There is a way of directly using the by product heat to run a propane style fridge/freezer. By having a gasifier by a shed you can run the hot gases (850*F)through the charger of the freezer. These gases need to be cooled anyways, so why not use the heat to run your fridge and then heat your water. This will also dehumidify your gases, needed before using on the generator. :geek:

I have read about gasifiers-but they seem awfully complicated for most people.

Long term food storage is a subject that most prepper include in their plan. Most people have a fridge and a freezer. The starting point is realizing that if the power goes out and is not coming back on anytime soon eat the contents of the fridge first, then cook and eat the contents of the freezer. Now if it is winter you might be able to extend the useful time of your freezer. These plans are just common sense and entail no costs. Taking your plan one step further you may entertain the idea of a generator. Now you are moving into the realm of expenditure plus you will have to store the fuel. A further step you might plan if for the construction for a root cellar or cold room to address long term storage. A long time ago I decided that whatever happens refrigeration is in my long term plans. The freezer itself is not the problem, it is the fuel to run freezer. Most common freezers require electricity. To supply the electricity you can go solar, wind, water if you are lucky enough or wood gas. There is not one simple solution and whichever one or combination you choose will take time, energy and money. The thing is that there is a solution.

If the food starts to defrost, then its time to can it, dry it or smoke it. Frozen meat, smoke it or can it, veggies, can them or dry them. Eat only the processed foods first. If you have the means to can it, do so. Dont PANIC....Stop and THINK. On a different track, memory foam beds are great, (or too great) at holding in the heat on a long winters night. Dont forget the flea powder for Rover and Puss.

Hello,

Since I started prepping power generation has become some what of a separate hobby. From diesel to gas to solar to wind I have either bought or made one. That being said if I was to recommend a generator for someone looking to buy their first and possible only portable generator I would have to agree we the others and recommend the Honda 2000.

Someone mentioned gas can go bad in a relatively short time. A valid concern and one of the reasons I am partial to diesel but there are options. Below is additive that will significantly increase the longevity of gas. My Honda 2000 went about 18 months and there was no noticeable performance issues. Good luck.

http://www.priproducts.com/

Focus more on how to live without power rather than how to create it. We lived wiht no power before. Read into history, all the answers are there. If shtf and you have power of any sort it will be a luxury but if you dont you will be ok. Those who have generators and such could become targets. We lost power at our cabin this summer. I have a generator there so I fired it up. Within a hour I had everyone bangin on the door wanting to plug in. We had no power for 3 days. No fuel station. Panic was setting in. Just imagine what it would have been after a week.

We lost power for 3 days last winter and many people in the area had generators (kinda redneck here) so we wouldn't have a problem for short term. Long term we would be bugging out in the bug out boat.

Thinking about it, while doing the dishes, how many innovations there were before electricity. We had coal fired industries, using steam instead of combustion or electric motors. Cartridge rifles were being made as well as artillery shells, steam engines were used to transport goods from one side of the nation to the next. Almost every "civilized" house were using gas lights to illuminate the house and limelight’s for lighting up the stages. So if the lights went out for good, we would shift back into the industrial age of our great grandparents. There is still coal and waterfalls around, we just need the right minds to use them. Medieval ages for a short while maybe, but for the few of us who have been investigating alternate methods, we may be the foothold of a new society. 😐

Ranger I wholeheartedly agree with you. I think that this has been discussed somewhat in other threads too. In just about any SHTF event we will not be going back to the stone age. All knowledge and skill will not mysteriously disappear overnight. Yes we will be set back perhaps 100 years but probably no more. From that point recovery would be relatively fast because we would not need to discover and invent those breakthroughs that we have already made. I find this a fascinating subject it probably deserves a thread of its own.

I agree with what you are saying-we won't have lost the know-how or even most of the infastructure. It will be a matter of our government thinking creatively to get things running smoothly again, and if they won't others will. I think we are not looking at a large time (maybe two or three years) of "roughing it" before things get stabalized. Maybe not to where they were, but to a workable level. Personally my main reason to not be in the city is because of the panic and way that people might deal with it. But, I know that out at my place we will be a lot longer at getting power and phone, etc restored. It wasn't that long ago that we finally got rid of our "party line" phones. And I'm only 90 km west of Edmonton.

Hey, I fully agree, if something of that magnitude happens, I would want to be as far from a major community as possible. At least for the first 6-8month, this is what I call the "kill off" period. What’s going to happen, will happen during that time, and any thing after that will settle into a "New" norm, whether it be good or bad.