What will you miss if it all comes down?

[Dave29461]

I like the looks of some of the small wind generators as well as the solar arrays. The biggest barrier is initial investment. That keeps a lot of folks away. I'm glad they are getting cheaper and hopefully battery technology will continue to improve the efficiency and sustainability of an off the grid power supply.

 

[Parhams0508]

I like the looks of some of the small wind generators as well as the solar arrays. The biggest barrier is initial investment. That keeps a lot of folks away. I'm glad they are getting cheaper and hopefully battery technology will continue to improve the efficiency and sustainability of an off the grid power supply.

One can make a VAWT (vertical axis wind turbine) from all sorts of different materials, and there are plans to take a lawnmower and turning it into a generator using a 3-wire alternator. The lawnmower can be modified to run off of syngas/wood gasification.

http://theepicenter.com/tow082099.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-100 ... d-turbine/

http://www.applied-sciences.net/library ... urbine.pdf

 

[Regulis7]

solar and wind would work well for a small battery bank system, this in turn would work well for low power devices similar to those found in RV's and sail boats. At least you could run a some small fans during the SC summer, run a small fridge for comfort items, keep batteries charged for lights and radio's. Not sure keeping the laptops and tablets charged would be worth the effort, games maybe but I am sure the internet would be off line for the most part.