The Dimming Bulb v2.0

[K-Dog]

The lights are on!  The house has warmed to 61 degrees.  After acclimating to temps in the 50's with layers of clothing, 61 degrees seems tropical.
RE is not wrong.

Despite his years listening to me rant on about prepping, he STILL doesn't own a backup generator!

If I wire a generator to the house we won't lose heat next time, but is having a generator really prepping?  I am not sure.  Prepping for short term inconveniences is different than prepping for an alternate future.  The alternate future will not have gasoline at less than five bucks a gallon.  Keeping a generator going in collapse is going to be a problem.

Everyone who 'prepped' by buying power bricks to charge up their phone found out that solution is only good for three days without solar panels to re-charge their brick.  I will be getting a small panel that can do a few watts.  I'll try it out and stick it somewhere for next time.  My phone drained in a day and I have no apps running that would do that.  But since this website is watched 24-7 by the Central Singapore Community Development Council, it is not hart to figure out why my phone dies in a few hours with no apps running.  It is the Singapore NSA keeping Asia safe from me.

The woman in Bridal Trails that was killed by the falling tree died a half mile from where I work.  I was worried it was a friend for a while.  I know a woman who lives in Bridal Trails.  But it was not her.



Spending a few thousand on a generator so I can have hot coffee for a few days is not an idea that warms my heart.  As I drove through Bellevue yesterday to and from work, homes with light were definitely 'high end'.

Note: We sell generators where I work.  Noah was answering the phone:

Hello, this is ---- ----- we are all out of generators gas cans and extension cords.  How may I help you?

Then there would be a 'thank you' from the phone and the phone would hang up.  My workplace was one of the few places that did not loose power.  Some people have jobs they can do without power but not many.  Many people have had an unplanned vacation in the dark.  The rest of us were getting to work late because using major multi-lane intersections with dead traffic lights as uncontrolled four lane stops is really interesting, and slow.

A working man can't reach 'high end' status.  The only way to get that kind of money is to be involved in some sort of exploitation.  Socially acceptable labor does not pay good enough for a home generator, and under capitalism it never will.  My 'net worth' is in line with the max of what a working man can save.  Capitalism is dedicated to keeping 'variable capital' (that be you) at a subsistence level.  Prepping is beyond subsistence.

A single man, or a gay couple without kids can 'prep' but I contend it is a luxury that most people can't afford.  A married couple with kids has other priorities with which to drain the paychecks.  If only one half of a couple is into prepping it is not going to happen.

This experience tells me that you would have to really be 'into prepping' for it to make more than a short term difference.  I am not against prepping, but it is of limited usefulness.  Good for short term considerations only.  Prepper only people are not into systemic change.  Prepper only people are lost in the minutia of making a bad situation tolerable without any desire to stop any mofos creating the bad situation.  Some of whom (the mofos) have been using generators for days.

Doomers come in different flavors.  Some are all about prepping and nothing else.  When I see videos about them, I think of the 'century of the self'.  And the narcissism that describes the average American of our time.  My perspective is more social.  I am a doomer because I want to see social change which mitigates the coming clusterfuck.

Note:  Re is into prepping but he is not a 'prepper only' kind of guy.  'Prepper only' people I have no time for.  Life for them is all about them and nobody else.

[RE]

I got my 2000W Honda generator for $750, but that was back in 2015.  It got stolen along with most of thew rest of my preps while I was incarcerated in the Assisted Living Gulag and stored all my stuuf in my friends Conex container which was cleaned out.

This 2350W generator is only $429 on Amazon.  Definitely worth the money.  Even if gas is $20/gallon, 1 gallon will keep you in electricity heaven for a week utilizing a DC batt and inverter and running the gen  1 hour/day.

A couple of solar panels also good on the roof.

RE

[K-Dog]

Note: The photo of the Bridal Trails house shows why such a weather disaster is a periodic threat to the Seattle Area.  We call trees weeds.  And they grow.  Unless there is maintenance they they grow into power lines or to where they become a threat to the lines.

Seattle City Light is a public utility.  Seattle was able to fix their damage quickly.  The east-side where all the trouble is lies east of Lake Washington.  (Bellevue is a suburb with skyscrapers.)  Puget Sound Energy  is a private utility that has profit as top priority.  Minimum maintenance was done. 

Collective ownership of utilities, to manage them democratically and for the benefit of the public is essential for them to be run well. Private ownership of utilities for profit is in contradiction of them being run well.  I think Australians own our east of Seattle power grid.  And this is a contradiction I would like to see gone.

