was the end of the world
with additives the fuel would last a year stored, the generator runs 1hr each week and the oil is changed every three month even when not being use, my son stores about a hundred gal of fuel. ya security is a major plus!
Depends on what you're looking to power.
If just a couple of important things, then yeah, a diesel generator could be a good solution. If you're looking to power your whole house though, then I would recommend a larger scale propane powered generator system, with a large storage tank.
Prepping in the extreme cold takes a little more effort. At least in that kind of cold you could probably find plenty of snow or ice to melt for drinking.Neither does stored food but many preppers still stock 30 days, 6 months or even a year, I think preppers should prep for short term not just long term and a generator is a short term prep in most cases. We have gone roughly 6 weeks without power one winter, without power our well pump is dead a generator would keep the pump and heat going in the well house. at -15deg F with 30mph sustained winds it doesn't take long for a well house to freeze without power, my wife thought it was the end of the world
we use the winters to our advantage that's for sure, never the less, the older one gets the harder it becomes to deal with. Freshly fallen snow has been use several times from coffee to sponge baths.
Just stay away from the yellow and brown snow...
I'd be looking at powering our bungalow.
I looked into this for a long time, and so far, the best, most economical and reliable solution I've seen, is a propane generator and tank (an external tank is cheaper than a buried one, but of course, a buried one is more hidden). Me, if we go that route, I'm just going to hide the tank with a fence.
Eventually, solar may be an option here, but with our storms here, I expect the panels would often get damaged, and of course, will always need to replace batteries.
Post SHTF, I have a TON of options of where I could score some propane, so even if running out, I'd be able to keep some stockpiled. Get a big enough tank though, and do some power rationing, and you could really stretch the time though.
Eventually, solar may be an option here, but with our storms here, I expect the panels would often get damaged, and of course, will always need to replace batteries.
Post SHTF, I have a TON of options of where I could score some propane, so even if running out, I'd be able to keep some stockpiled. Get a big enough tank though, and do some power rationing, and you could really stretch the time though.
