Thinking outside the broken box..

E-mail us by clicking on this e-mail.
Home Page
DISCLAIMER

Projects for surviving outside the broken box.


As many of you know we had a lot of storms that knocked out power and isolated communities from outside help.
I will share survival information and gear that I might use for city or wilderness survival.


The first thing I need is an emergency alternative power source, if the power grid is down.
I will show how I would build a solar power generator .
The video of the 2000 watt solar generator I built will be coming soon.
This small solar generator is set up like my 2000 watt system

A solar panel converts sunlight into electricity.
You can make solar panels or buy solar panels.
Check out my solar panel page to see how I built the 60 watt panel used on the 2000 watt solar generator.

The output of the solar panel is connected to the solar input of the charge controller.
Charge controller will protect the battery for over charging from the solar panel.
Charge Controllers come in many sizes from the small 7 amp unit and up to hundreds of amps
The custom charge controllor in the gray box is what I used on my 2000 watt solar generator.
A seven amp charge controller will work good for solar panels up to 60 watt.

The battery output from the charge controller is connected to the battery plus and minus terminal of the deep cycle battery.
Batteries come in many sizes. You want the largest battery you can buy for you solar generator.
I am using a 100 amp hour battery for my solar generator.
The 100 amp hour rating means that the battery can use 100 amps in one hour before being discharged.
You never want to totally discharge a battery.
I would use only 50 amp per hour or less from my 100 amp hour battery to get a long life out of the battery. The battery need to be a deep cycle battery, not a car battery.
Use the internet to learn about deep cycle batteries

The plus and minus from the deep cycle battery is connected to the plus and minus on the power inverter.
Most inverters have a fuse and if not you need to add a inline fuse and also so an emergency cut off switch.
The job of the inverter is to convert the DC voltage from the battery to 120 volts AC just like your wall socket at home.
Inverters come in modified sine wave AC or pure sine wave AC. You can look this up on the internet.
Modified sine wave inverters work very good for most plug in items and modified sine wave inverters cost a lot less.

This is the case I installed the solar generator parts in.
You can make a case out of wood and etc .
Use large gauge wires for the battery to the inverter hookup.
Jumper cables will make good hookup wires.
Your deep cycle battery will need to be in a battery box .

This is my 2000 watt solar generator without the solar panel on top.
I am testing the solar generator with a microwave, electric fan,lamp and my video equipment.
I will upload video of the solar generator for all to see.
This emergency power system can be built for less than 450 dollars.
I will try to add more homemade survival gear and information as I get the time to add them.

Now that we have electric power it now time to hunt for food.
I would use a long bow and a good hunting slingshot as one of my survival tools to hunt for food in a city.

My next tools for survival hunting is a crossbow and a pellet gun. These are quiet tools for hunting small game.
Guns make a lot of noise.

Now you will need a knife to skin and clean your food .
I will use any knife or a sharp tool to skin and clean my food.

You need to find a way to cook your food.
Fire starting can be easy or hard. You can use many tools to start a fire.
You can make a fire starting kit using anything from waterproof matches to a magnifying glass.

Fishing reels with hooks and bobbins would be good for fishing.
I would not use a rod and reel. I would just hand throw the line in the water.

Flashlights are a good thing to have at night for looking around in dark buildings.
I would use LED flashlights because of the long life you can get fronm the batteries.
Small LED flashlights are good thing to have in a survival situation.

The key to living outside the broken box is to perpare for any emergency.
The best time to prepare for an emergency is to learn and prepare before the emergency happens.