* In October 2007, the company announced that it would be sold to foreign investors led by Macquarie Group, an Australian funds manager, and three Canadian pension funds.[24] Groups in three northwestern counties—Island, Jefferson, and Skagit—filed ballot measures for the November 2008 election to establish public utility districts in response to the planned buyout.[25] The measure was approved in Jefferson County, which formed a public utility district in 2013 and paid PSE $103 million for its assets in the county.[26]

The sale to Macquarie and the pension funds, conducted through a leveraged private equity buyout, was approved in 2009.[27] Puget Holdings, the U.S. title of this group of long-term infrastructure investors, merged with Puget Energy, PSE's parent company to form the current business structure. Puget Energy is a holding company incorporated in the State of Washington. All of its operations are conducted through its utility subsidiary, PSE, which is regulated by Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.

In 2018, Macquarie sold its ownership stake in PSE. PSE's current owners are Alberta Investment Management Corporation, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, OMERS, and PGGM.

Financialize the energy supply and doom is inevitable.  And if you can't figure that out you are a dumfuck or someone with a finger in the pie.

[K-Dog]

I got my 2000W Honda generator for $750, but that was back in 2015.  It got stolen along with most of thew rest of my preps while I was incarcerated in the Assisted Living Gulag and stored all my stuuf in my friends Conex container which was cleaned out.

This 2350W generator is only $429 on Amazon.  Definitely worth the money.  Even if gas is $20/gallon, 1 gallon will keep you in electricity heaven for a week utilizing a DC batt and inverter and running the gen  1 hour/day.

A couple of solar panels also good on the roof.

RE

It looks nice, but the similar size we sell gets returned a lot because it makes too much noise.  Doing 'the research' on these things is essential.  They are not all ready for prime time.

How much did it cost a day to keep going?

Solar panels on my roof are not worth it.  The California Redwood I planted thirty years ago is behind the house and blocks the sun.  It is over three feet thick at the base.  It is a Coast Redwood.  I can't believe something I brought in a two gallon container and took home sticking out the window of an 80's Toyota Corolla could get so big.  There are other trees, one next door I hate.  It was a rental house and renters let a Big Leaf Maple grow.  A native weed tree.  A tree now so big the current owners won't spend the money to cut it down. 

[RE]

How much did it cost a day to keep going?

I only had to use it twice for outages that lasted slightly over 1 day, and didn't really HAVE to use it because my 100AH Deep Cycle batt ran my fridge and computer and lights by itself no problem.  I just flipped it on for an hour to top off the batt at the end of the day.  Didn't even use 1/2 gal of gas.  I kept a 5 gal container of gas in my outside storage closet to refill it for longer outages.  I estimated I could last 2 weeks keeping the fridge cold and running my computer 3-4 hours a day continuous usage.

It was pretty loud but I kept it out on the back porch.  No complaints from neighbors, I charged up their cell phones for them.

RE

[K-Dog]

You kept the gas cost down by using it to charge batteries.  Most people don't buy batteries or have the knowledge to charge and use them.  They just run the generator and plug stuff in.  An inverter runs a few hundred.  Our pure sine wave 3000 watt model is $499.  You also need a battery charger which is only a hundred or so but don't forget all the cables and cords.  Total cost for the charger and cables will be over a hundred for sure.

To get a good setup you need to be a hobbyist or know one.  Double the generator cost to get a good setup.

If the average person were into the issue that deeply, we would not have the clusterfuck we have.

As generators were being sold out a couple came in for one.  The husband was being reasonable and looking at a model similar to what RE had.  The wife was vetoing his decision insisting on 'a big one'.  A model that can power a whole house.  The generators we sell are more appropriate to a construction site that supplies power to multiple people than to a home user.  But customers at our store are homeowners with money.  They can't imagine generators are built for specific markets.  I understand, I doubt I would be any different if I did not have the knowledge I have.

[K-Dog]

Could this man hook up a home power system?  I think not.

But he is smart enough to yank your chain.  In fact, he is good at it.

[K-Dog]

* I got on the Diner as soon as I had power.  Many people will not have power for days.  Many means at least a hundred thousand.

Puget Sound Energy still had more than 166,000 customers impacted by outages. Seattle City Light had more than 4,200 and SnoPud had more than 13,000. Seattle City Light said it should have most of its power restored by 2 p.m. Friday and PSE is still saying noon Saturday.

