December 31, 2006
Chicklet Rick asked how to tell how many amps each device he wished to add to his list used in a 12V emergency situation. I promised an explanation and hopefully I have the time to make it short because you can make this as complex as you want. It would be a perfect school paper because you can expand and get more detailed and then get into the root mean square of AC power waves - you can bullshit your way to an A without any problem, not that I'm saying bullshit is a good skill - wait it is! Go for it baby chicks!

Anyway, pick up and turn over anything you have that uses electricity that you have and somewhere you will find a plate or a printing of a bunch details that most of us avoid reading. I'm grabbing the power supply to this computer and looking at it. I'm interested in anything about the part that plugs into the wall, and not too interested in the part that plugs into the computer. Since this is a computer and NONE are built here and almost everyone (including your beloved Mac is built in the same factory in China - but that's a different rant), you'll find a bunch of warnings, cautions in English, German and French. Luckily I'm only looking for one number if I can find it, the input wattage.
I find it the line reads exactly "Input 100-240V~1.5A 70W CONT."
There is actually useful information in that line. The voltage from 100 to 240V means that I can plug this in, in countries, like Russia, which use 240V and not blow it up and it will run the computer. For our work here tonight, we need that 70W CONT. It means 70 watts continuously. Input means the wall plug must give that.
So to get the amps it uses just divide the W by 12 (your battery system lives at 12 volts not 120V). So 70/12 is 5 and most of anther amp - so will round up to 6 amps. So to run the laptop in my Airstream Safari of my big battery bank I must give this device 6 amps every hour. So if I want to run it for 2 hours I have to know that of all the energy I collect I will have to give 6 times 2 amp-hours or 12amp-hours for running the laptop for two hours.

Now you know I'd be lying if I said I only run the laptop two hours a day. It is more like 6 hours per day, so lets really say that 36 amp-hours are used (or more some days) working on this and several other laptops that I have in the Airstream. I collect, on a good day in late late December about 80 amp-hours total, so almost have my energy goes in to working on the web blog, writing essays, interminable essays, and email, and web surfing.

OK so far. Wattage divide by 12V will tell us how many amps we must supply at 12 V. But if you were unlucky and picked up a household appliance that didn't have so much writing on it, it might just say 5A at 110V. Well what do you do then. Whew, well luckily Voltage and Wattage and Amperage all go to the dance together and it is one of those things that when you know two of the three, any two of the three, you can easily figure out the third.

If you like a formula it is looks like this VA=W Now if you hate formula's just skip that line.

We know that your device, say a good size TV, the one you use on Monday Night Football, uses 5A (amps)at 120V (Volts). Well Wattage is just Volts times Amps so multiple the two together and that is the Wattage. 5 times 120 equals 600 Watts. Wow. that's a lot more juice than the 70 watts running my laptop isn't it? So we just divide the 600 by 12v to get how many 12 V amps and we find, merde! 50 amps. That is why here in Q out in the desert with solar panels there are not many big screen TVs blaring unless a big gas generator is destroying the peace and quiet in order to run it. Do see the connection. Big power, bad planet killing, sports fiends, running evil generators, using YOUR children's fuel with no regard for tweety bird who just fell dead out of the tree from the exhaust and is now accidentally mixed in with the guacamole - they won't notice though because they can't hear themselves think over the noise of the fucking generator. See it all fits. Little energy good people, birdies love you, big energy, bad people, planet killers, mother earth has your number. Was I too subtle in my math???

So anything you pick up that is electrical is supposed to tell you two of the three things in this equation. VA=W, and if you know a little algebra that's all you need but say you were watching the strangely attractive crooked teeth of the girl next to you in calculus and trig and even in algebra, then if you want to know amps of your device - and you know:Wattage, you don't need anything, just divide by 12.

If you know Wattage and the amperage but they didn't tell you want voltage, doesn't matter, just divide the wattage by 12.

We'll talk more of this when we are putting together the medium sized solar project.

It really is that simple, and I'm sorry if I offended the delicate sensibilities of the oddly flavored guacamole crowd, but it had to be said.

If you have read how we got created the electrical wants lists then jump to the parts list
for the small project here!

THIS text was relocated from the blog. Hopefully I can hold your interest because most of you are my friends. What happens to you is important to me. This is a quest. Below is what I wrote and rewrote throughout the day.

Energy Independence on the cheap and small scale:

This is a little bit of thought about electricity, which for many people means civilization, and for a smaller group it means the continuation of life itself. For something that wasn't even in use in rural areas of the US until 1935 (REA - Roosevelt), there are many people who are alive only because of constant electrical power (oxygen machines), and a far greater number of this subset who live in areas where life is simply not endurable (for all but a hardy foolish few) without air conditioning, which means BIG electricity. For instance, right where I am in Quartzsite, Arizona summer time temperatures can reach 130F . Even Las Vegas could not exist until electricity and the invention of compressor driven air conditioning was introduced and invented. Most of us alive today cannot really imagine a quality of life without electricity.

