Prepping for po folk

Er, rather, as Bayou Renaissance Man put it:

Emergency Preparation, Part 14: Preparing on a tight budget

This is a must read post – whether cash is an issue or not.  I will eventually get ‘round to reading the rest of the series.  But I wanted to spread the word on this installment particularly in light of the impending Frankenstorm or snore-easter-cane depending on who you read.

In BRM’s post he goes into quite a bit of detail on the contents of a bare bones food kit to keep one person going for a week.  The anticipated cost is around US $30 and I was able to build a kit at my local Wal*Mart based on these recommendations for about that.  I did read one thing wrong and only got 5 5oz. cans of tuna instead of the 7 recommended.  I will correct that as well as add a can opener from the dollar store before I give the whole kit and caboodle to the friend I put it together for.

Rewind to last night on the phone with my friend:

Me: So you do have plenty of groceries in the house, I trust.

She: Um, I think I have a couple of boxes of Cheerio’s…

This is my friend who gets thirsty and instead of going to the fridge and getting something to drink goes out to the car and drives to the local fast food emporium for a drive through super jumbo humongous soda with a price tag to match.

* Ye gods and little fishies!*  (to blatantly swipe a phrase from LawDawg)

So here I am, having just read BRM’s great post on prepping on the cheap and knowing we may have this nor’easter-hurricane-thing bearing down on us depending on the storms actual track (that we will finally know for sure some time around Thursday in the here’s where it went after the fact report) and I have reason to believe a very good friend who I care about very much ain’t got no preps in place.

I sense an opportunity to put the test to the info.

So here’s the inventory for the little kit that we put together today:

·        1 2-pound bag of Iberia long grain brown rice

·        2 1-pound bags of Best Bet elbow macaroni

·        2 1-pound bags of La Cena pinto beans

·        2 26-ounce jars of Great Value pasta sauce in two flavors

·        1 2-pound package of Great Value whole grain oats

·        5* 5-ounce cans of StarKist Selects chunk light tuna in water

·        1 5-ounce can of Butter Field chunk ham in water

·        1 5-ounce can Bumble Bee premium white chicken in water

·        1 Morton/McCormick sat & pepper set

·        1 Ozark Trail pocket knife

·        1 85-piece Be Smart Get Prepared first aid kit

·        1 5-gallon pail with lid to put it all in**

* Two more cans of tuna and one can opener need to be added to match the inventory from BRM’s post.  The first aid kit was my own little addition since I have no idea what my friend may have on hand.

** At Mum’s recommendation we had originally grabbed two boxes of store brand minute rice – but they wouldn’t fit in the pail.  So I swapped them out for the bag of rice that does.  It may not be as convenient to cook, but it can be protected from the elements (and the cats) inside the bucket.

As mentioned elsewhere at BRM’s, having a bucket with a lid on hand has many uses.  It can be used to store water in case the water supply is interrupted and it can be used as a ‘sanitary facility’ if that stops working.  (Not at the same time obviously!)  In fact he has a whole post on just that subject!

The price tag for my little kit as put together so far at my local Wal*Mart on Route 38 in Tewksbury Marxistchusetts came to US $29.45 including tax.  The can opener will come from the dollar store and two more cans of tuna should be about US $2.50.  Since the first aid kit was about US $5.00 the cost of the basic kit does in fact come in at about the US $30 predicted.

As you can see, putting together this little bitty kit that’ll get you by for a few days of deconveniance is really no big deal.  Augmented by the pantry you should have on hand anyway, going a week or two without access to your local grocery store shouldn’t be much more than a tale to tell in later years.

Now I just have to get this to my friend before the storm hits.

Oh, BTW: I got five more of those knives for barter.  That was a great idea!  Thanks!


UPDATE: Here's another picture of the kit, all packed in the bucket.  That's the P-38 I mentioned in the the comments (good idea, Mr. B!).  I've taped a small rare Earth magnet from Harbor Freight to the inside of the lid to attach the can opener to.

Also in the bucket but not shown is a copy of  BRM's post that started this whole project.  Lots of good information there.  If you haven't read it already I highly recommend that you do.  There is a link at the top of this post.

Prepping is going mainstream

And I think that is a good thing!

Seen in the wild at my local Wal*Mart:

As always, click on the image for a larger version.

Each of these buckets claim to keep four people fed for 72 hours.  They also claim to last for 25 years if properly stored.  I haven't done a cost breakdown (and I probably won't bother to be perfectly honest...) but it does seem a bit spendy.  But to be able to exchange a fist-full of worthless FRN's for a ready made kit seems to me to be a very good idea.

Other stores have similar items available on-line.  Costco, for examples has a whole section of their food page dedicated to storage food.  BJ’s has a smaller section.  Neither have any of their storage food available in-store.

