Year round renewable energy?

[bigpaul]

I get all the comedy I want on the forums!!

[Mortblanc]

All kinds of suppositions going on here.

One is forgetting that the modern alternator has a computer ship inside to control the electrical flow, which might be subject to the EMP or whatever it was that shut down your grid. Suddenly there are no working alternators for you to play with.

Second is that you can not get a water wheel to operate fast enough to flip the alternator into charge mode, even with step down pullys. I was barely able to make one work operating off an lawn mower engine at full throttle. That alternator puts quite a drain on the engine horsepower If you listen closely sometime and wait for it to kick in and start charging. Without going full throttle it would stall out a 3hp gas motor.

But, if you do get one to work it does not need to be operating 24/7. It needs to be charging a battery bank for a couple of hours daily and be shut off the rest of the time. You are the ones hiding, if I remember correctly, eating your food raw so no one can smell it cooking, and all that light/power is going to attract attention.

And I have a 100 amp alternator on my Jeep that has been in service for 18 years and has 175,000 miles on it, which does not count time spent idling at stop signs and in traffic. I do believe I could make it work for a month or two until the power came back on.

Might be better to just leave the battery in the vehicle and power directly off that. The alternator recharges the battery in about 20 minutes and a tank of fuel will last a long time running only 20-30 minutes a day at idle speed.

BP "man" also lived for millions of years without medical care, without balanced diets, blind, filthy and covered with sores. Life expectancy was 35.

So I can only ask???

How long would you now have been dead?

Plug in and live another year!

[Steve]

As a qualified electrician, who later spent 18 years running my own electronic repairs company I feel confident I can get an alternator working. If every alternator in the world disappeared I can easily make my own, or make myself a permanent magnet dynamo instead, it's easy.

The drag the alternator puts on your power source is related to the amount of power you are taking from it - reduce the load and you reduce the drag.

I agree that for a short term event you'd be stupid to take your car apart to build a windmill, I was thinking of some longer scenario (and someone else's car), although not one where I am hiding and eating raw food.

[Skean Dhude]

Although I see wind as a crap power source it is one that is suitable for prepping more than current everyday use. You see there are peaks to power consumption in the UK. While people put the kettle on during adverts in Corrie and the like. We won't have that problem because we will adapt to using the power while the wind is available. We can charge our batteries, pump water, etc. when the wind blows and if it doesn't blow enough we can do most of what we are looking at doing without electricity. I think a wind turbine is something worth looking at depending on the wind at your location.

A waterwheel is good but you need to have a fast running water source to utilise. If you have one then hydro is the way to go imo.

For ease of use and flexibility then solar is our main choice. Put the panels in suitable locations and they are away. Only thing is they, and the batteries, have limited life so they will only last so long. However, it is more than enough to get you set up. This makes solar the preppers choice.

Not forgetting solar without the wires. Solar cookers, solar condensers, etc. all these can reduce the power requirements from whatever you have generating electrickery.

Finally, a bit out of reach for most of us is our own nuclear generator. There are thousands of these around but nobody ever sells then in prepper sites. Got a spare £100K and you can have one after filling out a bazillion forms.

[Scythe13]

Funny you should mention nuclear….I have a friend…..haha

[bigpaul]

[quote='Mortblanc' pid='91751' dateline='14384514



BP "man" also lived for millions of years without medical care, without balanced diets, blind, filthy and covered with sores. Life expectancy was 35.


[/quote]What the hell has that to do with it? we were discussing electricity. both wife and I have lived without power, in my case it was for 12 years, its not a biggie, it just takes a bit of adjustment, more for some than others.

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as far as I am concerned, the less I can do without the better, makes life much more simple in an emergency.