Yes I am

After my last article talking about how "absolutely" that Electricity has become part of our every day lives, I got some interesting responses. Some wrote in saying things like thank you for that, we often take power for granted. Some wanted to hear more. But one stood out to me. It went "let me guess you're going to push solar again."

Yes I am. But maybe in a way that helps you look at it a bit differently. Pick up a prepping book. Go to you tube and watch any of the 1000 video's on what you should stock up on for a prolonged emergency. What is the main theme behind all of it?  "you need shelf stable items that don't need refrigeration."  Now, I agree with this to a large extent. White rice, ( not brown, the hulls will go rancid) is indeed basic human calories and you need them. Sealed well with an oxygen absorber and you've got 20 years of good to eat food. 

You pair that with beans. Rice on it's own gives you calories which are needed in an emergency situation. Beans on the other hand give you other nutrients that the rice doesn't. But eaten together, they're a fine source of protein and nutrients you need. Beans, like rice will store well for two decades.  Here's a note to consider, you have to "cook" both of them. Most hard beans take over an hour, while rice is fairly quick. You need to think about your cooking fuel amounts.  Note two...Lentils cook in half the time. Remember that. 

Then it's your canned items. Canned veggies, canned chicken/beef, canned tuna, sardines, broth, soups, etc. I'm all for it. But, do you have a way to heat any of it up? If your natural gas is still working, God bless, you're in good shape. But if you're electric range is down with no power, you'd best have a grill with fuel, as cold BBQ beans aren't that wonderful. 

Anyway, the point is, that if you had power, even a relatively small amount of power, you could run a chest freezer for years. Think along with me here for a minute. I was in WalMart Friday evening buying paper plates. In a freezer display they had 10 - 14 pound turkeys for 88 cents a pound. No they're not organic- best of the best turkey's on earth. But what other protein can you buy for 88 cents a pound?  Almost none comes to mind. 

Amazon, believe it or not sells chest freezers. You can get a 7 cubic foot model from a good manufacturer like Midea for 299.  If you want to gamble, they sell a "no brand" for 139.  So, IF you had steady electricity, you could easily put 10, 10LB turkey's in that freezer and still have room for other items.  How much better would you feel if the grid was down for 60 days, knowing you could serve up a turkey dinner next week, instead of a can of sardines?? 

In other words, 99% of prepping advice, is talking about food stuff that don't need freezers or fridges. That's because the idea is that the grid is down ( and yeah, I've been through enough hurricanes to get that thinking...) so you have to rely on shelf stable items only.  Well, no you don't. Yes they're important and yes you should have them. But in my estimation, at this point...they should be the back up to the back up plan. 

Then you're told, buy candles. Buy hurricane lamps and oil. Stock up on batteries. You could spend a few hundred bucks on things like that. Or... maybe you could flip a light switch instead? That sounds a lot better to me. 

Most people look into portable generators for emergencies. Some will go the extra mile and install a whole home generator with a large propane tank. I've seen both methods get folks through a week of tough times. But they have their limits. Both need fuel. On the smaller side, let's say you bought a Harbor Freight Predator 3500 generator. It's a fantastic unit, I've got one that we've abused like nothing should ever survive. ( our has been underwater for a day, cleaned out and started on the first pull,.,that was 108 running hours ago...) But of course it needs fuel. In a bad storm, you might only have 1 gas station that's still working, a line a mile long and how much can you safely carry? How much gasoline do you want sitting in your shed? Gas does indeed go bad folks. 

A whole house generator, with a 400 gallon propane tank buried on your property is a much nicer, much more friendly set up. Yes it's costly, and yes it still needs fuel. But if you conserve your energy uses a bit, you can run an entire home for 2 weeks as if the power never went out. I have seen this first hand. When hurricane Ian knocked out power for 2 weeks here in SW Florida, friends of mine had a whole home generac, with 400 gallons of fuel. Their lives didn't change. 

UNTIL it was time to refill the tank. After the storm clean up and a lot of things got open again, Propane was very expensive. It cost them over 1600 dollars for the refill...after the initial 1200 dollar first fill. Napkin math says that was 2800 bucks plus. But there was a blessing there. Propane WAS available. What if it wasn't? Your whole home generator is now a 10,000 dollar paper weight. 

