When technology fails

A lot of people are prepared for disasters. Some even have plans for long term disruptions in infrastructure. Man made and natural disasters can suddenly strip hundreds of years of technological progress out of our lives.

Some of us, recognizing our reliance on modern marvels have backups like rain catchment and solar electricity. That's great. I'm a big proponent of having backup systems in place. However, there are disasters that could take those down. For example, a storm that took the grid down almost dropped a huge hemlock tree on my solar panels. It was a near miss.

An earthquake that destroys a city's water system could also destroy a home owner's water catchment system. An EMP that fries the phone system could also destroy ham radio equipment.

It's only prudent to be able to function at a much more primitive level. Our needs for shelter, food, water and safety do not end just because the modern means of providing those things does. With that in mind it's good to have a plan to survive at a low tech level, at least for days if not months.

I'm fortunate in that I've a well that overflows year round. All I need is some sort of container to haul water back to my house. My home has woodstoves and the hand tools needed to process wood, crosscut saws, axes, mauls, wedges, and sledge hammers. Decent hunting and fishing is within walking distance from my house. We've a small garden plus there's a lot of native edible plants nearby.

There are ways to provide for our basic needs. Looks good on paper. The problem is that all those things take a lot more time and work doing it the old fashioned way. While it's possible to do any of those things, there just aren't enough hours in the day to do them all. Then there's the problem of having to be in two places at the same time. If I'm out hunting I'm not home defending the homestead.

Our ancestors lived in extended family groups for a reason. It was the only way to get everything done. Plenty of jobs go better with two or more people. Take something as simple as chopping wood. One guy handles the actual chopping with an ax. A second person moves the chopped wood aside and readies the next log to be chopped. Add a third or fourth person and then the wood can be piled up. When someone gets tired or bored with their job, they can switch tasks.

If we are lucky we won't be reduced to that level, but it's good to have a plan -and a group willing to work together.

-Sixbears

Battery decisions

I just pulled the dead 12 volt deep discharge battery from my sailboat. It got me thinking. Well, the first thing I thought was: darn, those things are heavy. The second thing that came to mind was the fact that my household battery bank is getting on in years.

My household solar electric system is of moderate size. Storage consists of 12 golf cart sized batteries. Currently I'm using good quality Interstate brand. Trojans are good too, but since Interstate has local dealers that's what I went with. The big advantage of dealing locally is that I don't have to pay for shipping. Since shipping is based on weight and batteries are mostly lead, it would get pricey quickly.

Lead acid batteries are really old technology. They haven't advanced all that much in the last 100 years or so. Battery storage has always been the Achilles heel of alternative energy. While lead acid battery storage is adequate for off-grid homes, it doesn't scale well to power grid size. There are some massive battery bank systems out there for things like phone and Internet systems, but there are none large enough to power a big city.

At least, not until fairly recently. Battery technology is making some huge leaps. There's always been interesting things invented in laboratories, but those technologies never made it out of the lab. Now there are huge factories turning out high capacity batteries for everything form cell phones to electric cars. There's real economic incentives for cheap battery storage. Those clever ideas from the labs are starting to show up in factories.

It's almost at the point where it would make sense to replace my 19th century electrical storage system with something from the 21st century. Almost.

The house system should be able to last for another year or two. By then it might make economic sense to try something new. Of course, there's also the possibility that as new battery technology takes hold, lead acid will be deeply discounted. That would be fine too, as leas acid has proven to be good enough for my needs.

-Sixbears