Did you go AGM on that battery?

Seen handtruck setups,very cool.

Speaking of battery packs I use this,129 at amazon,it started a diesel cummins TWICE,thats pretty dang good,love those things,got it after a dead battery episode in Jetta,the original start great/dead battery car when it failed. So if your car has the small battery/large electronic load and you cant get a larger battery,thing is awesome.Holds a charge for many months too.

When purchased in 2009 was the most powerful I could find at the time.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JFJLP6/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Clore Automotive JNC660 Jump-N-Carry 1,700 Peak Amp 12-Volt Jump Starter

Price: $129.50 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver

In Stock.

Tes's system is awesome.Also the advice on string lights very good.

I could go on and on about inverters/batteries but wont.

All that does is muddy the water and make easy sound very complicated.

A goal zero is a GREAT start for anybody.Just that will blow your mind first time you solar charge a battery or whatever.

The important thing is just do it,then when you have it go for upgrades as your confidence increases.... which will soar after youve started,its very infectious.

Just love that stuff.

Again,well done!

Thanks guys. We've added one to our shopping list. Sandy was a just a little bump here, but with a nor'easter about to arrive (we're already below freezing here) and what looks to be a wintery winter on the horizon, we're not going to wait for Christmas shopping time for this one.

Sandy was a good wake up call in this house. The only part of our preps that I think we failed on was heat. (ok, we're not ready for a flood either, but given our location, a weather related flood is highly unlikely.) If we had lost power and it had gotten cold like they were predicting... I'm a little overly protective of the nest and brod these days, but we've gotten a little complacent the last few years.

Jackie... if you are looking at a kero heater, this site was helpful...

http://www.milesstair.com/

Thanks so much Les. We had a look at the propane heater we bought in the summer and think that of it's not older than God, it's probably a turn of the century model, so we're not going to trust it. Donating it to our Scout group, who is awesome at fixing up such relics, and going on a hunt for something we can actually use in the house. This looks like it's right up our alley. Thanks!

i was just working my way down today's posts and i see that a kero heater is also mentioned as a heat source for a winter power loss.
once again not a bad idea but i think i would need two,one in the basement to keep the pipes from freezing and another in the "warm room" where we would live and sleep until the power came up.
again it's the storage of kerosene and i assume i would need lots of it and just not couple of the five gallon plastic jugs i see in the big box hardware stores.

Forgot to mention yesterday that we have 1/2 dozen of these solar garden lights. These cost $2.99 each in a mid summer sale.






The lights come with a cheap rechargeable 400 mah NI-Cad battery which don't last very long so I immediately replaced with Eneloops. I am not sure how much the batteries get charged but from preliminary testing in August, I found that with a low battery, a full day of sun would allow the light to work for about 2 days. A fully charged Eneloop fresh from a charger will allow the light to have about a 3 day+ run time before it is too weak to give off any decent illumination.




These lights are perfect for hallways, bedrooms, bathrooms etc. They don't give a lot of light but certainly enough to allow you see, especially in bathrooms that do not have any windows such as this one and fits perfectly in the towel rack.

Very cool idea, Teslinhiker. I guess because they're solar, I never thought of them for indoor use.'It never even dawned on me that they's have a battery in them. Thanks for the education!

Not terribly practical, I'm afraid. Heat tracing and heat lamps suck a lot of juice -- too much to run off a battery or car inverter system for more than a couple of hours.

In that situation, I would rapidly be doing a gravity draindown of the house potable water system, followed by a blowdown with an air compressor, and then RV antifreeze in all the water traps (sink, toilet). That's SOP for winterizing seasonal cabins and RVs up here. I keep a few jugs of RV antifreeze around at all times for exactly this reason.

A well thought out kit for alternative electrical power.

A hand crank might also be useful to power a cell phone when all else has given up its last electrons.

i.e. such as the Freeplay Energy - Freecharge (12v charger)

It will give out about 6-10W - I have even powered a 6W LED Lamp through a 75W inverter with one, along with Mobile Phones, radios etc. Making a phone call on a cell phone just require someone else to keep turning the crank.

The portable power products from Powertraveller are also quite handy.

I have also come across a small scale (240 Whrs) LiFePo4 battery solar charge regulator which has recently interested me as well.

http://www.batteryspace.com/lifepo4battery12v20ah240whwithcontrollerforsolarpowerstorage.aspx

This has certain advantages over SLA batteries, i.e. can be fully discharged not just to 50% capacity without damage and greater number of charge/discharge cycles i.e up to 5 times more.

The 3Kg weight would make it into the luggable weight range.