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I remember when PGE built the Trojan nuclear power plant to sell electricity to California and subsidize Oregon electric bills. The running joke was that California pool heaters were paying for our electricity.
I really appreciate the "imports" of electrical energy into Callfornia. It help pay for our county owned 125 million dollar fiber-optic internet system. I am watching the sun set over the Columbia River, with my 1 Gbps internet.
Thanks....to all of you buying our electricity in California.
The last time I checked, the vast majority of power from the Northwest to California was from Army Corp of Engineer dams
The money to pay for that goes to the U S Treasury. If it makes you feel better thinking it goes to other states, keep up the fantasy.
A lot of people think of getting canned foods, water, batteries, flashlights and all that... Generators can run out of fuel or not even start at all. Then you go to the gas station after a hurricane only to find the line a mile long, often with pumps out of gas.
I like solar power to help with ventilation and cooling. That's something that 99% of the people never plan for. When your power is out, who wants to sit in a house that's 90+ degrees inside? Or even try to sleep in that!
I guess if you don't power one of these, at the very least you can run small fans. I think some of the cheap fans I have around the house use barely 25 watts. A 100 Ah battery holds about 1200 watts or so. You can go all night powering a fan with one of those.
A lot of people think of getting canned foods, water, batteries, flashlights and all that... Generators can run out of fuel or not even start at all. Then you go to the gas station after a hurricane only to find the line a mile long, often with pumps out of gas.
Just as how gas stations will runout of gas when they are no longer being resupplied. So too will household pantries runout of canned food.
Relying on gas stations or stockpile of canned foods, neither is very 'green' [the sub-forum title] nor are they renewable.
Yep. Apartment owners will suffer the worst. People who own homes with yards have the option of growing some of their own food.
The good thing is, as long as you have water, a lot of people can easily survive without food for a good 30 to 90 days. People water fast all the time. Most of the US population is obese, so I bet most people could survive no less than 5 months without food as long as they have access to good water.
I saw a documentary a while back how a 600 lb guy went 2 years eating zero food. He burned his own fat for fuel.
Watch some of the videos from Dr. Eric Berg and Dr. Jason Fung. Lots of good info on fasting and intermittent fasting.
Still, I would want access to ventilation and/or air conditioning during a long power outage.
A lot of people think of getting canned foods, water, batteries, flashlights and all that... Generators can run out of fuel or not even start at all. Then you go to the gas station after a hurricane only to find the line a mile long, often with pumps out of gas.
I like solar power to help with ventilation and cooling. That's something that 99% of the people never plan for. When your power is out, who wants to sit in a house that's 90+ degrees inside? Or even try to sleep in that!
I guess if you don't power one of these, at the very least you can run small fans. I think some of the cheap fans I have around the house use barely 25 watts. A 100 Ah battery holds about 1200 watts or so. You can go all night powering a fan with one of those.
I didn't watch the videos but my small DIY solar PV system can run everything in our house* including a 10,000 BTU window air conditioner if it's "mostly sunny". We don't have much in the way of battery storage so running it under "mostly cloudy" isn't really an option. But those days are cooler anyway.
For energy efficient cooling, at least making it feel cool, you can't beat energy star ceiling fans.
If we're not running the A/C we have a 30 watt panel that powers a DC "whole house" fan. It pulls air from the house and blows it into the attic where it displaces the hot attic air, and at the same time it pulls outside air into the house. It's wired straight to the fan- no charge controllers, batteries, etc.
* I can't run 'everything in the house' at the same time. For example if I need to run the microwave I have to turn the air conditioner to 'fan only' until the microwave is done. Likewise I can't run the well pump and the microwave at the same time. I can run 3000 watts for limited length of time when the sun is out but the 'average' consumption needs to be in the ~1200 or below range. It's not hard to do.
I didn't watch the videos but my small DIY solar PV system can run everything in our house* including a 10,000 BTU window air conditioner if it's "mostly sunny". We don't have much in the way of battery storage so running it under "mostly cloudy" isn't really an option. But those days are cooler anyway.
For energy efficient cooling, at least making it feel cool, you can't beat energy star ceiling fans.
If we're not running the A/C we have a 30 watt panel that powers a DC "whole house" fan. It pulls air from the house and blows it into the attic where it displaces the hot attic air, and at the same time it pulls outside air into the house. It's wired straight to the fan- no charge controllers, batteries, etc.
* I can't run 'everything in the house' at the same time. For example if I need to run the microwave I have to turn the air conditioner to 'fan only' until the microwave is done. Likewise I can't run the well pump and the microwave at the same time. I can run 3000 watts for limited length of time when the sun is out but the 'average' consumption needs to be in the ~1200 or below range. It's not hard to do.
I'd love to see a photo of your set up and see how you're doing that. Running a 10,000 BTU AC on solar power is AWESOME! I'm sure many off the grid people would be interested in learning how you made all that work.
Yep. Apartment owners will suffer the worst. People who own homes with yards have the option of growing some of their own food.
The good thing is, as long as you have water, a lot of people can easily survive without food for a good 30 to 90 days. People water fast all the time. Most of the US population is obese, so I bet most people could survive no less than 5 months without food as long as they have access to good water.
I saw a documentary a while back how a 600 lb guy went 2 years eating zero food. He burned his own fat for fuel.
Watch some of the videos from Dr. Eric Berg and Dr. Jason Fung. Lots of good info on fasting and intermittent fasting.
Still, I would want access to ventilation and/or air conditioning during a long power outage.
I don't think people realize how much food and water you have to have to actually survive. Your 2 pepper plants in your suburbia back yard is not going to cut it. For power you would almost certianly have to have access to a moving water source for hydro, solar and wind are fickle your going to be constantly managing power worried about your fridge kicking off trading power between the fridge and the AC unit etc. You would need a massive bank of batteries and a small solar farm to actually go off grid.
I'd love to see a photo of your set up and see how you're doing that. Running a 10,000 BTU AC on solar power is AWESOME! I'm sure many off the grid people would be interested in learning how you made all that work.
I don't think people realize how much food and water you have to have to actually survive. Your 2 pepper plants in your suburbia back yard is not going to cut it. For power you would almost certianly have to have access to a moving water source for hydro, solar and wind are fickle your going to be constantly managing power worried about your fridge kicking off trading power between the fridge and the AC unit etc. You would need a massive bank of batteries and a small solar farm to actually go off grid.
^^^ To survive people could go back to "dark ages" when there was no power or appliances. Without that stuff, BUT with basic knowledge and common sense, people could survive just fine...
They probably would start communities with leaders and workers
Besides all that, even if power is back, or just access to water and basic groceries (but all food businesses are closed), lots of people wouldn't survive or struggle a lot, because lots of them don't know how to cook.
I know people who absolutely never ever cook at home. Their only knowledge of food preparation is nuking some restaurant leftovers in a microwave. Even if they would have sacks/bags of dry stuff at home, they wouldn't know how to make it edible.
It actually would be great if everyone had a book about how to survive in the wilderness, they would learn about many techniques how to recognize edible plants, make fire, hunt for their food, fish, etc... https://www.outdoorlife.com/photos/g...s-ever-written
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