Consider for a moment, a generator for home.
Most of us laugh at the idea of a solar generator and batteries to store power, etc. Just get me a gas powered generator.
And that’s a reasonable approach. Until three days after power goes out, and you’re running out of gas along with everyone else. Fights erupt at gas stations. This leads to thieves who prowl the neighborhoods listening for generators so they can siphon gas. And worse.
It happened. I lived thru that in North Jersey during Superstorm Sandy. I had plenty of gas but I was standing guard at night.
Solar generators are silent and thus don’t surrender your position. They can make a big difference in a less-than-friendly power outage.
Having a well-diversified portfolio of energy sources is always prudent. Being bullish on solar or even EVs doesn’t make you a nut job. It’s when the govt FORCES you to choose one or the other that things get messed up. Indeed, if “renewables” ticked up a few notches it’d lower the “dependence” on oil from such liberty-loving nations as Russia and Saudi Arabia.
I view solar and wind as passive sources to charge electric generators. It costs nothing and, when your generator is full, turn it on and use that instead of your commercial provider.
You could possibly get a months worth of free electricity over the course of the year without it costing you anything. Over time and you’ve paid for your setup.
We’re also from north Jersey, western Hunterdon county. Not only Sandy, but before that there was Snowtober. Lost power for 8 days from that 16” snowstorm when there were trees with most of their leaves still on. Broken branches and whole trees crashing down all night. Ran a gas generator for the first 4 days until there was no more gas locally to buy and it was getting old fast. Seemed like it always needed a refill at around 3:00 am. 7 days without power from Sandy, same deal. A solar generator would have been nice, weren’t available yet.
>> Consider for a moment, a generator for home. Most of us laugh at the idea of a solar generator and batteries to store power, etc.
I don’t laugh at that idea at all. In fact, I already have most of the components purchased (including the LiFePO4 batteries). Already I have a couple “point-of-use” solar devices in place in applications where they make sense.
(In addition I have a generator and some stored fuel, but what you say about running out definitely applies... unless you are tapped in to a gas well on your property, that generator is a short term convenience, not a total solution.)
I am funding 100% of my alternative energy out of my own pocket, though. Not one government dollar in any form, including subsidy. As you suggest, I’m doing it for reliability and energy continuity, not to save money. There’s nothing wrong with solar technology, properly applied.
>> It’s when the govt FORCES you to choose one or the other that things get messed up.
That, and when the govt FORCES you to PAY for someone else’s solar/wind/hydrogen/EV.
But there are practical pros and cons. For example, DoodleBob is in New Jersey, which gives him different power needs than I have in Alabama. Plus New Jersey gets less solar. Lastly, when NJ needs the most energy is in the winter (though I imagine most NJ homeowners use gas or oil heating, so maybe not as much power needed). Unfortunately, in the winter is when you get less sun. Conversely in Alabama we use the most energy keeping our house cool in the summer --- which is when we get the most sun.
About emergency power after a hurricane, I don't get hurricane weather in the northern portion of Alabama. But we get tornados. Usually the next day after a tornado the sky is clear -- good for solar. Is that what it's like after a hurricane knocks out power? Or do you have days of rainy weather (read: little sunshine)?
When a tornado hits here it's usually in the late afternoon/early evening (in other words, my solar power has a long time to charge my home batteries before the tornado hits). Thus, if a tornado was to knock out my power I'm probably running on home solar/battery power all night anyway. Especially since most tornados are in the spring or fall (calm temperature weather: meaning I don't have to consume a lot of power running the HVAC and have plenty of power in my batteries for the home). So if a tornado knocked out our grid power I wouldn't know it except for my solar app notifying me that there was a problem with the grid (it often dings me when it detects "dirty power").
I got caught in my imagination. I thought it was a lense made of quartz and it focuses sun rays on a piece of steel ore and it goes to 1000C.
I really would like that the Africans would find new ways to make money without traveling to money.
I’ve got a nice whole home generator and 400 gallons of LP. It’ll run for ~8 days or so on what I use it for if I ran it full time.
Anyone snooping around where I live will be shot. Can’t see the neighbors, I’m a half mile off a off the nearest seldom traveled road on the side of a mountain, surrounded by 87,000 acres of USFS. Plenty of wildlife as needed, couple cold water springs if needed but my well has enough pressure to run naturally. 16 miles to the nearest town with a population under 700.
Most people would never walk up a mountain to get to someone.. they’d walk down hill though because most people are lazy as hell. Those would try I’d hear the shots from my neighbors first.
I’m good. Electricity is nice, don’t want to be without it but not a requirement.