And therein lies the issue. With gas or propane electric generation, we have to have the belief that the supply chain still functions. The gas is still being shipped. The stations have power to pump it. The propane trucks still run. What if they don't?  You're back to candles and oil lamps, eating cold beans. 

So, while I'm quite familiar with this thing we call clouds, what's the ONLY fuel source that has been constant for millions of years, sends its energy to us every single day, and costs absolutely nothing?  Of course, it's the sun and the trillions of photons it sends us daily.  God is pretty smart. He set up an entire world that runs because of that big fire ball in the sky. Plants take it in, and produce oxygen and "food"  Animals eat the food and thrive/survive. We eat the plant food and the animals. It keeps us warm, it causes rain... All possible, ONLY because of the sun. 

45 years ago, harnessing the sun was a "far out" concept of the Hippie generation. It could be done on a small scale, with enormous expense. But as technology has improved and costs have plummeted, solar power isn't some pie in the sky idea for tree huggers. It's available to everyone, and the only limitation is how much you're willing to spend on it.  So, let me give you a couple comparisons of  real world scenario's just for ha-ha's. 

Predator Generator- 799.00  Four 5 gallon gas cans - 80 bucks. Gas to fill them - 76 bucks. Extension cords maybe 40 bucks.  Total.. about a grand.  Needs tending every few hours to refill, and if you're using extension cords, only so many things you can run. Because it does have a 30 amp RV outlet, you can install a receptacle on your house and a small sub panel with a transfer switch, which  will cost anywhere from 250 if you do it yourself,  to maybe 900 if you need an electrician. Needs fuel when the cans are empty.  Can run about 50 hours at 80% output on 20 Gals. 

Whole home genny - Depending on the size required will generally be 6, to 15,000. But wait, often the cost of a 500 gallon propane tank, the excavation and the trenching for lines can cost upwards of 7,000  A good Estimate is figure on 12,000 for a complete 15KW set up. Oh and don't forget the 2K to fill the tank. ( and refill it if you ever run it down) Will get you through about 2 weeks as if the power never went out. 

Solar power -Depends on what you wish to power, how integrated into your home wiring you want and who's doing the set up. Over the years, solar has become almost plug and play in so many ways it's incredible. Let me give you an example.

We have an 11 acre property we bought 6 years back during the plandemic. I wanted fairly remote, half pasture, half woods, with a creek that flows at all times. We got just that. On it, I placed an RV. Then bought a 12x16 shed. There's no power to the property, and didn't want it. So I powered the entire thing with a solar set up. One 6500 Watt "inverter" that supplies AC power to the outlets and the RV. One little circuit box that gives me 6 circuits. I installed 8 plug outlets in the shed. I installed a 30 amp outlet for the RV which powers lights, the water heater, water pump, rooftop AC, etc. 

I then put in 4, 5000 KWH batteries, giving me, 20 thousand watts of energy storage for night time and incredibly cloudy days. 

I put up 10, 330 watt panels on wooden frames. You never get full power, so let's say on a sunny day, I'm getting 3000 watts per hour. With that set up, I power 2 refrigerators, One 7 cubic foot chest freezer, 1 fan powered gable vent, battery chargers for all my cordless tools, a water pump that pressurizes  the hose from my 600 gallon water storage, the RV any time we're there, coffee makers, microwaves, etc. 

It has run flawlessly for years. Now remember, there's no power out there and the electric company wants 15 grand to run a line. I paid 7,470 back then and not a penny in fuel since. 

Now fast forward. I recently put up a system at my house, I paid less, got 2 times the total watt output, over 5000 watts of solar, expandable to 24,000,   plus the ability to use 240 volts, and integrated it into my panel, which allows me to run 12 of my 'critical" circuits with the flip of a switch. Frankly, if the power went out tonight, we might not realize it for a few days. Nothing would change.

Oh and the fuel is free. No gas cans, no wondering if I can get some, no worries if the stations are out or closed, no mess, no noise.  If the power goes down, I've got lights, fridge, freezer, mini split AC, induction cooking, Internet if it's up, phones, etc. All from... the sun. 

This is way longer than I wanted. So in the next installment, I'll go over some ideas with you, from the basics, to some suggestions, to a good place to buy, etc.  I hope you think about this carefully. I cannot think of a more important piece of Prepping in 2026 than a solar set up of almost any size. From just enough to charge your phone, to enough to make your life normal, it's out there. Stay tuned.