You and Glen are such high volume commenters, it's easier to relate to you. Kind of hard for me to sustain more than one conversation with most people. The finish one and that's it.
I still have more opportunity than I have time for.
The solar thing is no big deal, One panel to keep an emergency portable battery topped off and 12 volt emergency lights in two small storage buildings and in my shop/radio building.
I would like full solar but the trees cut back the efficiency of that. I hate cutting them down since the offenders are maples and poplars, and I love the summer shade. I'm still leaning towards getting 10 or 12, 100 watt panels and backup batteries for emergency lighting and the well pump. You never know these days what's going to be needed. I have smaller panels for charging batteries and cell phone 'n stuff.
Do you have any solar assist or full solar. I understand Texas has some full-sunshine locations.
sir willymac! I wouldn't cut down those shade trees either if I were you. but what you have for solar now is smart to keep some essential power. You guys have your own water well?
Have you looked into a hand pump if the grid goes down?
We don't have any solar yet but we want to, the sun shines almost all the time here.
Yep, our own well. Good, sweet water about 90 feet down with a deep well pump. I do have a hand pump selected I had planned for the fall. A friend has one installed and his works well...after the installer finally recovered the pump intake valve that dropped down the casing pipe during installation.
haha! the installer dropped the intake valve down the pipe, how did he get that out?
that hand pump is a great idea and having your own well is a great idea.
The bronze intake valve fell a long way because the top of the the 10 foot section of PVC pipe was not screwed to the one above it. By trial and error, they raised lowered a 60 foot section of PVC time after time after time for two days until they finally got the bottom of it to match with the top of the fallen part and twist it until the threads matched so they could pull it up.
I bet the installer won't make that mistake again!
The one I'm looking at has a three foot handle mounted on a fulcrum to generate enough mechanical gain the I'll have pressure to pump water through the line from the wall to the house so the faucets will work. That's a big help in the convenience because toilets will flush, too.
Los of water is going to doom cities when the toilets won't flush. I wonder of most inhabitants ever think of that?
howdy sir willymac! sorry for the late reply, obviously I got behind today.
well sir..I doubt it many people have thought about the water situation that would happen if the grid went down, that would cause a nightmare of problems, health problems, drinking water shortage, lots of stuff.
Add that to the long list of reasons not to live in cities! We can manage without most things, most of the time, but NOT water!
sir willymac! howya doing on this fine Sunday? what goes on there on Sundays?
how far are you from a city? I'd hate to see the herds coming from a city looking for food and water if the grid goes down!