Divemedic

Energy

In our prepping series, we already talked about some others, like records. One of the middle tier needs for prepping is energy, and that’s what we are going to talk about today.

Many of the other things that we rely on for survival rely upon energy. We use it for a lot of things- heating, cooling, light, communications, all sorts of the things that we use rely upon energy. In some parts of the country, heat is important. Here in Florida, not so much. What we need is energy for cooking, light, air conditioning (summer heat will kill you more than our mild winters), communications, and other things.

The most useful of these is electricity. We could use propane for cooking, but it isn’t practical for other things. Since electricity is what is most useful, that’s where we are going to look. Most of the time, we rely on the electric grid. However, anyone who has lived through something as mundane (for Florida) as a hurricane know that it isn’t unusual to lose power for several days. In fact, during the ten year period that ended in December, we had no fewer than four electrical outages. Those outages ranged in duration from two hours all the way to three days.

I want to have a redundant backup because that is what prepping is. Knowing that not being prepared for a grid failure is a violation of the 7P rule, I want to plan to ride out a grid failure. Since the stakes are high as well as the cost, I am going to research and plan the crap out of this. I will post the results of my research for others to benefit. I will also post the results once the system is installed. I report, you decide.

There are three methods of backing up our electrical needs:

  • A gasoline powered portable generator that powers selected loads. The advantage is that it has a small upfront cost of around $1,000 or so. Disadvantages are that you can only power a few, small loads, and that you have to refuel the thing every few hours. The power goes out, you have to go rig the generator, which takes a bit of time. They are also noisy. The one I have now (a 9kw gasoline powered genny) goes through about one and a half gallons per hour.
  • A mounted generator that powers all or most of the loads in the house. The advantages here are that it powers more than does a portable genny, and it needs to be refueled less often since the fuel supply can be buried in the yard. It’s nice- the grid drops out, and within seconds, your genny takes over and powers the house. The disadvantages are that it costs more (the quote I got for a whole house generator was just under $15,000 including the transfer switch, permits, cable trench, propane tank delivery, 240 gallons of propane, tank utility, back filling the trench and a 10 year warranty.) 240 gallons of propane will last about three to five days, which will get you through most minor to moderate outages, but after that you are in the dark.
  • The third option, as I already mentioned is a solar setup. I am pricing out a 9 kw solar system with batteries. I have been doing a ton of research and have discovered that there is a lot of BS out there. Enough that the solar discussion will be its own separate post or two. The advantage over the generator system is that it doesn’t need refueling and if done correctly, it can power the entire house indefinitely. Many people who have solar systems don’t even notice when the grid fails. The disadvantage is that it isn’t cheap. A solar system can cost as much as $30,000 or more. There are ways to offset that, but that will be for the future post. The good news here is that 30% of whatever you spend on solar can be recouped in the form of a nonrefundable tax credit* that isn’t available for a fueled generator. More there on a future post.

The first thing that we did was calculate our electrical needs. Our average electrical use is about 700 kilowatt hours per month. Our highest use has been 43 kilowatt hours in a single day. Our lowest has been 10 kilowatt hours in a day, but we were out of town. The average is about 25 kWh/day. These numbers are for the new house, so we haven’t seen what it is like to run the air conditioning on a hot day, yet.

To rein the cost of air conditioning, I am installing smart thermostats for our two AC units. That will allow me to control and monitor our AC use more accurately. The smart thermostat that I have selected is the Ecobee smart thermostat. It accurately tracks your AC and heat usage and compares you to similar homes. It has a lot of added features that help maintain comfort at a minimum amount of utility cost.

So now that I know what I need, I can plan for what option will be the best. Another post coming on that.

Someone in comments suggested pairing a Goal Zero with 10 gallons of propane and a couple of 400 watt solar cells. That is a horrible option. You only get 3.6 kw of power for more than $13,000. That is the least cost effective of the options and was one I wasn’t prepared to consider.

* A refundable tax credit is one that can be used to reduce your taxes paid in a given year. What nonrefundable means is that, if your taxes owed are $400, and you get a credit of $500, you can’t receive the $100 as a refund. Since I always pay more than $30k a year in taxes, this isn’t going to be an issue with me.

By Divemedic, ago

Sad Day

It is with profound sadness that we report that Lou Conter, the last survivor of the USS Arizona has passed away at his home in Grass Valley, California. Surrounded by family in his final hours, Lou lived a long and distinguished life. Fair winds and following seas Lou.

The muster for the crew of the USS Arizona is now complete. The WW2 generation is slowly leaving us.

By Divemedic, ago

Six Courses

My wife and I have been together for a decade. She decided to take us to dinner as a celebration. We went to a six course meal, which I had never done before. The meal was prix fixe, and consisted of six courses, each paired with a wine selection by a professional sommelier. Each course was small, which was a good thing, since there were six of them.

We arrived at the appointed time and were served a welcome cocktail while we waited for the other diners. The cocktail was simple syrup, mint leaves, and champagne. It was intended to be a light, refreshing palate cleanser.

