2  120w solar panels ($550 x 2= $1100),
Controller box ($229)
4 heavy duty 6v golf cart batteries ($75 x 4= $300) in series.
1500 watt inverter ($800)

It worked so nice. It was hooked up in a few hours and I was soon gathering free electricity. I could be in the back woods in my bathrobe sipping a cup of tea watching a video. Get into a warm bed preheated with an electric blanket. Make a hot loaf of bread easily in the electric breadmaker for lunch. I could live very comfortably on self contained electricity. If it rained or was cloudy I had enough "juice" saved up for several days. Every sunny day I was recharging and ready to go again.

Story #1
Years ago I was invited over for dinner at my girlfriends house for dinner and parked my motorhome in front of her fancy house. A big storm came up and the power went dead. Her kids were frightened in the dark and no possible dinner as she had a fancy all electric kitchen. Also there was no heat and it was starting to get cold. She soon realized how vulnerable and dependant she was on outside electricity. What did we do? We moved everybody into my motorhome.  Everything was working just fine. After dinner I put on a video to watch and made popcorn in the microwave. Just before 10pm her lights came back on, but she never teased me about living in a motorhome again.

Story #2
I went to visit my fun sister and her family out in the country in beautiful Washington state. We were having a fun time when a big exciting and noisy storm hit and all the power went out. The house went black. Both refrigerators died, the water pump died meaning no water and no toilets. They went to the garage for their electric generator but found they had no gas for it. Oops! With all electric appliances there was to be no cooking. We ate cold sandwiches in the dark. We had one flush of the toilet then we had to bring in water from an outside water trough for each flush. Going to the bathroom became a big, time consuming situation.

After that I went out to my motorhome parked in front where I had everything I needed. I made some hot chocolate and read a book, snuggled warm under an electric blanket. Solar power and batteries work great.

It is reassuring and important to be independent of the electric company. Be able to provide your own needs. Don’t be surprised on zero notice how miserable life can be hoping someone "out there" will provide something or fix a problem.

Strive to provide your own electricity, water and food. be debt free. The less bills you have the less you have to work, the more you can enjoy your days. Strive to see how much "today was great!" quality time you have per day.

Refrigerators
I see many people with lots of food stored in multiple huge refrigerators. I asked why. They said "just in case of an emergency." Well in case of an emergency they become part of the problem. You have to run a big generator to keep them going using maybe a gallon of fuel every 2 hours. That is 12 gallons a day. Most people have maybe two gallons in the gas can.  When that is gone the $800 generator stops and the refrigerators can't be opened as they start to warm up. After a few days things start to rot and spoil. You have to take it out and bury it in a big hole. It's hard to wipe it down with no water.

It is better to have one refrigerator that could run on a small generator for a few hours. First think of what is in it. Is it worth all the fuss? A carton of ice cream, ice cubes, some meat, a pizza? It may be better to have a BBQ picnic and turn off the refrigerator. Is there anything constructive you can do besides turn on the generator for the TV? What do you really need?

Are you prepared?
Do you have candles, matches in a waterproof bag? A real flashlight with "D" cells? Extra batteries? It is so sad when a disaster hits to see all the people jump in their cars to stock up on water, batteries and food. They wait in line for hours for gas. Wouldn't it just be nice to relax, know you are safe, have water and all you need for days or weeks? Have that BBQ and enjoy the peace and quiet. Make it a positive adventure. 

What would happen if there was an terrorist attack, a natural disaster or who knows what?

What if the roads were blocked, no produce could get to the stores and they were empty and looted clean in the first 3 days? The electric plants were destroyed? No electricity. For many no heat or cooling, no cooking, all the refrigerator food spoils, stinks and rots. No garbage pickup. What about the people used to eating at Taco Bell for most meals with nothing stored away? Many, many wandering groups of desperate hungry people coming down your street. Fire break out. This is just after a week. Not a pretty picture.

If you were independently self sufficient your life style wouldn’t change. No big disaster. You have plenty of food stored away. You can stay warm. You have food and water.

In history during disasters the rich drive out to the country to trade their gold and diamonds for bags of potatoes.

The less it takes to make you happy the happier you’ll be.

Prevention what works -
Be and stay debt free. Buy stuff when you have the money then no one owns you.
Put your assets in asset protection trusts.
Get a place out in the country. Live healthier and far cheaper.
Build your own energy efficient paid for house. No mortgage payment.
Have your own water well. Drink fresh clean water.
Use solar power for your own electric. Use a generator for the occasional few big electric uses.
Use a gas stove, refrigerator and clothes dryer.
Grow your own garden and put away food for the winter in a root cellar.
Have a greenhouse for year round healthy produce.
Use composting toilets. Do it like nature does it.
Create several backup systems for water, electric and food.

JUSTIN’S SOLAR HOUSE
This guy is building a very comfortable and fun four story house that runs off four 150w Koycera solar panels. At 16'x32' in size, 2000sf and under $15 a sf to build. Amazing! It has an in ground basement with a computer room, root cellar and 16x16 living room. Three more floors on top. For current photos go to ITRC. We’re building it now.

Koycera Solar discount outlet: www.solar-electric.com/solar-panels.html