However you get it (provided it’s through legal means) you should lay in a supply of food to keep you going in the event on “unforeseen circumstances.”  It doesn’t have to be a full scale SHTF catastrophe.  An extended power failure, as but one example, will shutter the grocery store.  If your cupboard’s bare it won’t refill itself particularly if the stores are closed or the normal supply lines are disrupted.

This is really starting to get old.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

‘Huwah?  Wtfisthat?’  I slowly blink my eyes open.  ‘What time is it?’  I look at the ceiling where the projection clock is supposed to be showing me the time.  It’s dark.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

* deep sigh *  ‘Again?’

I have no idea how long the power had been out before the beeping finally woke me.  The battery powered clock in the bathroom said it was ten minutes of three.  Very AM.  Next priority was to call the electric company to report the outage.  Then I restrung the extension cord from the inverter to the fridge.  I’d used solar power to run my string trimmer over the weekend so the cord wasn’t in place as it usually is.

Note to self: Buy a dedicated correct length cord that can stay in place and free up the 100-footer for other use.

With the power company notified and the fridge all happy on the solar system I went back to bed. 

After a little while the beeping stopped.  That meant that our Vonage phone system was dead.  We might still have cell coverage – provided the outage didn’t go to the cell towers…  I was already back in bed so I didn’t bother to check.  Calling 911 if things really go pear-shaped presupposes that you have working telephones.  Personally, I think it’s a much better plan to be able to take care of yourself and only call in the cavalry once the immediate threat is neutralized.  I’m digressing again.

Mum called a few minutes ago, while I was writing this very post as a matter of fact.  She mentioned that the light in the fridge dimmed when the compressor came on while she had the door opened.  The peak output of our inverter is just up to the task of handling the startup draw of the fridge.  Adding the little light bulb’s draw from the door being opened is almost more than the inverter can handle. 

Oh, the power came back on about two hours and fifteen minutes after I discovered it was out.  I just haven’t switched the fridge back to the grid.  I thought it prudent to make sure the grid would keep working for a while first.  I’ll switch it back when I get home from work tonight.  Meanwhile, I know the groceries won’t be going bad on us.

I have a bunch more of those solar panels on hand now and I can install them whenever I have the time.  I’ve also got a new charge controller that can handle way more input power than my full set of panels will produce once installed.   But even before I get all that done I may need to look into upgrading my inverter.  Then I’ll want more/bigger batteries.

All in good time.

The funny thing is that when I mentioned our early morning outage to my boss, he said one of his kids called him at work yesterday to report that the power was out at their house.  It won’t take much more of this for me to start questioning the stability of the power grid…

Redrawn Schematic

I’ve redrawn the schematic that I first posted here.  

 

This new version shows the connections in more detail and better represents the actual hardware as I’ve installed it.  One thing that I had not included in the original version is the pair of “Catastrophe Fuses” that go between the panels on the roof and the charge controller.  They are not required for the system to work properly, but they are a good idea.  With the fuses in place the system has a fighting chance of surviving a lightning strike to the panels.  While the panels themselves would likely be destroyed, the fuses popping may save the charge controller, batteries and inverter.  The charge controller does have its own fuse as does the inverter.  But I still think it’s a good idea to have fuses in line between the panels and other equipment.

The way this system is wired the meter that I have installed will tell you just how much juice the panels are producing.  It will also tell you if that juice is being used (the open circuit voltage with no load is roughly twice the working voltage under load) and if there’s no voltage when there should be, IE: the sun is shining on the panels and they should be making electricity but aren’t, then the catastrophe fuses need to be checked.  This meter is totally optional.  The system will work just as well without it being there and it’s easy enough to take this same reading with a hand-held meter.  I just got tired of taking out my meter every time I wanted to check the panels and so I installed one into the system permanently.

My next project will probably involve a small wind turbine.  I have a few ideas…

Oh by the way…

It was extremely windy here last night.  Sadly my weather station doesn’t have an anemometer so I can’t tell you exactly how windy it was. But I can tell you that some guests had the windows rattling pretty good!

Anywho…  When I checked this morning the solar panels on the roof looked fine.  They came through the wind storm unscathed.  The meter on the top end of the system (the one listed as optional in the schematic) said the panels were producing about 24 VDC.  That’s their typical open circuit voltage in full sun.  The charge controller shows the batteries at 13.5 VDC which is fully charged.  So everything there is working exactly as it should.

I still feel that I should be doing something with this extra capacity.  I’m not sure what though.  

Hmmm…  Maybe I should set up a trail camera in the back yard to catch the park manager violating the 940CMR 10.03(8)(b) requirement to give the residents reasonable notice that he’s going to come on our lots.  I’ve received several nastygrams from them about things you can’t see from the street.  I have yet to receive a single notification that he was gong to come around to inspect my lot.  Criminal trespass?  He’s soaking in it!