We sat down at the appointed time and were served our first course. It was the appetizer course. Scallop Carpaccio paired with an Italian Pinot Grigio. The scallops were sliced thinner than a sheet of paper. It was fairly good. This is the plate:

The soup course was second, and it was a Smoked Tomato Soup that had been cooked for six hours. It was paired with a white wine from Napa Valley that was pretty good.

The third course was the salad course. It was made from butter poached lobster, hearts of palm, pineapples, and cilantro with a vanilla dressing. The wine pairing was a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand.

The fourth course was the fish course. It was a roasted branzino with zucchini, peppers, lemon, and a pesto. It was hands down the tastiest course of the night. If it had not been such a fancy restaurant, I would have been tempted to lick the plate. This course was paired with a Chardonnay from California.

The fifth course was the beef course. A grilled filet mignon with truffled potato puree, asparagus, and bordelaise sauce. It was delicious, but I have to admit that I was getting pretty full at this point. This course was paired with a Cabernet from Napa Valley.

The last (dessert) course was a chocolate sphere that they poured hot caramel over, revealing a peanut butter ganache, chocolate mousse, and a caramel gelato. It was good, but I was so full at this point, I only ate about a third of the dessert. It was paired with a Salted Caramel Espresso Martini. The martini was so good that I had two of them.

The meal was superb, but I have to admit that I ate so much that I didn’t eat at all the following day. I had two of the martinis, and that turned out to be a mistake. First, there was so much alcohol served with this meal, that I was pretty drunk after the three hour dinner experience. Second, I woke up in the middle of the night to pee, and my heart was racing at about 120 beats per minute. I am guessing the espresso had something to do with it.

We had a great night, and this meal was an appropriate celebration of ten years together.

By Divemedic, ago

Prepping

Preparing for disasters is important, but too often people who are into prepping spend lots of money on the sexy things like expensive firearms while ignoring things like sanitation or infection control. Far more people will die of dehydration, hunger, or even diarrhea in a widespread collapse than they will by civil unrest.

Remember that, if we are prepared for the big disaster, we are more likely to survive the small ones.

At the end of the day, we need to prioritize our preps to take care of the basics before we drop $4,000 on that new Sig Blastomatic Model 19 in .50BMG. I have deployed to dozens of disaster sites and travelled to nearly 50 foreign countries. Here is, from my experience, how our preps should look:

At its most basic, the three most important preps that we can make are food, water, shelter, and medical needs. Once those are established, only then should we worry about security and energy. Finally, surviving an event isn’t enough. We need to survive and rebuild our lives so that we aren’t just refugees, but are able to live our lives, not just count more days.

I am going to spend more time over the next several weeks explaining my thoughts (and the thoughts of others that I will shamelessly adopt) on the matter. For today, I am going to talk about the top of the pyramid- records.

Making it through the disaster will be much smoother if you can safeguard your life and not be living as a refugee for the next few years. There are a number of things that you need to safeguard:

  • Our vital documents: scans of birth certificates, professional licenses, certifications, transcripts, credit cards (front and back), medical histories, credit records, diplomas, bank account information, and any other important documents you can think of. Keep a copy of those documents on several password protected, encrypted thumb drives and update them at least once per year. Keep a drive in each vehicle, in your locker at work, and one in your gun safe. You can buy a 16gb encrypted thumb drive for as little as $32– for as little as $170, you can have copies of all of your most important documents with you no matter what happens. The encryption doesn’t have to be perfect, but good enough to deter common thieves.
  • Photos you don’t want to lose: Pictures of your kids, your family, and other memories that are irreplaceable if they are lost. Thumb drives are cheap- you can keep them with the others.
  • At least $300 in cash, with $1,000 being even better, locked in your gun safe. You can have more, but $300 should get you through a weekend disaster. YMMV. Just don’t be tempted to “borrow” from it for non-emergency reasons, because you won’t repay it and it won’t be available when you really need it.

The other thing to consider here is rally points. That way, if you and your family are separated, you can meet up, even if you aren’t in communication with each other.

  • You should have one within sight of your house- for us, it’s the fire hydrant across the street.
  • One within walking distance. For us, it’s the entrance to the neighborhood.
  • There should be one far enough away that it will be outside of a large disaster like a HAZMAT spill or a wildfire. For us, that’s my wife’s parents’ house. They live an hour away. This rally point for us has the advantage of offering emergency shelter, food, supplies, and support.

Also make sure that you have a plan for deciding when to evacuate, when to stay put, and don’t hesitate when it is time to go. Include your significant other in the decision. Nothing is worse than trying to evacuate or shelter in place with a bitchy, pissed off wife who disagrees with the decision. Worse yet, evacuating and becoming a refugee because you didn’t plan for the evacuation.

If your plans are robust, flexible, and comprehensive, you should be able to do well with anything from a loss of employment, another lockdown, your neighbor’s house burning down, your spouse’s heart attack, to the zombie apocalypse.

Can anyone else come up with other ideas along this line of thought?

