andrew.box
100 W
As you may know from recent posts, I toasted my lipo battery pack last week by accidentally leaving it connected to the controller (controller was turned off but it still drained my 18S pack down to 2.5V). Also, I got a concussion playing laser tag in Branson MO last weekend and had to visit the ER to get the cut glued shut. That's the down side of things that have happened this month.
But on the upside, I made some incremental progress prepping for a SHTF scenario. Maybe it's just the male version of a nesting instinct, but I've had a lot of fun putting a few basic provisions in place to have ready in the event of some type of emergency event, not necessarily a zombie or nuclear apocalypse but even a major storm could knock out power and access to provisions for several days which would suck if you didn't have any plans for such a case.
A couple weeks ago I got my General HAM radio license. Last week I finished my 4 panel grid-tie solar installation (had to do pole mounts in the back yard due to city restrictions) and have begun setting up my Ham shack in the 'safe room', which is really just a fairly nice crawl space. It's well sealed from the outside and located centrally in the floor plan next to a concrete stairwell. This weekend I re-arranged things in there and installed an outlet box. Last night I dragged a big 100 AH 12V deep cycle in there to power the HF radio and will also set up an inverter eventually. I have a small 90W unit that does true sine wave but it's too small for much besides running a couple CF lights and chargins phones/laptops. A 600-1000W unit would be a good size. I need a beanbag for a throne next.
The solar panels use Enphase microenverters, which wouldn't be good for much if the grid went down, but the plan would be in the event if a failry long term grid failure to re-wire things to eliminate the microinverters and run 24VDC into the main breaker box using the existing 240VAC wiring (since it's already buried and in place) to charge some batteries. Some of the 110VAC circuits could be energized from an inverter, if desired.
My main weakness right now is water storage. I don't want to go totally crazy, but it would be nice to have at least 30-50 gallons of clean drinking water stored somewhere. I have about 15 gallons now and 2-3 months worth of food that's mostly dried bean/rice mixes, textured soy protein, dried milk and oatmeal. Some people have gotten food grade 55 gallon drums cheap for water storage, but they're kind of big. Several smaller ~10 gallon containers would be ideal, I'll have to keep my eye out for something like this that's affordable.
I haven't seen it but apparently there's a National Geo TV show about this stuff called "preppers". I keep meaning to check it out, it'll probably just make me jealous though. Like when I hear about my mother in law's friend who bought up a bunch of the defunct missile silos out in western Kansas. He has his own personal fortress, the control panels for the camera turrets and main blast door still work, and has made tons of money fixing them up an selling them (like millions of dollars). It would be awesome to have something like that sitting on some acreage.
Who else has zombie apocalypses, safe rooms and hoarding on their mind?
But on the upside, I made some incremental progress prepping for a SHTF scenario. Maybe it's just the male version of a nesting instinct, but I've had a lot of fun putting a few basic provisions in place to have ready in the event of some type of emergency event, not necessarily a zombie or nuclear apocalypse but even a major storm could knock out power and access to provisions for several days which would suck if you didn't have any plans for such a case.
A couple weeks ago I got my General HAM radio license. Last week I finished my 4 panel grid-tie solar installation (had to do pole mounts in the back yard due to city restrictions) and have begun setting up my Ham shack in the 'safe room', which is really just a fairly nice crawl space. It's well sealed from the outside and located centrally in the floor plan next to a concrete stairwell. This weekend I re-arranged things in there and installed an outlet box. Last night I dragged a big 100 AH 12V deep cycle in there to power the HF radio and will also set up an inverter eventually. I have a small 90W unit that does true sine wave but it's too small for much besides running a couple CF lights and chargins phones/laptops. A 600-1000W unit would be a good size. I need a beanbag for a throne next.
The solar panels use Enphase microenverters, which wouldn't be good for much if the grid went down, but the plan would be in the event if a failry long term grid failure to re-wire things to eliminate the microinverters and run 24VDC into the main breaker box using the existing 240VAC wiring (since it's already buried and in place) to charge some batteries. Some of the 110VAC circuits could be energized from an inverter, if desired.
My main weakness right now is water storage. I don't want to go totally crazy, but it would be nice to have at least 30-50 gallons of clean drinking water stored somewhere. I have about 15 gallons now and 2-3 months worth of food that's mostly dried bean/rice mixes, textured soy protein, dried milk and oatmeal. Some people have gotten food grade 55 gallon drums cheap for water storage, but they're kind of big. Several smaller ~10 gallon containers would be ideal, I'll have to keep my eye out for something like this that's affordable.
I haven't seen it but apparently there's a National Geo TV show about this stuff called "preppers". I keep meaning to check it out, it'll probably just make me jealous though. Like when I hear about my mother in law's friend who bought up a bunch of the defunct missile silos out in western Kansas. He has his own personal fortress, the control panels for the camera turrets and main blast door still work, and has made tons of money fixing them up an selling them (like millions of dollars). It would be awesome to have something like that sitting on some acreage.
Who else has zombie apocalypses, safe rooms and hoarding on their mind?