But I wasn't thinking about the civilizations use and abuse of oil, coal, and primarily natural gas (which we get 20% of from Canada, and I've read that our 20% is half of all they produce - and all new power plants going on line are natural gas - and what if Canada decides they need their natural gas for their own electrical generation? - extensive digression, sorry), I was thinking about the little guy, the you's and I's who never are told the truth about what decisions are being made above us anyway, so we struggle through the quagmire, the multiple levels of bullshit and election time head patting believing that we decide based on facts, when in fact, we wouldn't know a bare faced fact if we tripped on one - how could we, everything we see on TV, read on the net, read in a newspaper, has been manufactured for the affect it will have on us, not to inform us. The day we formed the first soulless eternal corporation we doomed truth to the highest bidder, and we don't have the chips to play in that world. - Sorry diverged into another rant.

So what is electricity to the person who going to have to make it in the near uncertain future. Forget college, forget civil service, teach your children how to build and maintain, wind, passive solar hot water heating, and scrounge, install and maintain solar panels and the billions of used car batteries that will be available, and they will be set for their life. That and recycling, stripping cars and welding, next to farming are what the little guy and girl, and everyone you love, needs to know. And who is going to teach them - it has to be you, while you have the resources (money), time (because your job is a farce and you need something important to do anyway), and the perspective of what Will Rogers said in this line, "it ain't the bad times coming, it's the good times going that bother people so much." Learn to fix, create, build and make your own power. Can you just stop for a minute and think how proud of yourself you would be? Can you feel a little of what it is like to be the master of your own fate, finally being of some use? You want to stop kids from committing suicide and doing drugs and hating you? I don't know, I'm no psychologist but it seems that if they had something REAL to do, something that made some difference to their survival, to your survival, they would find purpose, pride and get to use that incredible power of youth. Being of use is it. So a place to start, and no I won't apologize for digressing, is power. It is make or break after water, shelter, heat for many people, and you'll see why from your answers to the question I asked.

So, I asked this question about 4 days ago and mailed it to everyone on the freechicken list.

Minimal energy independence: I've written on and off all afternoon trying to get my thoughts around all this information. It is easy to make a list and sort many ways - but the conclusion, the reason for me working on this website is to say what might actually physically do. Talking is all noise and then what. So I think this is where I am headed with this. You can run everything on your lists on a solar system that you put in, in your home, whether it is a mansion, and RV or a tent, or wilderness shelter for less that $3000. I can cover almost everything but not all for less than $1000. It won't run your whole house, and it won't support 1/20th of that you now use, living in pig heaven as we do on the grid. But you will have power for a small refrigerator, radios, computer and an LCD TV: even satellite. You'll be able to pump up your water tank if you live in the country, recharge your cell phone and have one light per person at night for a few hours. I'm going to get some current prices and suggest a method of building a simple preparedness power island. This design will also work mounted on a car, on a small trailer or even a bicycle trailer. One note, those living in lower light areas that Quartzsite may have to scale up the number or solar panels (the biggest cost) or possibly add a small cable cable that clips directly to any car alternator to get a quick recharge if the weather is cloudy for more than 2 days in a row.

NOTES I made as I looked at your lists today: We live at the end of a chain of supply and demand. See it as a thread that runs from where the stuff you want starts and ends at your use. So that broccoli might have started in Argentina at this time of year, been air lifted out to a distribution point in LA or Portland, and then overnighted by truck to the supermarket where you purchased it this morning and are pushing it around your plate right now. Electricity is like that too. Here in Q it is coming from gas fired plants in AZ and CA and costs 4 times as much as my other home in Eugene where it comes from the big dams on the Columbia river. It travels down a spider web of lines and ends up flowing into your house to run your clock, your computer, your TV and microwave. That supply line looses a great deal of energy in the transmission, and it can crash, just like your Windoz computer, and it does. So lets assume some sort of dam related shutdown of the Columbia turbines, say earthquake of volcano or terrorist attack. You don't know how long you be down, so what do you do.
Survivalist literature suggest you fill the bathtub while the water pressure maintains (it will not be pumped up into the towers tonight, so get yours now). Also don't open the frig at all if you can, and don't go into the freezer at all - then as time goes on there are a host of other actions you can do to stretch out your existence in your home or apartment. But without electricity you home will become uninhabitable very quickly.

Electricity runs the sewage treatment plant and pumps and pressurizes your fresh water. The sewer lines count on a certain amount of water mixed in with the debris and sewage to keep the drain pipes flowing. When you cut off the fresh water, even if you're flushing your toilet with water scooped from your full bathtub, you will only have a few days until the main sewer lines begin to back up and you will not be using your bathroom. You eat out your refrigerator and spoilage will take care of that fruit cake from 1980 in the back there. Next to the ice encrusted old brussels sprouts. See even catastrophic events have an up side - you get rid of the brussels sprouts (just kidding).

