[Iuvenalis]

So, I'm starting to research supplementary power.

I say 'supplementary' because I'm not trying to replace an entire home's power budget and not 100% of the time.. That can be done, but is a much more involved and expensive proposition. I think there's plenty of info on that on the net, and it puts a pricetag on the project that will prohibit many of us from doing anything at all.

I'm not obsessed with 100% 'off the grid' or any of that. If it was easy/doable/cheap I'd do it, but I don't think it is, so please don't hijack this.

That being said, I'm looking at solar (but discussion need not remain there, it just seems the most 'ready' technology for electricity) to add a few watts to the house.

Basically, it will be there to provide us some very, very basic services in outages, minor to medium disasters (a real earthquake here would destroy the home), or the potential (likely!!) loss of public services like power and water in the event of social unrest.

Cheap is key, I'm not going to spend thousands, as there's plenty of sites for that kind of thing, the 'solar home' of the wealthy yuppie etc. I'm just looking at supplementary/emergency power.

If there were serious problems, I'd rather have 10% of my normal electricity level than 0% is my point, and an overly expensive system can discourage people from doing anything at all.

That being said, discuss:

And here's a start:

There's also this guy who powers a couple lights and a TV (!) only with a 250 buck(!) Harbor Freight system:
(be sure to watch part II as well!: )