We had a taster of things to come over Christmas when the genny went wrong on Christmas Eve. Luckily we were out for Christmas Day and Boxing Day but we had three dinner parties at home before I got the thing fixed. We were warm enough with the woodburning stoves and Carole cooked on the one in the kitchen.
I bought in our solar powered lights which worked well. We had an automatic one in the hall and another in the loo and the Maplin 2 LED lamp kit in the kitchen. Carole had also bought me an oil lamp, so we had that on the table and carried it into the living room after eating. It gives out a very restful light.
It highlighted our problem areas which were the pump for the drainage sump and the freezers. We were able to run the genny for about half an hour every hour and a half which kept everything going, just, but we'll need some form of manual backup for the drainage sump and when TSHTF the freezer stock will be run down quite quickly. We'll probably be able to power one freezer when I get the PV and wind turbine going to charge the batteries.
I'll have to do some research into DIY batteries for a bit more sustainability. Apparently the Mesopotamians made them in ???BC in massive pitch lined pots. I don't know what they used them for, though.
The ignoble 'science' of futurology guarantees one thing. If you indulge in it you will end up with egg on your face. Unanticipated effects will guarantee this. The future is too complex for anything other than the most generalised statements. Expect the unexpected.
I remember 5 years ago Matt Sav was frantically trying to get into a off grid community because "the world was going to anarchy and flesh eating zombies within 6 months"
Shame really, I have to give him credit for educating me about PO and therefore changed my world view on a lot of different topics.
RenewableCandy wrote:
Umm...they've got RGR but I don't think that counts!
Haven't seen an RGR there, there was a guy called Reserve Growth Rules, who got banned after a while.
It's innacurate to talk about LATOC's predictions. There's a wide variety of (conflicting?) opinions there.
LATOC, as represented by the their freeze dried food selling leader, thought peak oil happened in 2000, because Ruppert said so.
When Matt learns the difference between fossil fuels and uranium ( confused it right on the radio the dopey bastard ) I'll pay more attention to LATOC. Last I checked they had this entire anti-black, down with Obama, its the Jews fault but we can't say it because Matt is Jewish, etc etc, thing goin on. Do some of the more fruitier mods still think they can cure cancer?
Matt is not ' their leader' in fact he's taken a back seat for the last few months.
You're still making the mistake of characterising them in simple terms, it's a very broad church but with it's fair share of loons. And racists get very short shrift there and are soon ejected.
You're bitter because of your rather public confrontation with Matt, but you should move on. it seems you haven't done too well around here either
My only purpose here in supporting LATOC, is that it is an excellent resource for The Peak Oil community. I am crediting the members on here with the intelligence to sort the wheat from the chaff.
RGR suffers from an emotional relationship with Matt which, even after some time has passed, is still obsessional.
JakeII wrote:
You're still making the mistake of characterising them in simple terms, it's a very broad church but with it's fair share of loons. And racists get very short shrift there and are soon ejected.
So do people of color who aren't the right religion. Its hardly equal opportunity ejection.
You have (of course) proof of the above allegation ? I'm not aware of any"people of colour" who aren't "the right religion" being banned.
Every forum has it's fair share of odd people. They come and go. Some are missed, others are not
As I said earlier, the last time I was on LATOC, I was told preparing for PO was the problem, wanting a house and some food growing land a wood stove was consumerist.
I should buy a good quality sleeping bag, a months food(although no water was specified) and when *IT* went down, head for the hills, wait for everyone to die and then come back and just take what I need.
Now, if *IT* was a flu that kills 99.9999% of the populatuion in days, then yeah, the 700,000 ish survivors in the UK may do ok on stuff they can loot from super markets until they can figure out how to grow their own food, gain access to a super insulated house, find and connect a solar PV/battery set up ect.
Be easier to sort all that before hand though...
However, thats not the issue we're supposed to be discussing, its PO.
There will be no food in Tesco after a month, and B&Q wont be an abandoned shell where you can just take stuff, nor will their be eco homes going begging for tenents.