No water, no sewage, no electricity and what do you have in an apartment or home - just a shell of a technology that you used to use to live and sleep and eat and drink and poop in. Now it is broken.
In other essays we'll deal with how to keep your house "alive", meaning continuing the function you bought it to provide without the electricity, piped water, and sewage (yes you can, its actually pretty easy). But today we're looking at what happens in the first or second day. What is the prime reason we use electricity. The house we can modify, save, adapt and make livable. The emotion stress, the shock of finding out that you can't flush the toilet, dealing with shit, dealing with food without refrigeration is like and emotional earthquake. Electricity is the method to survive it. You said it yourselves in your lists:

Communication:
computers, radios, TV are all about learning what the fuck is going on and when it will be fixed. Remember in a real emergency you will be told what you want to hear and probably not the truth. We'll deal with the complete failure of evacuation (Houston provided an excellent example - you cannot evacuate large cities, doesn't work - no gas for most of the cars to leave by the time the call from government came). But radios that have LOCAL content are crucial. No list specified what kind of radio, so you probably know that most FM is not local, and that is often true of AM. However AM can stay on with reduced power and still cover a city. Your best bet is to have a CB radio too. You can buy them at thrift shops and pawn shops cheap.

Computers: For the internet and communication. It may well be that DSL and Cable will continue to work in a power outage but I have read that the comcast cable signal boosters are not battery backed up so you can expect your internet connection to go dead with your electricity if you're connected via cable.

Lights: yes, at least one, or else your winter day has just become 8 hours long in most of the USA.

Microwave: yes but limited use and how the inverter is wired to the battery bank is crucial - not for the beginner. I have a microwave in my Airstream (which is all solar and almost never plugged into the grid) and I use the microwave quite often.

Hairdryer: A little one might be possible- but anything with an electrical resistive element that glows uses tremendous amounts of electricity (toasters, hair dryers) and can almost always be done better with a differernt technology. But if you use the little curling blow driers they have a much smaller draw and I have run one them off a cheap 1200 watt inverter without problem.

AA and AAA Battery Charging: this is a great idea, and easy to do. Battery chargers for all sizes of nicads run find off of small inverters. Stock up on lots of rechargable batteries.

Cell Phone charging:- it is almost a crime to use the little plug in charger that comes with most cell phones and plug into a wall - inefficient and slow. Use the 12V auto charger built for your phone- it is much faster and works perfectly on 12 V. You can find them at any Walmart, Kmart or similar store.

OPINION: In event of a large scale knockout of the power grid we will quickly morph in to a 12V world, even though that is not the most efficient way to move electricity around. Why 12V?: Cars. Lack of gasoline for cars will mean lots of cars for parts. Cars which eat the world and are consuming our easy energy - oil are so cool when used for parts for other projects. Lights, alternators (wind, hydro driven), wire, horns, glass, furniture, axles and tires for big wind generator hubs, all of that - we'll have 400 million rolling parts stores and they are all 12V. So we'll be 12V for a long while.

Entertainment: This is crucial. In any stressful situation, listening to the music you like, seeing a video that you like, playing your Xbox game, all of those are as critical as water to your adjustment to whatever is occurring. A significant part of the small energy budget we are working with must be devoted to running Ipods, small TVs, games, etc.

Water pumping: City people rarely understand that huge amounts of electricity (read oil and gas) are used to move water to your home. It falls down from the sky and then has to get to your house. The getting it there is the big cost. Rural people are well aware (forgive the pun) that they usually must PUMP their water from underground to a tank somewhere and from there it squirts out wherever you open a faucet because it is under pressure from that pressure tank in your garage. Guess what runs the pump - you knew it, electricity. In general think 1000 watts of electricity to run them and 1500 watts to start them. This is very doable via solar, wind or diesel generator, with a couple of good storage batteries. The best thing about the water pump is that it only runs minutes per day and therefore is not part of the big loads you have to design for - just like a microwave. Big big load, very short time used.

So it would appear that the lists provided by you chicklets are completely doable with wind and solar. A caveat though, computers and satellite TV -well yes, but the computers draw quite a bit of power - often 80 watts just in a laptop, and they tend to run for 5 or 10 hours per day or more. TV's should be small and LCD, at least one, so that your power requirement is not too large, so you have to check how much power you're producing and curtail use of them.

As I develop the website we'll talk about how to put solar on a single circuit in the house, a separate circuit that will always be alive in an emergency, and what you can plug into that. Running a well pump is a larger wiring project but still something that could be done in a few hours in an emergency. I'll put up links and a diagram of how to do that. I'll be moving all this to the preparation section and adding structure to this. Please feel free to jump in with suggestions as I design this power island idea. I am intimately familiar with my solar panels 6 batteries, one charge controller and 4 inverters. I designed it, I live it, and I live within the limitations of it. Let me at least know if energy independence on the small affordable scale is of interest to you. Click here to email me with your suggestions!

PAGE 2 - smallest emergency solar design. Light(s), communications (CB Radio, walkie talkies), radio, battery charging, cell phone charging,

PAGE 3 - medium sized solar independence. No hair driers or microwaves

PAGE 4 - Largest plan includes hair dryers, TV's and microwaves.