My remedy/survival strategy for the common cold:

I don’t have a cold myself at the moment nor do I want one.  A friend mentioned over on Facebook that he was working on getting over a cold, so I commented over there with what I’ve found to give me the best results when I’m fighting off a cold.  Since this could be useful information for others I thought I’d share:

Nyquil/Dayquil per the directions and the clock

Fisherman’s Friend cough drops as desired

(The only real cough drops on the market.  All the others are really just candy, IMHO.  And they also help with nasal congestion.)

Hot tea and chicken soup with lots of broth

And stay warm and as comfy as possible.  And keep reminding yourself that “in time this too shall pass.”  (Which also works for constipation…)

So there you have it.  The HerrBGone approved method of dealing with the common cold. 

It may also help to keep in mind that as miserable as you may be suffering through your cold, you are doing humanity a great service!  By being host to all those tiny microbes that are making you so miserable you are helping their species to survive.  And they will in turn help our species survive come the next Martian invasion!

Ty Ming

I think that’s an ancient Chinese curse.  Something about Ty Ming is evy sing…

One of the primary tasks Mum and I had while we were out and about yesterday was grocery shopping.  On the list were quite a bit of frozen veggies, milk, OJ and other refrigeables.

Last night I left my computer on to charge the doodad.  That’s my nickname for my mp3 player.  I almost never leave the computer on overnight.

This morning I awoke to a vaguely familiar sound.  Beep beep beep.  I’m on vacation so I don’t have that kind of alarm set.  Beep beep beep.  What the hell is that?  Beep beep beep.  I don’t think the charge controller for the solar panels makes that noise…  Beep beep beep.  I looked up at the ceiling to see what time it was on my projection clock.  It’s dark.  No clock.  Beep beep beep.  Huh?  Now I’m confused.

Beep beep beep. 

Oh crap!  It’s the power failure alarm on the telephone system’s battery backup!

I can’t see the projection clock because there’s no juice for the projector!  Why is it that the power chooses to go out right after we fill the fridge?  Ty Ming is evy sing!

Curses!

So I roll out of bed and secure the computer and unplug the doodad.  Looks like the neighbors don’t have power either.  Good.  Not that misery loves company – I was afraid I might have forgotten to pay the light bill!  There’s a chance it will be fixed before too long.

National Grid (formerly Mass Electric) has a very personable computer.  I finally managed to weave my way through the maze of menus to report that the power is out.  That was around six this morning.

Then I went back to bed.

Beep beep beep.  Grrrrr!

It eventually stopped when the batteries died.  Of course then we had no phone except for my cell…  (Glad I charged it!)

The power was still out when I finally got up for the day around eleven o’clock.  After calling National Grid on my cell phone and actually speaking to a real live human* I made the executive decision that Mum and I should hop in Galileo and go off to Ihop for breakfast.  Where it’s warm.

* Pro Tip: Instead of pushing buttons or responding to the menu with one of the provided selections, say “Operator.”  That will get you into the queue to talk with a human.

Before we left I went out on the enclosed porch and announced to the batteries “You’re on – and this is not a drill…”  I haven’t installed the wiring yet that will allow me to just throw a switch to switch between grid power and the inverter so I had to string an extension cord between the inverter and the fridge as I had done for the test I wrote about here.

The cord gets strung through the hall window that looks out into my workshop, up over the curtain rods and behind a water jug that I put on top of the kitchen cabinet over the fridge to hold it.  That way the cord is over our heads instead of running across the floor.  It would really take some effort to trip on it up there!

After stringing the cord I added a blanket to block the window.  It’s cold out there in my unheated workshop and I didn’t want the shop sharing that with the rest of the house.  The curtain rods were not at all happy about that idea.  The top brads mounting the brackets to the wall were simply not up to the task.  I had to replace them with screws.  Now we have an actual load bearing system!  Curtains, power cord and blanket.  No problem!  And minimal heat loss.  Works fer me!

And the fridge was fine running on the modified sign wave juice from the inverter just like during the test.

On our way out to Nashua we stopped by and chatted with one of the guys from the crew that was working to fix the problem.  He said our neighborhood has a radial system.  They were still looking for the cause of the problem.  Once they find it they will have to dig up the road to fix it.  “Power should be back on by the end of the year…”  Har har!  The person on the phone said ‘probably by around noon.’  But it was already ten past one!  His real estimate was four to six hours after they find the cause – which they were still looking for at that point.  We thanked them for their efforts and headed along on our way.

By the time we got back the power was back on and all was well with our little corner of the world.  (“Corner”?  But the world is round…)

That’s the second power failure in as many months.  Not as wide spread nor nearly as long an outage.  But still, I hope this doesn’t become a habit…

‘Solar System’ Update

The refrigerator is running on the inverter even as I type this.  It seems to actually work!

What remains to be seen is how long it can run and what will be involved in bringing the batteries back up to charge.  There has been direct sun on the panels all afternoon.  But as the sun is getting lower there are also some clouds on the horizon.  With the panels shaded we are no doubt taking most of the power needed from the batteries now instead of directly from the panels.  I don’t know how long they will hold out in actual use.

