The Dimming Bulb v2.0

[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.

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[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

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[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.

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[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

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[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!

[RE]

Puerto Rico rejoining Cuba as the canaries in the coal mine of power outage in the western hemisphere.  I'll bet the countries along the old Soviet Union border with the west probably have similar percentages in terms of hours of grid power available.

We're definitely seeing the beginning of systemic blackouts and de facto rationing of energy as the poorer, marginal countries on the periphery of industrial civilization are triaged off the grid for political or economic reasons, or have the misfortune of being in the way of a climate or geologic disaster.  Include also locations losing power courtesy of ongoing missile strikes and war related terrorism.

Of course as these places lose access to power, it's GOOD NEWZ for the places still wired up, since it will make their energy cheaper from demand destruction.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/31/us/puerto-rico-power-outage/index.html

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