By Divemedic, ago

Picking a Fight

According to the Biden administration, today is an important holiday. No, he isn’t talking about Easter Sunday. That, the Whitehouse refuses to celebrate and has banned from the Whitehouse grounds because they want to transform Easter Sunday into a secular holiday.

Children of the National Guard are prohibited from submitting religious Easter egg designs for the 2024 “Celebrating National Guard Families” art event at the White House. 

OK, so that’s bad enough. My Atheist self is offended for my Christian friends. However, the President didn’t stop there. He followed that up by declaring that March 31, 2024 is the official day that the government will celebrate a Transgender Day of Visibility. Thank goodness they have a day of visibility, or I wouldn’t know that they exist.

What a direct goober being spit in the face of every Christian in the country.

This is so brazen and “in your face” that I can’t help but think they’re trying to cause a violent backlash on purpose. They are trying to pick a fight, so they can excuse the crackdown that will follow.

Fuck Joe Biden with a rusty chainsaw.

By Divemedic, ago

Not Yet

I keep getting comments to the effect of “They are cheating, the election is a guaranteed loss, so why bother?”

I disagree. It isn’t in the bag. If it were, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to put Trump in jail. Since they are still doing so, they still consider him a threat. That tells me that there are weaknesses in the system of cheat and the vote isn’t as sure of a thing as they would have you believe.

If the system were in the bag, gun bans would already be in place. SCOTUS would already have 23 justices. The electoral college would be gone.

They don’t have it all, yet. They want you to think that they are unbeatable and simply roll over, but it is plain that they aren’t that powerful, yet.

Don’t give them more power than they already have. It takes just a few minutes to vote, and you make it that much harder for them to cheat themselves more power than they already have.

So you ask why I should bother? Because I will do everything that I can to make their lives and their lust for power more difficult.

Even if it is in the bag, I am going to make it as difficult on them as I can. Be a pain in the ass.

By Divemedic, ago

Spin

Read this:

This is tipping, but by calling it a “service charge,” it is no longer optional. Then comes the virtue signaling about benefits.

I don’t have an issue with this. I would like to see tipping become a relic of the past.

By Divemedic, ago

Vote Harder

Wisconsin is registering thousands of illegal immigrants as voters.

In Wisconsin, for instance, there is a Form EL-131.Form EL-131 says if you are homeless, check the box. You can register to vote with no supporting ID.For you election deniers, and Republican types – read this slowly so you can comprehend this madness.

I am still going to vote. Why? Because it costs nothing but a few minutes of my time. I am just not counting on it making a difference.

Be ready for what’s coming.

By Divemedic, ago

Finally Rented

It took 5 weeks to get my rental home repaired from the damage done by the previous tenants. The total repair bill came to over $9,000, and I still need to replace the flooring in the entire house because their dog ruined it in spots by peeing on it.

Anyhow, we listed it 28 days ago, and our new tenants signed the lease to move in soon. That’s one project off my plate.

Now I have to work on selling our old house. It’s always something, and I am always busy.

By Divemedic, ago

Resiliency

The things that you need to survive and thrive in an emergency fall into broad categories:

  1. Records: Documents, photographs, and other needed items. I include a moderate amount of cash on hand ($300 or so) in this category.
  2. First Aid: Medications, drugs, bandages, disinfectants, etc. Nothing elaborate. Simple is better here.
  3. Heat and cooking: You can live on cold canned goods and MREs, but they are simply not tolerable for more than a day or two. Hot meals are best.
  4. Light: Flashlights, lanterns, fire, batteries for them, chemlights, and other ways of creating light.
  5. Tools: People are tool users. Screwdrivers, knife, hammer, hatchet, etc.
  6. Communications: There are many ways to communicate. Cell phones, radios, flags, spray paint, chalk or grease pencil markings left on buildings, signs stapled to telephone poles, etc.
  7. Food and water: Obvious. From half liter bottles of water to reverse osmosis, MREs to farming, we need to consider short and long term food and water needs.
  8. Shelter: Tents, homes, hotels, tarps, even your vehicle. Any way to get out  of the weather.
  9. Security: Weapons, cameras, sensors, rotating watches.
  10. Energy: Solar, fire, electric, generators, etc. Anything that helps us power our equipment or our selves that is not cooking or heating related.

My latest endeavor is to secure a source of backup power for the new house. I originally was looking at a standby generator. The problem is fueling it for more than a couple of days adds to the logistical complexity of preparedness. The cost of installing such a generator (including buried propane tanks) is in the neighborhood of $10,000-15,000. Then you have to fuel it, and you only benefit from it when the grid is ,down.

Then I looked into solar. An 8kw solar setup with a Tesla wall to get you through the night or cloudy days will generate about 1200 kilowatt hours a month. The system will cost about $20,000 after taking the Federal tax credit into account. There is no fuel needed, and when times are good, you sell power to the electric company which zeroes out your electric bid, thus subsidizing the cost.

So I think that solar is the way we are going to go for our backup power needs.

By Divemedic, ago