The main point of this test, however, is that I have now proven that I can run the fridge on my back-up system.  * does happy dance *  :-)

UPDATE:  Just before 11 PM local time I put the fridge back on grid power. 

Not because of any problem with running it from the batteries.  The charge controller is still showing 12.3 volts in the batteries.  The inverter even handled the start-up load from the defrost cycle which pushes its limits according to my appliance load tester.

And not because of any problem with the fridge itself.  It was running fine with the modified sign wave power supplied by the inverter.  We didn’t do anything different in how we accessed the fridge either.  It was a totally normal Saturday afternoon here’bouts.

The only reason I unplugged from the inverter was so I could get the power cord out of the way to properly close the hall window.  The workshop/pantry on our enclosed porch where the power equipment lives is unheated and it’s cold out there tonight!  With the thermostat about four feet away from a jalousie window that was open enough let a heavy duty extension cord pass through, the heater was running more than it should have been. 

I could have stuffed a blanket in the window to solve that problem, but I decided to end the test instead.  I think we ran long enough to prove that it works.  This problem with the window, that I was expecting all along, will be eliminated when I run a line from the inverter under the house in the crawl space and up the wall to a switch that will allow me to toggle back and forth between grid power and the inverter without even unplugging the fridge from the wall.  I’ll do that on an individual basis for each appliance I decide to power from our solar system.  I just had to run this test before I invest in upgrading the houses wiring to do that.  Now that I know that it really does work I feel a lot more confidant in spending the cash to bring it to that next level.

All in all I would call this test a Resounding Success!

How it works

I’m much better at explaining complex systems with pictures, so here goes…

A revised version of this schematic is posted here.

I still need to do the math to figure out how much I can actually run with this system.  We’ll get there.

“Cap’n!  I need morrre time!”

(Actually, after fighting with my scanner drivers for much of the evening, and now sitting here listening to Cam & Co. I just don’t feel like writing.  So ask any questions in the comments {assuming the comments will actually work…} and I’ll try to find the answer.)

Introducing HerrBGone’s Power & Light

At HerrBGone’s Power & Light we have entered the testing phase of our newly installed solar powered photovoltaic distributed generation station.

;-)

I made the final connections between the panels on the roof and the charge controller last night.  Since it was pitch black night by the time I got home from work the lines from the panels were cold.  I disconnected the hot lead from the battery bank to the charge controller making that cold as well.  Then I replaced the screw connectors with new ones that were sized to fit the posts better.  The first pair had too large a hole and cranking down on the knobs trying to get a tight connection wound up pulling the threaded inserts part way out of the plastic knobs.  Fortunately I was able to press them back in and they were still useable.  The new screw connectors solved that problem and actually had to be opened up just slightly with my drill press to fit on the posts.  Probably metric posts vs. English holes.

This morning before breakfast I grabbed my meter and checked the lines from the panels to see if the were producing any electricity.  Lighting conditions were what the slip of paper that came with your roll of film might call about half way between “cloudy dull” and “cloudy bright.”  Not optimal by any stretch of the imagination.  The meter still showed 20.9 VDC open circuit!  That was with the charge controller switched off.  After switching it on the reading dropped as expected.  Under load the meter read 12.7 VDC.  Maybe enough to put a little juice into the batteries, but not enough to make much of a dent in any kind of regular use.  Still, even with fairly poor generating conditions we are making some electricity.   It will be interesting to see how it runs with actual sunlight on the panels.

Photovoltaic System 90% Installed

Yesterday was an errands day including visiting the local home center uber store for the stuff I’d need to install the solar panels on the roof and get them all hooked up to put some juice into my storage batteries.  The panels went up today and all of the inside equipment got hooked up too.  Unfortunately actually connecting the panels to the charge controller will have to wait for tomorrow.  The wires supplied on the panels don’t reach the controller.  I’ll need to stop by the uber store again for a terminal strip, about six feet of wire and some clamp type lugs.

Behold!  The panels:

I got my new solar panels installed just in time for the sun to set.  Tomorrow, before the panels will be connected to the charge controller there will be some sun.  But it will likely be raining before I get out of work.  And the ten day forecast doesn’t mention any sun again until Thursday.  They are predicting partly cloudy for Saturday so I may get to test the system then.

Speaking of the charge controller and batteries, here they are:

One of the other stops we made yesterday was at a local consignment shop.  I was looking for a small table that would let me set up the system pretty much as I have it here.  I haven’t had a desk that size since I was in the third grade!  This one even has a hole through the top for an inkwell!  That’s the perfect place to route the wires from the panels on the roof to the back of the charge controller.  That’s the box to the right where junior’s books, papers and frog for show and tell used to go.  The box to the left is the inverter.  The inverter has two standard house plugs that supply “modified sign wave” 120 volts AC.  It also has a fan so I don’t think heat should be much of an issue.  The charge controller has several options for powering various things with DC ranging from 3 volts to 12.  Both have USB connectors to charge things that need that style connection.

