Plan C Shopping list while items are still affordable.
Eco worthy kit, 2 - 120w solar panels, 30A charge controller, mounting brackets, 5m cables, £239.99.
2 - 90Ah marine/leisure batteries (Lion) £79.99 each. I thought it best to have a matching pair of batteries for even charging.
Original leisure battery in its box will be kept as a portable unit, and be charged by the folding panel.
Battery leads (ebay) £15.60.
Battery changeover switch (ebay) £12.99.
3 Circuit breakers (ebay) £6.95 each.
Inverter (ebay) £28.99
We have more than enough bits and pieces in stock to finish the setup.
The Letour lights have all come and are fully charged (by solar panel) and are ready to go. The two leisure batteries have come as well.
The felt on the shed is in good condition but I’ve given it a good thick coat of bituminous felt adhesive using a roller, it’s now ready for the panels.
QUESTION......it seems just a few geriatrics are posting, is everyone younger too busy or just not bothered ? ?.
ps...I’m galloping towards 79.
Pete, we are using a form of social media that is considered completely obsolete. Forums are now the haunts of the ancient one still using desk top PCs at the rest home.
All of the young folks are in Facebook groups, Tick Tock channels or Instagram feeds. They are doing their research on their phones and not their computers. They want a short, quick answer and they want it to be right. They are going directly to trusted sources and avoiding the BS.
No one uses forums now due to them being what they consider too restrictive and channelized. That means they do not have the time to follow a thread to get information.
Where we used to google a topic, find a forum and dig for the information, the young people do not have time to read 10 pages and discover the unknown old fart they are following don't know crap!
Now when you google a survival topic you are not directed to a forum platform, but to a You-Tube video.
youngsters have the attention spell of a gnat.
They’re welcome to facebook and the like, a small percentage of youtube can be useful as a guide when you decide on a course of action, if you can avoid the BS.
I think you need to do research before you decide on a course of action which could be life threatening/saving, or what preps you need to make.
Talking things over with like minded and often more experienced people is the way to go.
That is just the point Pete.
You have zero idea if the people on a forum know Jack about what they are spewing out. Most don't and with some it take weeks of reading their posts to catch the truth. Suddenly your realize that guy that has been talking about his latest adventure and accomplishment has been confined to a wheel chair for 10 years and has not been out of his house in 5 years!
People on forums tend to go with the premise that if you can't dazzle them with knowledge then baffle them with BS. The posts are for other people that have nothing to do but argue over 323 page threads about digging wells, building irrigation systems and prepping their compounds.
The "young" do not have a compound, they do not have a year of preps packed away in their paid for house or flat, they do not have room to plant a tomato on their window still.
They only know that the news feed they just accessed said Putin was going to drop a nuke on them and they want to know what to do if it happens, not how to plant a crop for next years seed.
And they are doing their research on a 3" screen with buttons too small to type a 400 word rebuttal of some geezers' toxic opinion.
But they know how to use the smart phones thar baffle us old folks to no end. You can get an entire topographical map system for all of GB downloaded to your smartphone. Once down loaded it is yours and does not depend on the grid to function. While we old folks are still trying to figure out how to down load that to our desk top and get it printed out they have locked it in and have transmitted it to their entire circle of friends. They can look at it any time they wish and see themselves as a little dot following a trail. No compass or map skills needed.
I have one app that I can take a picture of a weed and it gives me the scientific breakdown of that plant, its uses, its medicinal value and how to prepare it for consumption if it is eatable. All that from a picture on my phone!
You can put down Facebook all you wish. You are on the family and friends side looking at family photos, selfies and pictures of last night's dinner, You are not on the information platforms. Most of the old forums I used to follow have left their troublesome server host sites and are on specialized Facebook groups.
The Facebook groups, Tic Toc, YouTube and Instagram are where the professional outdoor people and the long term homesteaders have gravitated. There are also platforms like Rumble and some others that do not restrict/censor content like U-tube and Facebook.
Why have they left? Because they pay.
The quick response platforms channel to the logarithms that feed the platforms that pay.
Yes, there is BS on YouTube. Just like there is right here on our forum. Just like there is at the local library, and just like there is when you google search the infection in your left toe! You have to filter your information no matter what your source.
The only people that make money off a forum are the forum hosts.
Yes MB thats why I prefer to use the forum, no ones on it to make money, and good advice from “the few”
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Facebook is for the older generation, the younger generation dont do messages or communication they just do "likes".