If the power grid goes down... then what?

[Bill Ryan]

This isn't (a) posted to be alarmist, or (b) assuming that most reading this won't be very well aware of the potential issues.

But for some, it might just be useful, even just as a prompt to thinking through all the 'What Ifs'. It's just 16 mins long, containing a lot of basic information and common-sense suggestions. It's US-focused, of course, but might well be relevant to others anywhere else.

https://brighteon.com/cb6ae71e-997a-...3-df5f51e4b37f

Source: https://www.brighteon.com/embed/cb6ae71e-997a-44d3-ad13-df5f51e4b37f

[Sunny-side-up]

If the power grid goes down Bill, well ill say good bye to you and everyone now

Haven't watched that vid yet, is it hopeful?

STRANGE watched this last night

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Af_Hj0MDBBQ

[Dick]

I’m preparing already, have 14 solar panels on the roof, only problem is that they don’t work if the electricitygrid is down, then the inverter doesn’t work.
There is a solution for it, you need an inverter that’s used in rv’s or boats, and you need car or truck battery’s.
It’s not cheap, but you always have electrcity (depending on the sun and your battery capacity)

Be prepared, thats the least you can do.

[haroldsails]

Thank you for this timely thread. A friend and I were kicking this very subject around just this morning. Between the broken supply chain, the expected financial market collapse, and the grid going down ("when not if"), life as we knew it, is over.
I'd like to think I'm not hysterical, or overreacting when I suggest that some serious planning is in order right about now. It's pretty obvious that the wings are coming off.
Family, and self preservation is what this is all about now, and at this point we should consider all the left/right BS to be useless distraction and counter productive.
Only guessing, but I'd bet that our illustrious leaders have a long established plan for themselves. It is we who turn the squirrel wheel who do not have our backs covered. For us it's gonna be anarchy!
Time to organize, meet your neighbors, talk about gardens, who can contribute what (things/labor/ideas), who has special needs, all that sort of community building.
Find your tribe, before the SHTF.

[Bubu]

been living off grid since a teenage mostly vacationing or camping. Recently I have experienced moving off grid with my more than 120 chicks and 20 pekin ducks with few tool all loaded in an 8 seater SUV. But I had the corrugated sheets for roofing shipped in advance. We ( me and my teenage buddy) arrive in a place with nothing but small 6 by 8 foot cabin with little wall cladding good only to house half of the animals. No electricity no water. So the first thing we did was to lay the 120 meters PE pipes from source. We slept on the car for a week until a suitable shelter was built. The entire 29 days I did nothing but construct cages and the 10 by 20 foot cabin which serves as shelter for the entire family of 9 people last Christmas. Doing 12 to 14 hours work each day, excluding the kitchen. My only source of power are 3 small solar panels with a total of 25 watts for lighting and charging my mobile and a rechargeable drill which I barely use. I will say its a lot more fun than in the city and that is considering I have barely time to sit down or nap. Construction is almost done so I expect when I go back after new year, Life would be a lot better. A year from now its going to be a dream come true with my food forest going. I'm going to have electricity soon and that is because I have a lot of electric toys. But from experience, I am pretty sure its going to be fine without the grid.
The control system is done via the grid. Power, communication etc. The grid wont collapse because the control system will collapse with it. Imagine people unable to watch TV and listen to the lies and nonsense of governments and their bosses

[eagle0027]

Personally i live on a boat with a sweet little diesel genset..no solar yet.
Not to sidetrack the thread ..my bigger intrest is a mass internet / sattalite down via solar flare emp etc.How are the holders of crypo(let alone ant didgital based buisness) now being so widly promoted going to do any kind of commerce???????

[Bubu]

Posted by eagle0027 (here)
Personally i live on a boat with a sweet little diesel genset..no solar yet.
Not to sidetrack the thread ..my bigger intrest is a mass internet / sattalite down via solar flare emp etc.How are the holders of crypo(let alone ant didgital based buisness) now being so widly promoted going to do any kind of commerce???????

well imagine people not using any form of money. People are free of control. You can expect the controllers to do everything to hold the control system in place internet included.

