Off the Grids
By Ed Howes

What if the greatest threat to American life as we know it is not
terror, but sabotage? What if a massive invasion of America is being planned for the year 2015? Will America have effective counter measures in place to prevent the destruction of our communication systems, including the internet, or our computer controlled electric power grid? Last I heard,
attacks on the internet are a regular occurrence and staying just one step
ahead of them is taxing anti sabotage capabilities, like a well designed
electronic game. Can we imagine what life in America would be like without
electric power or telecommunication?

In such a condition, how would we
possibly repel an armed invasion? What
will happen to transportation if only one
out of ten fueling stations could pump
fuel with back up power? Or one in a
hundred? Where would we work? Who
would be able to pay us? Where would
we get food and water? It is highly
likely we will all be on a camping
vacation or fighting invaders day and
night. In light of 9/11 are you confident
our public guardians will prevent such
sabotage by enemies, foreign or
domestic? We are so focused on the
explosive attack, we give little thought
to the many ways we are vulnerable
and no one is able to cover all the
bases required for high security.

For at least thirty five years,
environmentalists and conservationists
have been urging us to become less
dependent on corporate agriculture,
corporate electrical power, corporate
fuel, corporate work and corporate
government. We left it all to corporate
leadership to reduce these
dependencies and we have increased
them to the point our survival and that
of our children cannot be insured by
personal effort. Many of us are
comfortable enough in our faith to say,
no matter what, God will provide. Then
comes the pertinent question. What will
be provided and for whom? What will
we do with those for whom no provision
has been made - write them off?

Think first in terms of providing
yourself with the very basics required
for survival when energy is unavailable
in the marketplace. How much clean
water do you have stored or readily
available when it no longer flows from
the tap or is unfit for consumption? How
much food do you have on hand if local
markets go bare? How would you heat
your home or your food if governments
required all available energy? Do you
have a fuel supply handy? Lanterns,
candles, rechargeable batteries and
battery chargers? It is one thing to plan
for a six week or six month disruption in
supply chains. What happens if the
disruption continues for six years?

Few people would need to sacrifice
that new car, college education, or
vacation trip to create a simple plan
that allows greater self sufficiency in
home and garden. Few if any special
skills are required and the technologies
that assist in independent and
comfortable living are constantly
improving. A six year campout could be
a hoot and a growth experience for
anyone willing to prepare and
preparations can be made on a very
tight budget.

Few people can last much more than
three days without potable water. Bad
water might buy you a few weeks
before illness takes you. If you have
dirty water readily available,
purification equipment can be had for
less than one hundred dollars and
deluxe, high volume purification can be
had for less than six hundred.

The handiest and least expensive
water supply available to most of us is
a guttered roof with large containers at
the downspouts. Containers can range
from forty five gallon plastic trash cans
to fifteen hundred gallon above ground
swimming pools. Total typical annual
rainfall, frequency and total roof area
will help one choose the most
appropriate containers. Indoor storage
can be done with gallon jugs and
shelves or whatever is clean and
convenient.

When we have insured a water
supply, the next thing would be food.
Stock up on things you would want to
eat on a restricted diet and stock up on
non hybrid garden seed for foods you
are willing to grow. Seed loses viability
over time, so a small garden started
now can guarantee fresh seed when it
is needed. Special refrigerated seed
storage can generally assure viability
for five years and more. If I was not
growing a small garden for fresh seed, I
would add fresh seed to my storage
from the marketplace every three years
or so.

The big question for all of us
concerned with comfort and
convenience, the great commodity of
the West, is electricity. On the camping
level, rechargeable flashlight batteries
and a couple of solar chargers can do
the job for a few hundred dollars. You
will have portable light after sunset. If
you want to operate appliances, heat a
waterbed, use a desktop computer,
watch TV or video, light a house or
yard, a much larger storage system is
required, along with some generation
capability.

The greater the investment in
storage, the less critical power
generation becomes. A five hundred
watt photovoltaic array would not
power the typical American home all
day, yet, with ten kilowatts of storage,
there would be full power available
every other day, provided there was
ten hours of average daily sunlight.
Photovoltaics are far more cost
effective for small back-up systems with
alternative charging options, than for
whole house power. Small charging
alternatives, include automobile
alternators, small commercial gasoline
powered generators, do - it - yourself
wind generators and even converted
bicycle exercise generators. As long as
the grid system is functioning, one can
use commercial energy to keep the
storage system topped off. I believe
that is the very best place to begin
building a home system.

The uninterruptable power supply
created to provide emergency power
for desktop computers is a logical first
step in a home power system. For less
than one hundred dollars one gets a
twelve volt battery, a regulated AC
battery charger, a DC to AC power
inverter, an automatic switch and an
annoying alarm that lets you know
when AC power is off. To increase the
utility of this system it is only necessary
to connect additional twelve volt
batteries in parallel with the battery in
the UPS.

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When
your storage system has grown to a
satisfactory capacity, it is time to
acquire some generator capacity.

Photovoltaic generators are
constantly improving and the cost
comes down as they do, like consumer
electronics. The more people we have
investing in this form of solar power,
the more affordable it will become. As
people begin using such power, the grid
requires less capacity and peak use
generation which reduces generation
costs for the electric utility. We have
become conservationists in our quest
for energy independence and
contributors to the global welfare. It is
a good feeling. As new technologies,
such as fast burn combustion and water
power come along, it will be possible to
generate surplus home power at less
than half the average cost of utility
power. You save money, the world
around you saves energy and you live
well when the lights go out in the West.

All one needs to become energy
independent in five years or less is a
plan and a budget. It could be the best
investment we will ever make.

Ed Howes sought and found, knocked and entered. Now he sees things differently. To see more of what he sees, please visit http://www.justanotherview.com or do an author search here at Ezine Articles.

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