The two cables coming loosely down the wall and in through the inkwell are for the 12VDC florescent lights that came with the solar panel kit.  They are set up temporarily to provide emergency lighting to the area shown in the second photo.  They work – though not very brightly.  I haven’t decided if they will be set up there permanently or not.  You can see their connectors dangling from the bookshelf right next to the charge controller.

All of the ‘stuff’ on top of the desk is generally like kind to what the desk was put here for.  There’s a car charger, a booster box and a really lame ‘plugs into the lighter socket’ booster box there.  Also I’ve put the chargers for my smaller Makita power tools there.  Those will be plugged into a grid connected switched power strip.  Once I get one to go there.

 

Oh by the way, that’s R2 sitting next to the desk waiting patiently for the next time we’ll need him…

There was one other item I picked up at the home center uber store: an appliance load tester.  I’ll be using that to find out how much juice my stuff really needs in order to determine just how much (or how little, as the case may be) can actually be run from this system.

I am almost looking forward to going to work so I can rest!

This is a test…

Not the one the FCC ran at 2 o’clock this afternoon. 

I just did a very small test of my batteries and inverter.  After moving the batteries to the top of my generator’s frame so I could get at them easier than leaving them on the shop floor, I got out my good meter and checked them both.  I was surprised to find they both are showing 12.46 volts!  They are actually charged!  I has assumed (I know I shouldn’t) that they most likely wouldn’t be.

Having juice available I hooked up the inverter to one of the batteries and tried running my air mover fan.  It worked as if it were plugged into the wall.

This actually leaves me with something of a quandary: Having both batteries charged and in good working order and having the brand new inverter that we’ve now proven actually works and hopefully having the solar panels installed this weekend to keep the batteries charged – what should I do with this power?  I bought this equipment to be able to power an appliance or two, mainly the refrigerator and the furnace, for a few cycles a day in the event of the grid going down as it did last week.  Living where we do that is a fairly uncommon thing, particularly for as long a time as it was out this last time.  In the mean time is it a waste to not use the excess power that will be left over beyond what’s needed to maintain the charge on the batteries?

Hmmm…  You know, I think this is a good quandary to find myself in.  And that’s a nice change of pace!

Exustapated

Here it is barely seven thirty EST as I’m getting started writing today’s update and I’m already starting to nod off.  It’s been that busy a day.  And to foul up my internal clock still further, today is also the day we Fall Back from daylight savings time to standard time.  The clock might say seven thirty, but my brain insists it’s really eight thirty.

Today was the last day of the season at the flea market.  I often get some spectacular deal on the last day.  Not so much today, though I did alright. 

Probably the most useful thing from the flea is the really nice pair of Thinsolate lined deerskin gloves I picked up for a very reasonable price.  They should do me well this winter.  When I showed them to my buddy Roger he went over and got himself a pair too.

At another table I found a small screwdriver set that looks like a Parker Big Red pen.  The clip is a little different, but that’s clearly what they were copying.  I had seen them on a website about Parker pens, but I couldn’t find it again when I looked this evening.

Oh, I also bought a boat. 

Okay, so it’s a display model of a gaff rigged sail boat.  She’s 29 5/8 inches LOA not including the bowsprit which is missing.  I’ve never sailed a gaff rigged boat myself, but I like their looks.  I will have to replace the bowsprit and square away the rigging since it’s rather a mess at the moment.  But that’s part of the fun!  Except for the forward end of the bowsprit everything seems to be there.  So it should be fairly straightforward to fix her all up.  Then I’ll need to make a display stand.  That should be a nice little project to break in my new scroll saw on.  Then I’ll need to decide just where to put her.  I have wanted a model like this for the house for some time.  Lashed to the deck is another boom (or possibly a yard) and sail.  I’m wondering if that’s supposed to be a Genoa and jib boom or if it might be a square rigged sail that I once saw in a book on small boats labeled as a “Captain’s handkerchief.”  I am toying with the idea of adding that later just because I like square rigged ships so much.

Anywho…

After the flea we took Me2 back to the County Store.  Since I had my receipt and the box was unopened and in good condition I had no trouble with the return.  I wish I could have kept the little stove, but I don’t really have anywhere to store it and I need the cash for other things.

Those other things include the 45 watt solar panels that are now sitting in front of the fuel storage shelf in the enclosed porch and the 750 watt continuous (1500 watt peak) inverter I bought to go with it.  I was actually surprised that I was able to get the solar panels in Galileo!  Now that I have all of the primary components on hand I need to get serious about designing their installation.

Between the County Store and Harbor Freight we checked out a new to us Mexican restaurant with some friends from the flea.  I can’t recall the name of the place, but it’s in the Shaw’s Plaza in Milford.  Easy parking, good service, tasty food and the desert was to die for!  We all declared it a winner.  Hopefully this one will be consistently good – unlike the Italian place that on our second visit was so-so at best.

