Powering Through The Apocalypse

Should the apocalypse hit, finding a reliable energy source will be a problem. Most houses are part of the power grid, but most versions of the apocalypse have that disrupted. It is then that gasoline, used to power vehicles and generators, starts ticking down: Within six to twelve months, gasoline can turn bad and become unusable as fuel. This means that a good prepper should have already looked into and implemented other means of obtaining power.

[It should be noted that while this article is geared to prepping needs, it applies just as well to someone working on a homestead or looking for ecologically friendly means of supplying power. In fact, a homesteader, who usually has more acreage and can decide where they will put down stakes, may benefit from this even more.]

You Don't Need No Power

There are ways to eschew power. Living in a bunker below the ground can keep your home warm during winter and cool during the summer. Bicycles help you maintain your speed and carrying capacity advantage. However, going without power does mean that you will need to seriously up your food preservation game, and farming just became far more labor intensive. You will also not be able to do things like use water pumps or hydroponic systems, and your activity will be limited to just before and after daylight, even with torches. With that in mind, it may not be a bad idea to look into some sort of power system.

The Sun Above, Power Below

The best place to begin is obviously solar power, as it gives the most bang for the buck. Currently, it's possible to put enough solar panels on a home so that the home can generate enough power to not only leave the grid but actually sell some of the power back to the power company. There are also solar-powered generators that can power a home for the short term (usually a couple of days or so). By combining the two, a prepper should be able to power not only the home but also any tools as needed.

This also gives electrical vehicles a major advantage. Assuming they survive the cause of the apocalypse (they may have issues with an EMP, for example), if you can maintain them and have a couple of spare batteries on hand, they are likely to outlive gas-powered vehicles; you can keep recharging them even after others have run out of gasoline. The obvious strategy would be to take advantage of local power stations for as long as possible and then rely on sources at home, but they should give you a tactical advantage over other scavengers; after all, they would be limited to what they could carry and their walking speed, but you would have the speed and carrying capacity of a vehicle.

[It should be noted that they are portable solar recharging stations and some backups have solar panels so that they can recharge some devices. However, for most people, they would be superfluous unless you've found a way to use those devices, such as using a Kindle as a portable library.]

There Are Other Liquids

Some ecological warriors have figured out how to retrofit vehicles to accept vegetable or peanut oil, and there have been ways to power automotive engines and some generators with alcohol. This means that it's entirely possible to omit gasoline from your list of necessities. Alcohol is the easiest of the two to deal with: You would need to keep two or three huge stills going to keep up with fuel needs (which also means you need a huge amount of water), but it is feasible to power your house and vehicles through liquor.

Vegetable oils are a little more interesting. While initially, you could use store-bought oils or oils from fast-food restaurants, that would go rancid eventually. You could set aside acreage specifically for fuel plants, but that would require a lot of land, work, and water. Then there is the matter of harvesting it and pressing the oil. Your best bet is palm oil (650 gallons per acre) or canola (150 gallons per acre). Soybeans and sunflowers can also work, but yields are much lower (60–70 gallons per acre). This makes alcohol the better solution, even though you do need some sort of biomass to ferment.

[You can also use both of these for personal use as well as trading. If nothing else, fried chicken became popular on plantations because you could cook it early in the morning and it would last all day. providing a nice protein/carb boost whenever needed.]

Wind and Water and Wattage

Depending on your environment, you may want to look at mills. If you're in a windy area, then windmills may be worth looking into, however, they are hardly an ideal source. If you have a fast enough creek or river nearby, then a watermill may be better, considering how efficient hydroelectric can be; if the creek or river is year-round, then you can have a dependable source of power and a way to grind flour or press oil. However, if either is dependent on seasonal conditions (the creek dries up during summer or the wind is only good during afternoons), then these may be less than desirable power sources.

In short, there are a couple of ways to ensure that you have power under most circumstances. You may even want to combine systems for extra efficiency (a watermill for power and pressing oil combined with a canola field would work pretty well, for example). You just need to figure out which system or combination of systems works best for your needs.