Survival Energy Harvesting – Batteries

If you and yours are in a grid down situation, then it is likely you have lost your primary source of energy.  I hope you can take care of heating and cooking. Those of us with access to wood stoves or even propane or natural gas will have that covered off. However there is no arguing with the contention that electricity makes so much of our lives easier.

There are a few options if you want to have electricity with no grid. Generators are affordable enough that you can have one available for emergencies. Give some consideration to dual fuel models if you have access to propane. Your limitation is then your fuel supply. Even with that limitation, you can do a lot by simply running the generator for limited periods of time per day. It is possible to run your generator intermittently, to power your freezer or refrigerator for a couple of hours (enough to keep things cool for 24 hours until the next run). While you are powering the freezer, you could also be charging up your portable electronic devices. Even better, you could be powering up portable power packs and batteries themselves to give you a degree of power portability and the ability to have power without the generator running.

I want to mention here that almost all of us have access to electric generators. We typically use them for transportation. That’s right. Your vehicle is capable of providing a large part of your electrical needs. All you need is a DC to AC power converter. Hook a couple of cables up to your car battery, start the engine and then let your vehicle idle while you power up the fridge, charge your portable devices, catch up on the news on your flat screen TV, run a water pump, whatever. You just need to make sure that the devices you are running don’t overdraw power through your inverter. I’m not going to go through the process of doing the calculations and the best way of hooking up your system. Steven Harris has already done that at his site. A ton of free, detailed information for you in his recorded interviews. He covers using an inverter to power your house and also talks about building battery banks and using solar cells. He also has books and videos that are well worth their cost.

If you have access to solar panels or to a windmill powered generator then your life is somewhat simpler and certainly quieter. You are still going to have to do some work and some wiring. See the link above to the  Steven Harris podcasts once again.

All of this info is good if you have the time and opportunity to prepare in advance. I have followed Steve’s instructions and am part way to where I want to be. The truth is there is a wide variety of solutions to the power problem. They aren’t easy, and they require technical know how. I really advise you to do a deep dive into Steven Harris’ material. He provides a ton of free info.

But what happens if we have a general breakdown before we can take advanced preparations. Or what if we are prepared, but our community isn’t or isn’t prepared enough. Or the supply chain is broken? What then?

Once again, your options may depend on how detailed a local area inventory you have done. This is the meat of this post. Wherever your original power is coming from, you are going to need batteries to store it. What are you going to do if you don’t have batteries?

If you are properly prepared in other areas, barter becomes a very real option. If you have already started on the homesteading lifestyle you may have vegetables, food animals like rabbit, cattle, poultry, goats or sheep etc., or other items. If your community is engaged in a widespread group effort, then arrangements may be made to allow credit to battery suppliers who can then draw on the community resources for their needs.

A system that charges batteries works best with deep cycle or marine batteries. Car batteries will break down far faster than deep cycle batteries. Having said that, for the short term, vehicle batteries may be more common and easier to acquire.

Let’s go down the list of potential suppliers. This is the result of my speculating and noting what I see as I drive around:

1. Individual vehicles
2.  Automotive supply stores
3. Automobile dealers
4. Automobile rentals
5. Auto repair
6. Auto wreckers
7. Hardware stores
8. Golf cart dealers
9. Golf courses
10. Forklift sales and service
11. Equipment rental – manlifts, hi-lifts
12. RV Sales and Service
13. Marine Sales and Service
14. Marinas
15. Homeowners with RVs or boats
16. Portable solar powered sign rental places
17. Portable solar powered signs
18. Heavy equipment dealers, rentals
19. Airports

I could use some help here. These are just some ideas off the top of my head. I am not knowledgeable enough to know if all of them would work. I don’t know what voltage the solar powered sign battery standards are, as a for instance, nor the manlift type of equipment. Are snowmobile, airplane, or ATV batteries of any use here? What about UPS units for computers? They don’t stock a bunch of power. How long would they run a little 2 w night light?

It is my intention to do some interviews with people knowledgeable in all of these areas and then include the info in future posts or incorporate the information into downloadable reports, but I am still early in this process myself. If you think you could help, or would like to be interviewed, get in touch and let me know what you know. Maybe we can do something together.

I’ve found a couple of resources that you might find interesting, along with the Steven Harris stuff referenced above.

Here’s a link to “Solar Power 101 for Homeowners.”

Here’s a link to “Solar PV Standardized Training Manual.”