I probably could have broken this up into three or four separate posts.  But I’m just too tired to do that tonight. 

Baby Steps…

A few days ago I mentioned repurposing one of the storage shelves on our enclosed porch.  I finally had some time to get to that today.  I didn’t take a junk-filled before photo, but here’s an after of sorts.

I was pleasantly surprised that the blue kerosene cans actually do fit on that bottom shelf.  Almost like it was made for them as a matter of fact!  Next to them are some fluids for the car.  I’m not sure the shelf is wide enough for a gas can. 

On the next shelf up are some more fuels for various things.  From left to right is some lamp oil.  I was sure I had some on hand before this latest blackout.  But not having a good storage place for it I didn’t realize we only had what was in the globes of a couple of my antique lamps.  So we had some – but nowhere near enough.  These two jugs are from our recent run to the County Store.  Next to that is a jug of Tiki Torch fuel with citronella.  Not the best fuel to use in an indoor oil lamp, but it will work in a pinch.  Fortunately the outage didn’t last so long that we would have needed to resort to that.  Then there’s a can of white gas for the little stove that’s hiding in the red velvet bag on the next shelf up.  The lighter fluid in front of the Tiki fuel is for my classic Zippo.  I have decided that it really isn’t the best lighter for my oil lamps, but I made do with it this time around.  That blue watering can is used to refill the oil lamps – when I have fuel to refill them with…  Next to that are two shaker cans of ice melt.

Hanging on the hook on the front of the shelf is my somewhat less than ideal fuel siphon.  I had to add additional length to the draw tube to actually reach the kerosene in the tank out back of the house.  I bought a new one that’s battery powered at the County Store.  I haven’t tried that yet, so I can’t offer a review.

The next shelf up has some candles, the white gas stove and a small tote of lamp parts, wicks and such.  The corrugated boxes are full of various glass stuff that will eventually be moved elsewhere.

There are two more shelves in this unit.  The next up from what’s shown has two or three boxes of various household hardware items.  Light fixtures, locksets, stuff like that.  The top of the unit has flattened corrugated boxes waiting their turn to carry stuff over to storage.  The plastic tarp is there to protect it all from where the awning that is the roof of this enclosed porch leaks a little right where it joins to the house.  A bit of a nuisance really, but not much I can do about it the way it was made.

So there you have it.  A bit more organized and in a secure and handy location but outside of our living area.  I will eventually replace the open shelf with an enclosed fire resistant cabinet once the funding becomes available…

My plans for tomorrow are to return Me2 (the 10.5K BTU heater) and to purchase a solar panel rig from Harbor Freight.  Buy the way, they are on sale this month for $179.95 and as of nine this morning they had twenty five of them in stock at the store I frequent.

One disappointment today:  When I brought the stuff that had been cluttering up this shelf over to storage I couldn’t find the inverter that I had for my camper.  I have no idea now where it might be and the battery back up system is useless without one.  I don’t think it was big enough to use in this kind of system anyway.

Busy busy...

This noon on my lunch break I've started writing a spreadsheet to calculate our power needs for the house.  But I’m not making much headway on it.  I'll use it to work out what we can run with the storage capacity available in the batteries I already have.  Once I know that I can determine if the photovoltaic rig from Harbor Freight will be big enough to keep the batteries charged and how much of our ‘stuff’ we can expect to run in a typical day from the batteries. 

I’ve already drawn a preliminary sketch of how I can wire the system to be able to safely switch the refrigerator (or any other appliance for that matter) back and forth between grid power and the inverter that will draw power from the bank of batteries.  I’ll post a link to a better version of the sketch once I’ve redrawn it up to my standards.

Once the generator is squared away I’ll work out how to tie it in to the system both for direct power and to charge the batteries if there isn’t enough sun.

Another thing I want for the house is this really neat ventless gas fake wood stove that can run on bottled propane.  I spotted that at Lowe’s the other night.  It looks much like a larger version of the electric space heater we have in the living room.   At $450- plus installation by a licensed gas fitter I’m afraid that’s out of my reach right now.  But we WILL have one eventually.  We already have propane for the water heater.  It would be silly not to be able to use it.

Woo Hoo!

Which, after last night is not how I expected to title today’s update!

Last night R2 was acting up.  I mentioned that he was in yesterday’s posts.  Well we basically had no heat for most of the night.  And last night was the coldest night of the blackout.  My outdoor thermometer was reading 28.(something) when I checked it this morning.  What I don’t now remember is if that’s this morning after I got up or after I gave up trying to fix R2.

R2 is a KeroWorld KW24G.  We got him, as I mentioned previously, to cope with the last major power failure we’ve lived through.  That was the so-called “Great” Ice Storm of 2008.  (I’d still like to know what was so great about it… (Why am I picturing Jeff Dunham’s sidekick, Walter, saying that?))

