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WATCH BILL XAM LIVE EVERY NIGHT AT 6:30 PM, EST ON THE ANIMAL FEEDER SETUP SHOW!

Disaster planning should be part of every single household across America, strike that, the world. When disaster strikes, people die or lives are changed. In times of plenty, forego the Playstations and buy extra food. You can explain a lack of toys better than a lack of food to your children.

Three years ago, our home caught fire. I spent time in intensive care and almost died, thus I know from whence I speak. 

As we go into our third season of "This Old Shack", disaster planning and survival episodes become more important. After all, that's what alternative energy is - the ability for you to survive without an infrastructure. All of our episodes of This Old Shack and our new show, "CSI:SALINE" will reflect this in 2009. Oh, of course there's going to be laughs and beer drinking - this survival crap is depressing to think about.

So, practice your fire drills with the crumbcrunchers, practice evacuating yourselves, your pets, your neighbors. Learn how to use a fire extinguisher. And watch our videos!

WATCH BILL XAM LIVE EVERY NIGHT AT 6:30 PM, EST ON THE ANIMAL FEEDER SETUP SHOW!

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NAVIGATION

But why solar power?

There were several reasons for the switch:

• Sprinkle of rain = power failure.

• Giving a little back by not using so much.

• Independent living.

Benefits:

• Renewable power.
• Learning about solar power.
• Own stock in the solar panel company. :-)
• I like batteries.
• I can sit around smoking a cigar because I'm an energy mogul!

Drawbacks:

• Maintenance.
• Installation.
• Bunch of black glass panels sitting around.

  Help spread solar awareness!  

Battery bank setup   This photo is from when I first started out with this crap in my garage. I wondered if I could hook up the Xantrex 400 plus that I had to larger batteries. It worked, so I started experimenting with alternative energy. At first I charged the batteries with the car and then bought the solar panels. I used an old Fed-ex delivery box for the batteries and a Xantrex 400 Plus powerpack as the inverter. Well, this is some of junk I ran for my first tests back in the winter of 2005-2006. The laptop is on the top step of the ladder and a small fan is on the bottom step. I used these because the draw from each is known and constant. I was able to use this test to size the original battery bank. As it turns out, I was within 10% and the addition of an additional deep cycle brought us up to snuff.   This is the old Xantrex 400 plus that we started out with. I still have the thing kicking around here somewhere in case of an emergency. I am reconfiguring my battery bank in 2007.  The battery bank is the backbone of any alternative electrical system. The size of your battery bank dictates how much "stuff" for how long you can run. This page isn't for telling you how to set up your bank but to detail how I've done it. You can use it for an example. Or not. I've done extensive testing on the size and capacity of the battery bank that I use, which will reach 454 amp hours on June 10, 2006. At that point, I will have a complete bank of group 31 deep cycle batteries at 12 volts each. This is the new battery box. Still needs painting. ● Email Me ●