How To Survive A Power Grid Shut Down

Perhaps one of the biggest catastrophes waiting to happen in the United States is a power grid shut down.

These are known to happen fairly often, especially during summers in the Midwest or immediately after natural disasters.

Don’t worry though – we’ve compiled a short list of backup energy sources to consider before a power grid failure. After all, being prepared can make all the difference.

Wind Energy

One of the biggest mistakes people make with alternative energy is investing in wind energy. Don’t fall for this!

The turbines required to generate wind energy are ridiculously expensive, and the cost to maintain them isn’t cheap, either.

Usually, people who pay for these are trying to “get off the grid,” but wind turbines don’t even pay for themselves after the first year. It’s much cheaper to pay a monthly energy bill, especially if your only concern is the power grid shutting down.

Solar Power

Just like wind energy, solar power sounds like a great option for alternative energy. While solar power isn’t necessarily a bad idea, it does have downsides.

Solar panels are expensive, and it takes more panels than you might think to generate enough electricity to power your house.

They do, however, last a long time. Some solar panels can last for decades, but just keep in mind that if you choose to take this route you could end up spending far outside of your budget.

Backup Generators

As far as other sources of power, backup generators are probably your best bet if the power grid shuts down.

Generators come in all varieties, the most popular ones being about the size of an outdoor air conditioning unit and running off either diesel fuel or natural gas.

These are good for short periods of time, but depending on how long the power is out that could get expensive (and noisy!) fast.

The best investment for a backup generator is a deep cycle battery generator.  These nifty generators rely on your house’s regular source of power to be charged, but as soon as the grid goes down, they’re ready for action. Some of them can run for days at a time before they need to be charged again.

Check out this really cool backup power source!

-Home-

7 thoughts on “

How To Survive A Power Grid Shut Down

  1. Michael E Modlin

    At some time in the recent past I read a post about using a bank of deep cycle batteries charged by a electric motor running on the batteries that have the motor plugged into an inverter that is receiving power from the batteries that are charged by the electric motor running a charging generator, thus, a complete enclosed charging system. I don`t know what size of invertor to use to run the motor and still give enough power to keep things running in the house. Maybe this doesn`t sound right. I`m trying to remember where I saw the generator. This does make sense. The batteries need to be charged to start the system to run by itself. I might not be explaining it correctly. I know what I`m talking about. I have different size motors to use. If anyone out there that understands what I`m talking about, please contact me. 319-283-3127.

    Reply
    1. Tony

      Did you find out the info on the Battery system with Inverter/Generator? Please let me know by email.

      Thank You
      Tony

      Reply
  2. Alan Knabenbauer

    Hi Mike
    I’ve read some things on this method, I personally have solar and wind with a gas gen. back up. But understand the concept of what you’re looking to do. I’ve read that a treadmill motor will produce enough electrical to replace the power that it takes from the deep cycle batteries and then some. I don’t know of anyone that has this as a stand alone however.
    I would not believe that you’d be able to run a house on it, you’d be running items like a refrigerator and some lighting along with a fan or two. That’d be about it. A house comsumes a great deal of energy and the inverter[s] would have to be upward of 12,000 watts with double that for start up. The inverter would be expensive, stay away for the junk from China, I’ve gotten one from China and it doesn’t even come close to the start up watts it’s listed as but it does maintane watts after the motor start up of say the refrigerator.
    One thing I do know living in Florida as I do, just having lights when no one else does is really nice for the family it gives a sense of well-being rather than huddled around a candle. I’ve already had experience with this, we had lost power for 3 days and during that time two of my neighbors stopped by to ask why I had lights and they didn’t.
    I enjoyed that considering I built all my solar and wind by hand.
    Hope this helps a bit for you.
    Best to you and family.
    AL

    Reply
  3. Kathy

    Could this Duracell Power Pack 600 be used to power a sump pump or freezer, separately of course? How about a house heater? Sorry if this is way more than it’s made for, but I’m not familiar with these things. Thanks.

    Reply
  4. Mark Dickson

    If you have any information as to how I can run my home in a power outage and/or be self reliant, please let me know brother. Sincerely, Mark Dickson

    Reply
  5. duggy dugg

    just attended neices graduation from county college of morris, randolph nj …8 parking lots ..each with massive arrays of solar panels …don’t know the % of electric they generate vs the elec they buy from the grid …but i bet the savings are not insignificant …… i think they are very smart to do this …i think pv tech improves every year …soon evey house wil lhave pv panels

    Reply
  6. duggy dugg

    just attended neices graduation from county college of morris, randolph nj …8 parking lots ..each with massive arrays of solar panels above …don’t know the % of electric they generate vs the elec they buy from the grid …but i bet the savings are not insignificant …… i think they are very smart to do this …i think pv tech improves every year …soon evey house wil lhave pv panels

    Reply

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