So anywho, it’s been much smokier than I remember from 2008.  We hadn’t used it since then, but I made sure there wasn’t any old kerosene left in the tank before I put it away.  But apparently I must have had some bad kerosene at some point because gradually the wick stopped wicking and the flame became unstable.  I got up to check it around twenty minutes of eleven last night and there was just one little bit of actual flame visible in the window and a dim glow down at the wick.  But even that was only part way around the burner.  So in the dark working with my way cool camo baseball cap with the built in LED light and one of my Mini-Maglight flashlights (that I’ve upgraded with the Night-Eyes LED kit and multi-function tailcap switch) I tore into a strip, clean and rebuild of our old pall R2.

I was, shall we say, “less than successful.”

I finally gave up a little after one this morning.  After adding another blanket and grabbing one of my cold weather hats I went back to bed.

It was like a meat locker in the house when we got up this morning.

I made the executive decision that Mum and I would hop in Galileo and head off to the County Store in Milford, NH where we bought R2 and see A) if they have power and were open, and B) if so do they have a replacement wick for R2?  And besides, Galileo has heat!

Now I did check R2 before we left and the flame had come back up to nearly half of what it should have been.  The kettle had heated the water enough for hot coco.  But the room was still much too cold to leave Mum at home while I went off to work.

Back to the County Store: The first thing I spotted on entering the store (after the Christmas village decorations) was a small end cap display of lamp oil!  They not only had lamp oil but quite a few kerosene heaters and other power failure supplies too.

Have I mentioned how much I like this store?

Chatting with a very helpful sales clerk about what we were looking for she knew immediately what we were after and exactly where it was.  But she did have a disturbing question for me: “Is your heater a KeroWorld or KeroSun heater?”  I’d written down the model number – but not the brand.  Now I wasn’t sure.  The model number matched the heaters they have in stock so we made the leap of deduction that it must be a KeroWorld heater.  I confirmed that after we got home.

But that nagging doubt…

After paying for our initial purchase and going out to Galileo I made another of my executive decisions: I went back in and bought a smaller 10.5K BTU heater – just in case.  That was a $119- expense I really can’t afford.  But having driven all the way to New Hampshire and being ‘right there’ I didn’t want to have to drive back if I couldn’t get R2 back up and running.

So now we have R2 and Me2.  Since the box has not been opened I could maybe return Me2 and look into getting the Solar Photovoltaic System at Harbor Freight instead.  But that presupposes that I can get R2 running again.  I didn’t bother this morning because…

… not five minutes after we got back from New Hampshire the power came back on!

Woo Hoo!!!

More later.  Right now I’ve got to go to the café and grab something for lunch.  What with all the refrigables declared NFG there wasn’t anything left for me to brown-bag-it.

Moving Forward

After work I’m planning to go over to Lowe’s to see if they have power and to see if a fresh truckload of things like lamp oil might have come in.  I would be very surprised if they still had any of their stock from before we started with all this fun.  While I’m there I also plan on looking at prices for the components to build a Mother Earth News style passive solar heater.  I’ve decided where I can mount one (or two or three) at home and I’d like to get the planning stages started.  One thing I might buy while I’m there is a better transfer pump to give me easier access to my kerosene.

After that hopefully the Gouge Station – I mean Gas Station – will still have some (way over priced) regular unleaded in stock.  Galileo has gotten much lower than I usually let him.  Timing is everything!  * eyeroll *

So among other things this little practice run has reminded me of is that I really need to get going on my back-up power system. 

I actually have a generator.  I bought it used at a yard sale.  I was told that there was an issue with the engine not wanting to run at a constant speed.  I’ve been meaning to check into that but haven’t gotten ‘round to it. 

A couple of weeks ago I picked up, for very short money at another yard sale, a pair of good sized storage batteries that would work well with an inverter – if I had a way to charge them.  I even have an inverter around somewhere!  Come to think of it, it’s probably over in storage with all of the stuff I pulled out of the van when I was getting ready to sell it.

Another thing I want to set up is a photovoltaic system that can, among other things, be used to charge those batteries.  Harbor Freight has just such a system, though they are almost certainly out of stock.  (Assuming the store has power and is actually open…)

One small thing I can do without purchasing anything else is to continue putting up the plastic over the windows.  Mum may not realize it (until she reads this) but I am deliberately holding off on that to allow some air exchange into the house so we don’t croak from smoke inhalation what with R2 acting up a bit at the moment.

I have also decided that the black plastic shelf just outside the door in the pantry part of our enclosed porch is going to have all of the storage junk removed and boxed to go to storage to make room for fuel storage.  Both 5 gallon kerosene cans will be filled and put on the bottom shelf along with one can of gasoline.  The next shelf up will house our cash of fuel for our oil lamps along with some citronella torch fuel and lighter fluid..  There will be a box or tote of oil lamp parts.  I have quite a bit of that sort of thing scattered around various cabinets and boxes and such.  It all needs to be gathered in one place.