[Bubu]

The most feared scenario of the controllers is people finding alternatives to mainstreams. Grid collapse, any form, will drive people to find alternatives. So I strongly suggest, forget all the grid collapse scenario its not going to happen. And if ever it happens, cheer up because the good guys are winning and the world is on its way for the better.

[Jambo]

Well I guess the shock to the system will be quite a big one, with a lack of electricity.

That said, probably the most beautiful and lovely times I've experienced in my life have been when sitting around a simple camp fire...
there's something just so peaceful about it... with its heat, its beauty & its simpleness... sitting around with others.

[mozo33]

you will appreciate a flushing toilet much more after ...

[Ernie Nemeth]

Everyone knows that almost any motor can be turned into a generator, right? All you need do is turn the shaft with a prime mover force, like wind or water. It is not as efficient as a true generator but it will work.

[Jambo]

Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
Everyone knows that almost any motor can be turned into a generator, right? All you need do is turn the shaft with a prime mover force, like wind or water. It is not as efficient as a true generator but it will work.

Sadly as someone who doesn't know this... I'd be happy to KNOW the how to of it!? Just for future reference... as you'd be helping me immensely.
Many thanks in advance!

[palehorse]

We are all connected in one way or another, I don't know why the heck I decided to watch this movie few days ago.

Survival Family

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jTa51lcYTvM

It is all about the grid collapse.

Thanks for the thread Bill, it is the sort of information that everyone "must" be aware of. There is always a possibility to something like that to happen (solar storm, war, local conflicts, etc), and we all know the electric grid is a single point of failure, if it happen we are going back to live like our old ancestors.

Solar/Wind/Water energies can be harvested, if you got a river or a stream in your property, build a water wheel, you won't regret, there is documents available on internet how to do it.

[mountain_jim]

Posted by mozo33 (here)
you will appreciate a flushing toilet much more after ...

We were fortunate to find a homestead with a gravity-fed spring - our toilets keep flushing regardless of power or not.

I joined the Yahoo group microhydro many years ago, later it migrated to a google group which I still receive occasional emails from.

I could never justify the cost/benefit ratio for building it out, as we also have a stream below our house with enough flow and drop to run about 200-300 feet of pipe with a micro-turbine and generate power that way. The biggest cost is in the home-battery system and rewiring the panel to allow on-grid and off functioning. (things I do not feel competent to do myself)

This video posted by Bill got me to thinking about that again, now that I am retired from corporate slavery I am considering returning to the idea of implementing this system.

Another reason against, is that if I had this working and the grid fails, I am not the type of person that will defend it with arms against potentially jealous others, and it would be very hard to hide all of this from passers by.

I can imagine supplying or trading our spring water with neighbors who require power or stream-buckets to get theirs in a longer-term power failure situation.

edit

https://www.sundancepower.com/micro-...ric-for-homes/

How a Micro Hydroelectric System Works

CAPTURE THE ENERGY OF A STREAM OR RIVER FLOW
Moving water contains considerable energy, which you may be able to capture with a micro hydroelectric system. How much energy depends primarily on two factors – the vertical distance the water drops from a potential intake to turbine (the ‘head’) and how much water moves per unit time (the ‘flow’.) You can use an altimeter (apps are available for mobile devices) to determine the head on your site, and flow can be estimated by timing how long it takes to fill a five gallon bucket.

To estimate the potential energy of your site, simply multiply the head times the flow, and then divide the outcome by 10, which is a standard efficiency factor for micro hydro systems.

Power (W) = head (ft) X flow (gpm)/10
In general, we suggest a minimum power output of 300 watts for a micro hydro site to be considered.

[Ernie Nemeth]

Posted by Jambo (here)

Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
Everyone knows that almost any motor can be turned into a generator, right? All you need do is turn the shaft with a prime mover force, like wind or water. It is not as efficient as a true generator but it will work.

Sadly as someone who doesn't know this... I'd be happy to KNOW the how to of it!? Just for future reference... as you'd be helping me immensely.
Many thanks in advance!

