gas will go after 6 months to a year, after that an engine won't run on it, though gas live can be extended by around 6 months by using chemicals like Sta-bil. It will still burn though. Diseal might last longer, and you can run diesals off vegtable oil and stuff. The best long term solution is to make a gas turbine from car turbo-chargers because a turbine will run off almost any flammable liquid.

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Couldnt you grab one of those street solar panels they use for powering signs, lights, etc, etc?

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You know all those "green energy" solutions out there? They would be great for a post z-day fort. A generator requires you to use up precious fuel, and human and small-scale solar only goes so far. Wind, solar, and/or micro-hydro needs no fuel and can produce quite a bit of power depending on how much you can get.

Basically, a system consists of at least one power source, such as solar panels, a windmill or micro-hydro (uncommon but promising), charge controller, batteries (12V and 24V systems usually), an inverter, charger (usually inverter and charger are combined) and alternate emergency power, such as grid connection (useless post z-day) or generator. I'm no expert, but I mostly understand the basics. Of course you can get very fancy with multiple charge controllers, inverters, autotransformers, et cetera et cetera.

A system will run you anywhere from less than a thousand dollars for ghetto-rigged junkyard homebuilt crap to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a system that could power an entire colony of survivors. The good part is that after the apocalypse, scroungers will probably take solar panels and big batteries last. Of course, nothing lasts forever. Electronics can die, and solar panels will deteriorate over time, as will batteries. Get extras when possible; that will also allow room to grow.

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Is having a generator completely useful, I mean, I dont think I can carry any one of these devices very far, if I can even get my hands on them. I just wonder if it is absolutely neccessary to have power when I can do as much with my hands and a crank-flashlight.

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I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, and if they haven't i'm surprised.

Simply put, stirling engines are heat engines, like steam engines, except they run from temperature differences. A small candle is more than enough to create enough heat to run it. The greater the heat difference, the better it runs. This means having a candle on the hot side and an ice cube on the cold side makes it run better than just a candle.

Attaching a DC motor or possibly an alternator will allow it to create energy very easily and reliably. Fuel is as easy as collecting flamable material - paper, candles, whatever.

Other sources of heat work as well, like hot water. Attaching a parabolic reflective dish allows you to even use sunlight as the heat soure - this works incredibly well. You may even get a smaller one to run off of friction heat from your hands - thats how sensistive it is. If it's cold outside, attaching the cold end to a pipe that goes outside makes it that much better.

=====Go to wikipedia to find out more. under "stirling engine"======


ALSO - If you can manage to get a radioactive material, one with a fast half-life of about 10-50 years or something, you can build the engine around that, so the decay from the substance creates large amounts of heat to power your device. Of course shielding is required but that is easy.

what does this mean? it means you can have a compact, fuelless generator that creates energy for MANY YEARS! over time and once it reaches the half-life point, energy will be cut in half, but can still be useful. Replacement of materials will renew the engine. This is what is used to power many deep-space sattelites and probes.


The engine is also not very loud, and slow ones are completely silent, but less powerful.

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when i say go, i mean go bad.

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Saw this on the discovery channel, tried it my self and it works

what you need:

gas operated engine
40+ ft long flame resistent hose. (diamiter varies)
1 burning barrel (oil drum)
1 smaller metal container (very small, like a metal gas can)
surplus of wood (i mean LLOOOTTTZZZ
fire starting material

Operation

1 get a hose that fits the nozzle on you smaller conatiner (air tight)
2. create a method of filling the smaller container with wood chips
3. place it larger barrel
4. connect the other end of the hose to the carborator.
5. burn the wood in larger barrel
6. 4-5 hrs later you have useable gas fumes

Source
Colony

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When all hell its the fan where are you planning to get your power supplies from? Just remember all power grids would be down. At a time like this it would be really no different from a hurrican devistated area. No people to man the power plants. So what are you going to do? What vehicals are you going to look for and what locations are you wanting to fortify. Just remember you need power and fuel.

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Dams produce more electricity in my state than nuclear.

Ever watch 'Little House on the Prarie'? When the dad went to work at the saw mill, the viewer could see the saw moving back and forth to cut the wood. Where did the energy come from to move that blade? Not from humans. It came from the torque of a waterwheel converting kinetic energy from a nearby river or stream. Waterwheels aren't high-tech and, while they aren't the most efficient means of capturing hydro power either, they are the most robust and reliable means of converting running water into a turning shaft. This shaft can be then geared to turn anything from a wheat grinder to an AC or DC generator. After that, the power can be stored in battery banks or simply used on-demand.

Youtube has several examples of micro-hydro power, including many in third-world countries and in urban applications where utilities are, at best, intermittent. This thread is meant to deal with the need for electricity after the SHTF, given that our daily lives of convenience will be miserable without AC. Life is going to be hard enough at that point, and we have to do what we can to stay fresh and alert. For that, there is no substitute for AC to keep some semblence of life as normal, whether that means hot water for a shower, refrigeration, lighting,. That's right, I mean 24/7 AC, like normal. The 'generator' as I simplify it will be down for maintenance every week for a few hours, but otherwise (assuming a consistent water flow) power should be reliable.

I tried this out on my WA land, installing a waterwheel under a small waterfall that runs all four seasons. Any of you living on a medium- or large-sized river (not lake) or the ocean could capture this potential electricity, if power is in your budget. It generates enough power to run an RV and keep the batteries topped. What are your experiences with micro-hydro?

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something that is extremely useful that is being left out here is bicycle powered generators. below is a link for a site that has an example of one.
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm

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