Posted on 12/06/2012 5:20:29 PM PST by Kartographer
The Dallas Observer published a report1 recently that Texas has worst electric grid in the nation. This was based on a North American Electric Reliability Corp report2. That’s not very encouraging. They are also reporting that there is the possibility of rolling blackouts in 2013.
For a couple of years I have had the interest in setting up a backup power system for home use. There is a mobile system that provides power for work a couple of times per month, and is a backup system when at home. It provided power for 2 freezers, a refrigerator and a fan during 3 days of outage one summer several years ago. But we really want a system that has the specific purpose of supporting the house.
When looking for a mobile 120 volt (V) system I did talk to an “expert” who wanted to sell the best system that they had. He wanted to get me excited about selling power back to the electric company. After redirecting the talk with the expert to a mobile plan, and taking some of his advice, it proved to be an exercise in frustration.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesurvivalistblog.net ...
“I thought about that and am wondering if I put a fan blowing on it if that would counteract the humidity? There has to be a way to do this.”
Here in Florida you can drill down to the aquifer and get water at a nice 72 degrees to use. Evaporation cooling wont work except for a short time in winter.
You can also use two clay pots where the humidity is low enough. Works well enough to keep vegatables cool.
There are many parts of the country for which that is true.
I suspect it is going to get interesting when the older coal plants start coming offline due to all the Lisa Jackson EPA nonsense, especially in the NE. I’m hoping we’re a little more insulated from it here in the SE, as we haven’t had as much “Green” Energy Hopium consumption.
My fear overall is that no one is in this for the long haul right reasons. Too much FedGov money for “Green” Energy, and regulated utilities that can use an EPA forced plant shutdown to go build other generation facilities and make money on it, when really it would have been better overall to keep the old coal plant running. I don’t see any serious pushback to the EPA absurdities, but then I don’t follow what is really going on closely enough. Maybe it’s there and I don’t see it.
The bright spot that may cover us on all of this is Marcellus shale natural gas. Natural gas conversions of coal plants are relatively cheap.
Wish I had a stream like that, I would have long since been off grid.
You have probably thought of this, but it might be a good idea to toss a couple of relatively cheap VOMs in there, too.
My well is 385 feet and has 2hp pump, pulls 85 amps DC@24 volts and has no issues whatsoever
I did the very same thing. A 6.5 KW unit handles everything in my home but the central AC.
We use natural gas Generators in our business all the time they are ‘spensive though.
Propane or Natural gas both kinds.
Your humidity is worse than mine in Texas and our winter weather is colder than yours, however, so far this winter, there hasn't been cold weather.
I'm going to make the clay pots refrigerator when pots come back in Lowes for spring planting. I will make that work somehow. If I don't try, it surely won't happen.
Ping
I bought a military surplus MEP-003A diesel generator. Rated at kW continuous output at 7,000 feet elevation. It is about the equivalent of a 17.kW commercial unit. I will hook it up with a 300 to 400 gallon diesel tank, auto start and auto switch. It should run the whole rural house and outbuildings for weeks.
The nice part is I can re-jumper it to 3 phase and use 3 phase shop equipment.
I am so jealous...
It pulls 20 amps ac @220v
The Mennonite communities in my area have these Tyveck wrapped (spray foam insulation?) ice houses. I have yet to inspect them to see how they do it.
Well pumps 7 gallons per minute, I have a 10,000 gallon tank with float switch setup at 200 gallon on/off intervals and well runs for less than 30 minutes per cycle. Which is negligible on a fully charged system at 400AH (about 10%) of storage capacity and is fully recharged in 2 hours with my current system with 6 175 watt panels that charge at around 20 amps. SO I have Free water for Life. I did a lot of reading before I came up with this system and it works flawlessly. And is half the price of a pre-configured system that you can find online and is much much better. Add panels and batteries and it will run an entire house without AC. I wasn’t sure how the power surge(35amps) would affect inverter before I did this, but it has 0 problems and just works great. been setup for over a year now.
I agree. Most people here are sporting big gasoline fed generators. What makes them think they'll be able to get gasoline? I suppose they will for a few days.
I don't think it's reasonable to want to power your entire household. I'm thinking small amounts of PORTABLE power for HAM radios and other emergency equipment. Survival.
In my estimation, we need to plan for long term power outage. That means fuel sources we can get on our own like wood, garbage, any bio-mass combustibles.
Everyone preps for different reasons. Three or 4 days after a hurricane seems simple. I'm prepping for economic collapse and I think it will put us in the dark for a long time, months? Just enough time for our politicians to betray us to our enemies. Then, months may turn into years.
Here are some thermoelectric generators for sale - they just need to be hooked up to a heat source and a battery with inverter.
http://www.tegpower.com/products.html
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