It's simple, really. The wires from the motor become the generated power when you turn the shaft of the motor at its rated RPM, usually 1600rpm. So the only problem is figuring out how to move the shaft with wind or water or pedal power. A ten speed bike can be used for gearing even if wind or water is being used, to get the RPMs right.

Charging batteries is also simple from a solar supply, because it is already 12 volts DC, unless panels have been interconnected for an inverter to convert power to 120 volts AC. A trickle charger is all you'd need in principle for a water or wind supply, being usually configured to 120 volts AC.

[Spiral]

I'm expecting this to happen, most likely excuse here in the UK will be the horrendous storm predicted by Piers Corbyn at the end of Jan, but I think they will do it anyway.

Because of this I've bought a generator off ebay, it's rated at 2600W so it's enough to keep the lights on, the fridge running & most importantly the gas central heating as the house doesn't have a chimney. £299 brand new & it runs on petrol which I can syphon out of the car or my bike if needs be.

I also bought a change over switch off ebay that means it's easy to flick over from mains to genny, with the genny then feeding into the main consumer unit (fuse box).

Because I want to run the genny in the garage that is integral to the house I had a bit of tube (that fits over the end of the gennys silencer) welded onto the end of a metre of flexible exhaust pipe that I'm going to feed out of a hole in the wall the tumble dryer used to use.

Diesel generators are too expensive esp as it's only really an 'insurance' item, and the little silent "suitcase" jobbies only make 650w max (they aren't going to want to hold that for long either) which isn't enough for a house, it's going to struggle to keep your fridge freezer going.

[lizhekb]

Death will come no matter one expects it or not, so does life.

[Pam]

Posted by Bubu (here)
been living off grid since a teenage mostly vacationing or camping. Recently I have experienced moving off grid with my more than 120 chicks and 20 pekin ducks with few tool all loaded in an 8 seater SUV. But I had the corrugated sheets for roofing shipped in advance. We ( me and my teenage buddy) arrive in a place with nothing but small 6 by 8 foot cabin with little wall cladding good only to house half of the animals. No electricity no water. So the first thing we did was to lay the 120 meters PE pipes from source. We slept on the car for a week until a suitable shelter was built. The entire 29 days I did nothing but construct cages and the 10 by 20 foot cabin which serves as shelter for the entire family of 9 people last Christmas. Doing 12 to 14 hours work each day, excluding the kitchen. My only source of power are 3 small solar panels with a total of 25 watts for lighting and charging my mobile and a rechargeable drill which I barely use. I will say its a lot more fun than in the city and that is considering I have barely time to sit down or nap. Construction is almost done so I expect when I go back after new year, Life would be a lot better. A year from now its going to be a dream come true with my food forest going. I'm going to have electricity soon and that is because I have a lot of electric toys. But from experience, I am pretty sure its going to be fine without the grid.
The control system is done via the grid. Power, communication etc. The grid wont collapse because the control system will collapse with it. Imagine people unable to watch TV and listen to the lies and nonsense of governments and their bosses

This is a very, very important statement!!! It's all based on the grid isn't it. No power,, no frigging control, no manipulation, no programming.

[haroldsails]

Food/water, shelter, personal safety - in that order. Food preservation, warmth in northern latitudes, and access to water are critical....Means of generating power will come in due course.

[Inversion]

DAHBOO77 believes they're telegraphing a blackout event. There was a TV show in 2012 called Revolution about a permanent global blackout.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GvjyxyZigw8

Revolution
Series trivia
Trailer

Revolution is an American post-apocalyptic science fiction television series that ran from September 17, 2012, until May 21, 2014, when it was cancelled by NBC.[1][2] The show takes place in the post-apocalyptic near-future of the year 2027, 15 years after the start of a worldwide, permanent electrical-power blackout in 2012. Created by Eric Kripke and produced by J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions for the NBC network, it originally aired on Mondays at 10:00 PM ET,[2] and did well enough that NBC ordered a second season shortly after the first-season finale.[3]