Prepper Tutorial - Energy
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Last year I wrote two guides for preparing for disaster. The first was about water and the second for first aid. I have owed everyone a similar guide for energy.
This guide for getting started with prepping for power outages.
A guide for this topic is incredibly complicated and can be the most expensive. Things have gotten easier in the last few years with the expansive growth of large battery power banks and the declining prices on solar panels. However, determining how much solar you need, how big the batteries should be, and how to calculate your needs is hard.
This guide is going to start with the absolute basics. The minimal amount of power you need to just get by. Later, if you have the time and the budget, I am available to chat about whole home solutions.
A little about capacity
There is a lot of math required to figure out how much energy storage you will need for a power outage. The most accurate way is to use an energy monitor that you can plug in any device you will need to power during an outage and measure how much energy it uses over a 24 hour period. Then add up the totals and that will equal the size of battery you need to run all those items for 24 hours.
This will certainly be more energy than you thought you would need. For example, my fridge uses 1KWh of energy every 24 hours. My house uses about 27KWh a day. To run my house offgrid for an entire day I would need $5-$10k worth of batteries and accessories, not including a way to charge them such as solar panels or a generator.
My goal for this guide is not to run your entire house, but to power a few lights, charge your phone(s) and tablet(s), and other small devices like baby monitors. clocks, and a radio.
Lighting
I’m putting this in the energy prepper guide because lighting is an important part of getting through a power outage. Our power typically goes out during the winter, so it sucks to have the power out with no lights when it gets dark at 4:30PM.
I am a huge fan of these rechargable table lamps. They have a built-in battery and can last 24 hours of on time with a single charge. They are affordable, so you can put one in every room and they can charge from smaller power stations I’ll mention later, plus any phone battery bank or the USB port in your car.
Because they have a battery, you can also carry one around, including into the bathroom where you probably need it the most.
In addition to these lamps, I would also have at least one rechargable flashlight and one head lamp. Head lamps are a great way to have a light without having to hold it. Think bathroom trips or working in the kitchen.
These are the lights I have:
Small battery banks
At an absolute minimum I would get a portable power bank for your phone. I think this is a good idea for everyone to have regardless of a power outage. They are affordable and will help you in many situations, in and out of the home. For $30 and under you can get one and keep in your bag or stash in the car just in case. Time and again these little battery banks are high on preppers and frequent travelers must-have lists.
I also think you shouldn’t get anything under 20,000 mah capacity.
Some quick back-of-napkin math.
Most phones have around a 5,000 mah battery inside. Then, if you have one of those table lamps, that has a 2,000 mah battery. If you would like to charge both of those at least one time from 0-100% during an outage, your battery bank needs to have at least 7,000 mah capacity.
However, most battery banks have somewhere between 70-80% efficiency. So, a 10,000 mah battery bank has a real world capacity of 7,000, which is right at our minimum requirements. Over time, that battery in the battery bank will degrade, so now we are under our requirement.
I also think we will all want to charge our phone more than once in a power outage. So, lets say we want to charge both our phone and the lamp twice from this bank. That is 14,000 mah needed. Let’s say our 20,000 mah battery bank has a 70% actual capacity, that puts us right at 14,000 mah. Now we definitely have enough to last a couple days having our phone and a lamp powered.
Here’s one to check out: Anker Zolo 20,000 mah battery bank.
Recharging these can be done from your car phone charger or from a larger power station.
Small power stations
On top of a small battery bank, you probably want a modern power station. What makes these different than the phone battery banks are a larger capacity and a regular AC outlet.
Now we are going to start getting complicated.
The reason to have one of these small power stations is so that you can charge multiple devices multiple times from a single battery. For example, in my house I will need to charge 5 phones, 3 phone battery banks, 1 tablet, 4 table lamps, 2 flashlights, and 2 headlamps, plus run a a Raspberry Pi computer, and power a radio.
All of this combined is in the neighborhood of 200Wh of battery capacity. Plus, some of these devices do not run from a USB power cord and need to be plugged into a standard outlet.
To be clear, this size of power station cannot run the following:
- Your fridge
- A microwave
- Coffee maker
- Air fryer
- Desktop computers
It can probably run a TV for like an hour. Your internet modem/router for 4-5 hours.
