Must Read What's your 2020 prepping plans and goals?

[Proud Prepper]

I plan to expand my reloading abilities. Aquire a drone to test for usefulness after SHTF! Expand my gardening for more variety. Add more fruit trees and berry bushes on my property.

My goal is to be 100% food self sufficient this year, I'm already 100% self sufficient with water, even without any power source.

 

[Maverick]

Me and Lisa are prepping to leave Washington state, we already made some changes, Lisa extended her employment by one year so we should be totally out of here some time in 2022... should be.

 

[Proud Prepper]

Me and Lisa are prepping to leave Washington state, we already made some changes, Lisa extended her employment by one year so we should be totally out of here some time in 2022... should be.

That's great, what state are you moving to?

 

[Maverick]

That's great, what state are you moving to?

I have a house in Blackwell Oklahoma already, my nephew stays their when he’s not on the road but we are also looking at Kansas.

 

[Arcticdude]

My 2020 plans include: building a new 24×48 hay barn, new coop for the meat chickens, expand the fur shed, set up my reloading stuff, buy a few more cows, drill a new well near the house, plant more fruit trees and berry plants and add a few hundred more yards of gravel to the road (actually the gravel is an every year thing).

 

[Brent S]

Solar will be my main goal. I’m really torn between saving for retirement or going energy independent. I keep going back and fourth on solar. Financially it’s much wiser to pay for power as it’s much cheaper. Prepping wise it makes sense to not depend on the fragile infrastructure of our power grid. I believe I will at least get the panels and inverter this year. Neither are perishable like the batteries are so even if I just have them functioning during the daytime it’s still somewhat usable if the grid goes down. That and I am considering upgrading the greenhouse. The fabrics has to be replaced every three years or so. I will probably go ahead and put up lexan panels that are more long term.

 

[JackDW]

Brent, I am also in the process of going with Solar. My initial project is 6 100watt (12 volt) panels (panels keep getting cheaper and cheaper) with a MPPT charge controller. I could save a money be using a cheap MPT controller but I hope to expand in the future so I an spending the extra money up front. I purchased two GEL batteries knowing they will only last a couple years but will provide me experience with running things on solar. Hopefully, in a few years, we will have better battery options. Also have a "mid-sized" inverter as a starting point. The equipment is the easy part.

I will be doing all of the installation and wiring myself. That is where the "big" money would be if I had it installed. I am running several outlets back to the inverter which will be solar only and not connected to the grid in any fashion. It is the wiring where you spend the most money. Most people look at the various solar pieces and tend to overlook the wiring. If you do elect to go solar, make sure you layout the location and wiring before you start anything. That alone can save you a pile of money. HINT, consider using higher voltage as it can get by with smaller gauge wiring. In most cases, the saving on the wiring will more than pay for more expense pieces.

Just my 2cent worth (worth less than a penny these days)

 

[Maverick]

I wouldn't mind going solar but I'm faced with several issues, up North we don't get a lot of sun to justify the cost for a large battery bank with panels given we would have to have more panels to off set the lack of usable sun hours than one ordinarily would. We are planing on moving closer to the South and when that happens we both will be on limited funds (retirement) not only would we have the startup cost we also have the maintenance cost, the area we are thinking about is known for high winds, hail, lightening and tornadoes, ya insurance will cover most but not everything, thus higher premiums, out of pocket cost etc... on limited income that out of pocket is quite expensive, insurance has it's limits. A lot is going to change in the next couple of years and I will shrink down my preps from the scale we are a custom to. I'm still going to prep but at a smaller scale but I take comfort the kids and grand kids are taken care. I seen the writing on the wall in 1992, I should have left then... I hate hindsight. As they say 'nothing last forever' and it was a good run in Washington, having what we need now will make the move far easier than starting from scratch and quite frankly we are looking foreword to it.

The geopolitical environment can turn your world upside down and one needs to be prepped for that, me and Lisa leaving Washington is our choice, the kids will leave the state a couple of years after we do, one of the kids is moving to Texas and is transferring to ICE down their.

 

[DrHenley]

At the BOL, we'd probably need a combination of wind and solar to have more or less continuous power. And some means of storing LOTS AND LOTS of electricity in the lulls. In winter, the winds blow fiercely out of the South before a cold front comes through and then fiercely out of the North after the front. Storms can last for weeks at a time with no sun. Then in summer, especially late summer, there are typically doldrums with no wind but lots of sun.

 

[Arcticdude]

I'm completely satisfied with my solar setup. Its powering 100% of my house, fur shed, shop, 2 freezers and 2 refrigerator's. Part of my solar setup includes a 12kw Perkins diesel generator with auto start which runs whenever there's a lack of sunlight or a high demand. It shuts down automatically when the batteries are fully charged.
During summer the generator seldom starts. This time of year we get very little sun, but the panels still get enough to provide most of the power we need. I installed a propane furnace in the new house for backup to the wood stove. I keep the thermostat set at 61 degs just in case the fire in the wood stove goes out. So far this winter the furnace only came on 1 time.
I've had zero problems with my solar setup, since I got all the bugs worked out last summer. I'm thinking about adding solar to the barn and chicken coop this year. And possibly another solar setup at the watering trough to run a circulating pump to keep the water from freezing. During winter I have to break the ice twice a day.