[RE]

You kept the gas cost down by using it to charge batteries.  Most people don't buy batteries or have the knowledge to charge and use them.  They just run the generator and plug stuff in.  An inverter runs a few hundred.  Our pure sine wave 3000 watt model is $499.  You also need a battery charger which is only a hundred or so but don't forget all the cables and cords.  Total cost for the charger and cables will be over a hundred for sure.

Granted most people don't know as much as I do, but you don't need to be a rocket scientist or spend a lot of money to keep the basic power running for a typical McMansion or condo.

The battery charger I used for keeping my deep cycle batt charged all the time was the same one I have in my emergency car kit to charge the car battery if it won't start on a cold morning.  It was a good one, $60.  I also had a $30 trickle charger.

Power inverters, pure sine wave is nice and not that expensive anymore, $200 maybe but really I never had a problem using cheaper square wave ones.  When you plug in a laptop. the power supply converts it to DC anyhow.  $100 will buy you a good enough inverter.

I had a big 100AH DC batt for RVs I used, but you can use smaller ones.  Now I set up my EV wheelchair which runs on 2 45 AH 12V batts wired in series for 24V to power the chair.  I added a separate 12V circuit to power my 1500W inverter.  The chair is now my personal backup power supply.  The Gulag here of course has a big ass institutional genny that kicks in automatically with a power outage, so I don't really need it.  Anyhow, your batt cost anywhere from a low of $60 for 1 12V Deep Cycle 35AH batt to maybe $150 for a 100AH RV or Marine DC Batt.  Assorted extension cords, $50-100, depends how big your house is and how far you gotta run the wire from the outside genny to the inside batt and inverter, and then from that setup to the fridge and computer etc.  In my 1 bed apt with the genny on the porch, I had 3 extension cords with multiple power outlets covered everything.

Al together, with the Genny, Inverter, DC power supply, Batt and wiring, you're still under $1000.

RE

[RE]

Conclusion:  Seattle will go dark regularly.  Time to beef up the backup power system.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/climate-lab/bomb-cyclone-shows-cracks-in-was-electrical-grid/

Bomb cyclone shows cracks in WA's electrical grid

RE

[K-Dog]

Yes a generator to power two freezers with a third line for lighting.  An inverter and battery  setup  to power gas heat since the heat pump won't be pumping. 

[RE]

You can just go with a portable kerosene heater to maintain a decent interior temp in your main living space.  Just be careful, ventilate properly and have a couple of carbon monoxide detectors.  That was my heat backup.

Another alternative is a wood stove, Brian has one of those.  That's more expensive because it has to be professionally installed with a chimney or ducting.  They are more attractive though and in neighborhoods like yours where there a lot of trees, there's plenty of fuel to be found for free.  You can use it all the time to keep down the cost of running the heat pump if you want to.

RE

[RE]

Looks like Cuba is dropping off the map as a tourist destination due to the regularly scheduled blackouts which take out everything from A/C to ATMs, cell phone communications and their water and sewage systems.  Since tourism is one of the few ways Cuba gets FOREX with which to buy energy, this creates a positive feedback loop.  Less energy-->less tourism--->less money--->less energy, rinse & repeat.

Not surprisingly, there are now reports of civil unrest due to the continuing blackouts, along with increased crime on darkened streets.  The only thing surprising about this is how long it has taken for this type of social breakdown to take hold.

Other than reporting about the expanding problem though, nobody has offered up any solution to the widening crisis so the average Jose 6-pack gets to just twist in the wind as the country circles the toilet bowl of industrial civilization.  For collapse observers, it's a great window into the near future for many smaller and highly indebted countries like Greece and South Africa.  Still probably a few years away for the big economies like the FSoA and China, but it will get here in due time also.  Both countries have huge debt problems as well, but are TBTF and have some control over the availability of credit.  Not infinite control though.

In the meantime life in the Belly of the Beast is BAU, and most people look at what's happening in Cuba and think "it can't happen here".  They are in for a rude awakening when the time comes.

https://havanatimes.org/news/germany-issues-a-security-alert-for-travel-to-cuba/

Germany Issues a Security Alert for Travel to Cuba

RE

[K-Dog]

Sanctions are violence.  Being out of sight and out of mind does not change reality.  If sanctions were lifted Cuba would be fine.

[TDoS]

Sanctions are violence.  Being out of sight and out of mind does not change reality.  If sanctions were lifted Cuba would be fine.

And someone begins shipping them oil again on the cheap. And then they'd be...Central/South American "fine". And we have a convicted criminal becoming President in a month or so because we all know how that turns out!