I have a barrel on hand just waiting for me to set up my rain water catchment system.  That’s another of those projects that’s been waiting for me to have the time to actually decide how I want to implement.

So I have a pile of work around the house to get to – much of which will have to wait for the power to come back on.  I’ll try to make a point of documenting each of these projects and post updates as things progress.  So check in from time to time to see how (if?) things are going.  I can use all the encouragement I can get as well as your suggestions for better ways to accomplish the stuff that needs doing.

Brief Update

‘Step 1’ is coming along nicely while ‘Step 2’ is still in development…  Oh, wait!  Not that kind of brief!  ;-)

The power is still out.  This is now Day 3, not counting Saturday since power went out around 10:30pm.

Last night Mum fixed supper on R2 for the first time.  Spaghetti O’s augmented with cut up hotdogs. 

As of today I am declaring ALL refrigerated food in the house unfit for human consumption.  We coasted with some of it as the fridge kept its cool reasonably well and was not opened much to help it at that.  Some items were moved to a large plastic tote in our enclosed but unheated porch.  It’s been too warm for that to work for two days now, so I’m putting my foot down.  Mum actually wanted to use the milk we bought Saturday for breakfast.  You see Mum is a depression baby and is loath to throw anything out.  I would rather chuck food that may be still good than spend a couple of days chucking myself, if you know what I mean…   I will make an exception for the cheese as long as there’s no visible mold, although I probably shouldn’t.  Everything else will go out with the trash Friday morning.

We still have plenty of things like pasta, ramen noodle soup, dry beans and canned goods that don’t need refrigeration. 

Oh, I did remember to fill one of our storage jugs with filtered tap water last night.  A couple of months ago I picked up a little Britta filter that mounts to the kitchen faucet.  I think our water at what I’m still calling the new house is fine.  But still, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Here we go again…

After surviving the Great Ice Storm of 2008 Mum and I were in much better shape to deal with the Halloween Nor’easter of 2011.  (And I was griping about a little dusting on my van’s windshield just the other day…)

The basics everyone needs just to survive:

Food & Water

Shelter

Warmth

Our pantry is not in as good a condition for this kind of situation as I would prefer.  That said, we have enough to eat.  The water supply is still working.  (Remind me to grab some in a container when I get home just incase that changes…)  And I have devised an improvised way of cooking.  So we are okay there.

Our home is undamaged and just as livable as if there wasn’t a ‘situation’ in progress – except for our electric supply being out.  That right there is the problem.  Because the electricity is out several key systems are also down.

The furnace.  (Kerosene, but requires an electric fuel pump and blowers to run.)

The hot water heater.  (Propane, but requires an electric blower and ignition to run.)

The refrigerator.  (Electric, 110/115 volts.)  We don’t have a chest freezer – yet.

The stove.  (Electric, 220 volts.)

Naturally the lights and computer are also on that list.  But those are convenience items not required for basic survival.  Other things we have come to depend on are the laundry equipment and the dishwasher.  Our voip phone system survived for several hours without power on its battery back-up, but is now dead.  There is apparently no power to the local cell tower so even while my cell phone had juice there is no service.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am writing this on my lunch break on my work computer since the building has emergency generators and the area may have power from the grid.

So our food situation is tolerable and our home is livable.  What about warmth? 

We’ve got that covered too.  Our pall R2 is back in service.  I wrote at length about the odyssey we went through finding him during the ice storm.  R2, who got his name because he resembles an “R2 unit” (though not R2-D2 so much) from Star Wars, is a portable kerosene space heater.  One of the larger upright cylindrical ones that have a cage-work surrounding the top 4/5ths of his body.  I have to siphon fuel from our primary oil tank out back of the house to fill him.  But at least we have some to siphon!  For cooking I’ve found that if I place our kettle on top of the cage-work it doesn’t boil to make the kettle whistle, but it still gets hot enough to make tea.  We could also probably cook pasta or make soup or stew that way as well.

For lights we have my collection of vintage oil lamps and lanterns.  They can burn standard lamp oil or citronella torch fuel.  In a pinch they could probably also use kerosene the same as R2, but that is a last resort.

I have also set up the prototype passive solar heaters that I built last year.  I don’t know how many BTU’s they contribute, but they do seem to help.  I would very much like to build a bigger badder better version this year – if finances will allow.

So we’ve got the basics covered.

A couple of things we don’t have covered as well as I’d like are back-up electricity storage/generation and refrigerated food storage.  I’ll go into those and other preparedness projects in more detail in future posts. 

As you can no doubt tell I’m not a big-time survivalist guru mentor.  But I am more than happy to share my journey into the land of preparedness and self sufficiency. 

One thing I will recommend is that you get your hands on my favorite magazine: The Backwoodsman.  The guys who write the articles in that publication know what they are talking about and have developed the information from personal use.  (The Eclectic Dragonfly is in no way connected to BWM, its publisher or any of its authors or contributors.  This is simply my personal endorsement.)