NJ man lives off the grid with solar and hydrogen power.

Part of my SHTF escape scenario involves my sailboat. It is only 23 ft, but it is big enough for 4 people and we have 3. It has 6 deep cycle batteries and inverter with a small generator. I have solar panels I made that can go with it if necessary, but intend to epoxy the cells right into the hull eventually for a full time passive system. I wish I had a wind generator or a wave generator, but maybe in the future I can make one of each.

As far as growing on-board I had not really given that any thought since I figured it would only be used to get to another destination where I would hide it and use it as a base camp/sleeping quarters while I carved out a civilization near some inlet. I have been using an aquaponics setup for a year to grow plants with fish waste, but I needed more sunlight so I decided to start again later in the year with a different greenhouse location. Point is that if you are on the water and have a desalination plant on-board (solar evaporation still) you only need fertilizer and fish-heads work great.

You can use the same setup I was using by attaching some type of pipe alongside the boat and putting the plants in holes cut out of the pipe on top. The roots sit in the flowing water and a pump recirculates the water constantly during the day. As long as you kept the saltwater out you could grow the plants alongside, but you could easily do the pipe inside along the windows too. You only need a small container for the fresh water and you can also drink it due to the plants filtering it. Add Tilapia to your tank and feed them plant material and you have your fertilizer along with extra meat when needed.

I keep the sailboat ready to go at all times and I have about 300 gallons of veggie oil for my truck to tow it with across country if needed. Used veggie oil can be a life saver in many ways. It can make your fertilizer and fuel and be used to cook or even as a caloric intake when necessary. I believe in more bang for your buck so I included a hydrogen generator and stove I made for it. On a boat you will need fuel to cook if you have no sun-stove so the hydrogen generator makes my fuel for a flame to cook with or boil water to make fresh water from. Liquid fuel on a boat for fires is extremely dangerous, but the hydrogen generator makes the gas as it is being used so it is not dangerous.

I wish I could afford to just buy stuff.

reply to post by onecraftydude


I am impressed. It sounds like you have put a lot into this and it probably took quite some time. How long have you been building? Have you thought about a bigger boat? If you added wind and wave power, would you still have adequate living space?

Originally posted by rebellender
Oil has been coming out of the ground for what 150 something years now. Its not a new science, only more safe. OK now throw The Gulf Crisis at me....OK that argument is a host of CLICHE's packed with conspiracy from all angles.

Oil has been a fantastic energy source, rebel. It has allowed us to do great things. I'm not knocking it for one minute.

However, as great as it is, it's a non-renewable resource, as well. That means that it's not going to last forever; which in turn means that looking around for other things which we can use along with it, in order to make the oil go further and last longer, is simply good sense.

So let's keep using oil, by all means; but let's also see if we can't find ways of making wind, solar, tidal, and geothermal etc work for us as well. That way there's less burden exclusively on the oil economy, and we'll be able to go on using oil for that much longer.

reply to post by petrus4

However, as great as it is, it's a non-renewable resource, as well.

are you sure? can you show me an empty oil well?

Saudi was supposed to run out in 2008, just saying!!!

always good to talk to ya, take care

BTW I am all for free market competition so long as the same people don't own all the eggs in the basket, know what I mean?

Originally posted by rebellender
reply to post by petrus4

However, as great as it is, it's a non-renewable resource, as well.

 

are you sure? can you show me an empty oil well?

Saudi was supposed to run out in 2008, just saying!!!

Perhaps not yet, I can't; although I can remember reading that American domestic peak oil was supposed to have occurred in 1978. Are they still drilling domestically now, do you know?

BTW I am all for free market competition so long as the same people don't own all the eggs in the basket, know what I mean?

Absolutely; that's another part of the reason why I advocate diversification of energy sources. Oil already has its' proverbial old boys' network, well and truly, at this point. Stick exclusively with that, and they are who we get as master.

Entrenched cartels have a tendency to be complacent; young, lean startups, on the other hand, can have more of a tendency to want to actually meet people's needs, because they feel that they have something to lose if they don't. The too big to fails think that they don't need to worry so much.