 

[Brent S]

Brent, I am also in the process of going with Solar. My initial project is 6 100watt (12 volt) panels (panels keep getting cheaper and cheaper) with a MPPT charge controller. I could save a money be using a cheap MPT controller but I hope to expand in the future so I an spending the extra money up front. I purchased two GEL batteries knowing they will only last a couple years but will provide me experience with running things on solar. Hopefully, in a few years, we will have better battery options. Also have a "mid-sized" inverter as a starting point. The equipment is the easy part.

I will be doing all of the installation and wiring myself. That is where the "big" money would be if I had it installed. I am running several outlets back to the inverter which will be solar only and not connected to the grid in any fashion. It is the wiring where you spend the most money. Most people look at the various solar pieces and tend to overlook the wiring. If you do elect to go solar, make sure you layout the location and wiring before you start anything. That alone can save you a pile of money. HINT, consider using higher voltage as it can get by with smaller gauge wiring. In most cases, the saving on the wiring will more than pay for more expense pieces.

Just my 2cent worth (worth less than a penny these days)

Being an electrician really helps with us doing the install. My house is elevated with a good sized crawl space so adding some dedicated receptacles is fairly easy. I also have a south facing front porch that’s 40’ long and is the perfect place to install panels. If needed I could double that by going up on the 2nd story roof too. Only thing I haven’t thought of a good place is where to put batteries. I will probably do like you and just do a few dedicated receptacles to start with.

 

[JackDW]

I'm completely satisfied with my solar setup. Its powering 100% of my house, fur shed, shop, 2 freezers and 2 refrigerator's. Part of my solar setup includes a 12kw Perkins diesel generator with auto start which runs whenever there's a lack of sunlight or a high demand. It shuts down automatically when the batteries are fully charged.
During summer the generator seldom starts. This time of year we get very little sun, but the panels still get enough to provide most of the power we need. I installed a propane furnace in the new house for backup to the wood stove. I keep the thermostat set at 61 degs just in case the fire in the wood stove goes out. So far this winter the furnace only came on 1 time.
I've had zero problems with my solar setup, since I got all the bugs worked out last summer. I'm thinking about adding solar to the barn and chicken coop this year. And possibly another solar setup at the watering trough to run a circulating pump to keep the water from freezing. During winter I have to break the ice twice a day.

Arcticdude, it seems there are several of us that are just staring the installation of solar. Do you have any tips that you can share. I am sure that I will make plenty of errors when I first start out which is why I am starting small with plans to grow after working out the bugs.

(Note, as I tell my wife, I never make mistakes but I sure make a lot of errors. )

 

[Arcticdude]

Arcticdude, it seems there are several of us that are just staring the installation of solar. Do you have any tips that you can share. I am sure that I will make plenty of errors when I first start out which is why I am starting small with plans to grow after working out the bugs.

(Note, as I tell my wife, I never make mistakes but I sure make a lot of errors. )

For starters, figure out what your expected electrical needs are. Then double that. Next, figure out the cost of all of the solar components and double that. Bacisicly just expect that everything will be double the cost of your best estimate. I haven't added up all of my receipts yet but I probably have about $60,000 in my system so far. With the current 30% federal tax credits I felt that wasn't too bad. For my location there wasn't any other option for electric. We're 5 miles from the nearest power lines.
I like having the independence of generating our own electricity. One piece of advice; get a backup generator and wire it independently of your main generator. That way if you ever have problems with your solar system and need to take your main generator off-line you'll still have power.

 

[Brent S]

I had a friend that had a system installed by a company. He spent about 75k to be completely energy independent. Doing the math, it doesn't make sense, but if you factor in the security of not depending on the grid in an emergency it’s worth considering. I don’t want to be off the grid for the simple reason that it’s cheap to buy power. I do want a backup solar system that’s big enough to run the refrigerator and a few other circuits though.

 

[BillMasen]

I think there are four types of solar user, (1) Those looking to make money from selling excess energy back to the power company. (2) Greens trying to make a statement about how woke they are , Off gridders and Homesteaders who simply need OG power as there is no mains available to them, and (4) Preppers, Survivalists, Governmental agencies, NGOs and others who need or want the security of being free from the grid.

 

[bigpaul]

just keep building up my prepping stockpile slowly and surely, got to finish sorting out my new workshop shed, we had the Christmas break so everything took a back seat for awhile.

 

[KateMTx]

just keep building up my prepping stockpile slowly and surely, got to finish sorting out my new workshop shed, we had the Christmas break so everything took a back seat for awhile.

My plans are along the same lines. Nothing big like installing solar, at least not yet. I got some of my siblings into prepping last year so we are working together now.

 

[chihuahuasniper]

Learn Spanish.

 

[tmttactical]

Continue to hunker down. Continue to prep and build our inventory. Increase my reloading supplies, knowledge and equipment. Continue to build my arsenal. Look for some affordable rural property. Increase my knowledge base. Live life and enjoy.

 

[Arcticdude]

One major project that I forgot to mention above is a green house. I hope to get it done by Fall.