I have three of these kinds of power stations, one in all three of the bedrooms. The reason why is because they will do automatic switching from wall power to the battery if the power goes out. For example, in the gorls room I have a Ecoflow River 3 that is plugged into the wall and then a nightlight, the child video monitor, and the charging bricks for their bed lamps. If the power goes out, the Ecoflow will automatically switch to battery mode and nothing will turn off. The camera will still go, nightlight stays on, their bed lamps continue to get charged. I then have the exact same setup in my bedroom, just with our alarm clock, the video monitor receiver, a table lamp, and our phone chargers. If the power goes out over night, our alarm will still go off in the morning, our phones will be charged, and the monitor stayed on.
I am a big fan of Ecoflow for small and mid-sized power stations because you can easily set in the app for the AC outlet to stay on all the time. Some of these small to mid power stations will turn the AC outlet off after a few hours.
When the battery runs low in these devices during a power outage, we can easily charge them from the 12v socket in one of the cars in a couple hours.
My goal with these are to keep all our small, necessary gadgets charged and running and then to charge them from the generator. Then the generator only has to run long enough to charge the power stations and battery banks, saving on the gas needed to run the generator.
Once you are comfortable with these power stations, you can add solar charging to them for a reasonable price.
Mid-sized power stations
I classify this as the 1-2KWh power station. These are larger, but function exactly the same as the small power stations. They have more USB ports, more AC outlets, and a high enough capacity to power larger appliances.
With these you can run the microwave, air fryer, coffee maker, or toaster. You can also use it to power your fridge for about a day (depending on size and efficiency).
I have the same goal with these. Use them and then charge from a generator or your car each day so fuel usage is lower.
The other benefit for these mid-sized power stations is that they are safer than a generator. Many people get sick and die from using a generator either inside or too close to their home and are poisoned from the fumes. Every big weather event has tragic stories about folks dying from carbon monoxide due to generators, car fumes, or using a BBQ inside for heat.
🚨 🚨 Do not use a generator within 25 feet of your home. Do not use them in an enclosed space. Do not run your car in an enclosed space. Do not use your BBQ inside. YOU WILL DIE. 🚨 🚨
The reason to spend the extra money for one of these power stations is:
- Keep your fridge cold and your food safe for the day.
- Power kitchen appliances.
- Keep warm with an electric blanket
Again, I like Ecoflow. I have been eying the Ecoflow Delta 2. The reason why I like the Delta series is because it does the automatic switching like the smaller power station, can do solar charging, and you can expand the capacity with addon batteries. You can take it all the way up to 3KWh.
Generators and solar panels
These are two even more complicated considerations. With battery banks and power stations you need to consider how to fill them back up when they are empty with the power still out.
I’m not going to get into solar panels for this guide. I am reluctantly mentioning generators because I think a good power outage plan includes at least one battery bank for your phone and one power station, either small or mid, then charging those with a generator.
Again, some back-of-napkin math.
The Ecoflow Delta 2 can charge at 1,200W. Let’s say I want to charge this power station and run my fridge while I’m charging the power station. When my fridge runs it uses 700W. That puts me at needing a generator that outputs at least 1,900 watts. I need that generator to run for at least 2 hours at that rate and have enough fuel around to do that multiple times. That means we are looking for something that has at least 1,900 running watts. Every generator has a start up wattage and running watts. Start up is for when there is an initial surge in the beginning when running your devices, RV, etc. It won’t stay at that wattage the entire time.
This means we are looking at a generator similar to this one from Harbor Freight.
When choosing a generator you need to think about how you are going to store enough fuel for it. When the power goes out you can’t count on going to the gas station. Not only is their power out, but everyone else is thinking the same thing. If the power is out for 3 days or longer, the gas station will run out of fuel. So, you need to get a gas can and have a safe place to store it. You will also need to rotate that gas every 6 months.
In addition, you will need to perform occasional maintenance on it with oil changes, etc.
For fuel, I wish I would have chosen a dual fuel generator when I bought mine. These kinds of generators can run from either gas or propane. This makes your fuel strategy easier. You can have 1 or 2 5 gal. gas cans, plus a propane tank. Most homes have a use for a propane tank because of barbecues. This means you can rotate the gas by putting it into your car and then filling the cans and then use the propane on the BBQ and can also use it with the generator.
🚨 🚨 Do not use a generator within 25 feet of your home. Do not use them in an enclosed space. Do not run your car in an enclosed space. Do not use your BBQ inside. YOU WILL DIE. 🚨 🚨
Conclusion
I know this is a lot of info and this is the simpler path.
To get started I would get a battery bank for your phone, a rechargable table lamp, and a headlamp. Then, if you have the budget, get a small power station. Then you can grow from there.