Living without electricity

living without elecrtricity

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Ambient Weather

Nebo Eco Lantern

Montana Lamp

Solar and Hand-Crank Radio Light Charger

Well water Pitcher Pump

Kerosene

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50 Bic Lighters

Luci Solar Air Lantern

Living Without Electricity
How to live without electricity

Living without electricity...
Could you live without electricity for a week or more? You have
the power to live without power!

Severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, deep winter snow and ice
storms ~ there's a lot of natural disasters that could wipe out the
electricity for a short term. Whether it's a full-blown EMP,
tornado, hurricane or earthquake ~ or it's a simple blackout that
lasts for days, sooner or later you're going to have to live without
electricity, so you may as well learn how to live without electricity!
Living with no power is the off-grid lifestyle. Get started now.
Below is how to live without electricity...

How to Live without Electricity
Life without electricity is a daily reality for people in North Korea
as well as underdeveloped and impoverished countries. Did you
know that about a quarter of the world's population lives without
electricity? That's almost 2 billion people who live without
electricity. The list below will help you prioritize your backups and
get you thinking of areas you've neglected entirely.

Considerations for how to live without electricity:

#1: Lighting the night without electricity!
The first thing you may think of in living without electricity is
lighting the night. Since the 1880s electric lighting has dominated
the after dark hours, but when the lights go out (possibly for
good) how will you light the night? Don't sit in the dark when you
can light up your world with these ideas that go beyond a
flashlight:

Natural lighting from windows and skylights. A lighting
source that gets overlooked is natural lighting. Consider
carefully the placement of windows in key areas of your off-
grid home if you are designing or redesigning your off grid
location. Modern day pioneers can install skylights for added
lighting to take advantage of natural lighting.

Survival candles. Candles are an obvious way to live without
electricity, but an open flame carries with it hazard in
addition to light. Wax melts and is also messy ~ and
eventually there's no more wick left. The Survival Candle
solves much of the problem. It's usually created in a metal
tin with three wicks. A typcial survival candle can last 36
hours. The 115+ hour candle from Disaster Necessities,
pictured right, promises to burn for four days straight. It
actually works much more like an oil lamp. The fuel for these
long-burning candles is high quality liquid paraffin, meaning
they burn clean Candles are smokeless, odorless, and soot-
free making them safe for outdoor and indoor use. Remember
the matches or your BIC lighter.

Oil lamps. When they're not using a generator, the Amish
live on oil lamps. Be sure to store your kerosene properly. An
Aladdin Oil Lamp looks nothing like the Disney variety. It's
pictured at the bottom of the page. The Aladdin Oil Lamp
has an antique, Civil War era flair and are available with
lampshades to illuminate your off-grid home beautifully.
They are of course a fire hazard as any open flame lighting
source is. They're expensive too ~ starting at around $200
without the lamp shade!

Kerosene oil lamps. Kerosene is a popular fuel from our
American ancestory that came about in 1848 when an
American medical doctor and geologist distilled coal to
produce a clear fluid that burned with a bright yellow flame.
He noticed that kerosene burned brigher and steadier than
candles. This clean burning fuel, also can prevent rust, plus
you can use it as a lubricant or as a solvent to remove oil,
grease, tar! Aladdin lamps are kerosene lamps that use a
mantle but are not pressurized. Kerosene is a fuel that's
widely available which makes it a good option.

Solar lighting. Solar lighting is the safest method of lighting
the night. There are many options in solar lighting to provide
an almost endless supply of light. The Luci Solar Air lantern,
pictured right, collapses for packing and use for camping. A
solar air lantern is inflatable, collapsible, lightweight and
fully waterproof. It's safe for indoor or outdoor use.

Hybrid solar lighting. Nebo Weatherite solar lantern,
pictured right, actually has four methods of charging: solar
power, AC power, DC and wind up.

Hybrid fuel lamps. A word of warning about hybrid fuel
lamps. The Coleman Dual Fuel lantern pictured right, runs on
Coleman Liquid Fuel or unleaded gasoline. First, it's
important to note that it's not an indoor lamp! Use in a well
ventilated area. This outdoor companion is less expensive to
run, because it uses less fuel than propane-powered
lanterns. It's more reliable, with better dependability in the
coldest conditions. One tank of fuel will power the lantern for
up to seven hours on high. Find just the right light with an
adjustable knob that allows you to dim the brightness level
from its highest at 700 lumens to as low as you need it. This
two-mantle lantern is perfect for camping, hunting, tailgating
and in cases of emergency for outdoor use!

#2: Cooking without electricity.
Stocking shelf-stable ready-to-eat foods, like cereal, ration bars
and food bars is a good start, but inevitably you'll want some hot
food. Cooking without electricity is possible ~ just get get out
your camping gear. Unfortunately, camping gear isn't good for
cooking indoors, but no worries, you're a prepper and have the
solution. You'll want to heat your food! Get out your dutch oven
and get cooking on these ideas:

Cooking indoors without electricity. Be prepared when the
power fails with gear to help you cook indoors. Here's how to
safely cook indoors without electricity.

Camp fire cooking. Get out the grill! If you have wood and
charcoal you can barbecue or boil water for all the freeze
dried foods you have stored in the prepper's pantry. Pictured
right, the V olcano Collapsible Cook Stove, takes propane,
charcoal, or wood! How's that for being versatile?.

Solar ovens. Solar ovens are fun to use, but they aren't
necessarily practical unless you plan your meal well in
advance. The Global Sun Oven, right, can reach temperatures
of 360 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more than
sufficient to bake, boil, or steam your favorite foods. You can
cook fast or slow. Cooks within 20 minutes of conventional
oven or stove top time, or lets you slow cook all day!

Kerosene burning stoves. Remember that kerosene is also
useful for lighting, so you can store this fuel with two
purposes. Preppers love having multi-purpose items in
storage. Be sure to store your fuels properly.

Cast Iron cooking: Consider cast iron cookware, which
readily goes from open flame to stove top giving you indoor
and outdoor options, enhances nutrition of your meals by
providing iron, provides fast heating, and requires no soap in
the clean up! You can put it on a campfire or a kitchen stove.

Wood-burning cook stoves. As you get more sophisticated
in your off-grid living, you'll use a wood-burning cook stove.
You can get a small wood burning cookstove for as little as
$350 or something more sophisticated for as much as $2,700.
They will warm your home and your appetite.

#3: Heating without electricity.
Depending on your locality, planning e mergency heating sources
could mean the difference between life or death. If you're lucky
enough to have a wood burning cook stove that doubles as a
heater you're set. Check out the o ff grid h eating sources:

Heat Pal. Heat Pal , right, is a non-pressurized alcohol stove
and heater that uses denatured alcohol, which is a bit more
expensive than propane, but it will burn well no matter the
weather. (Propane cylinders tend to freeze.) Not only will it
help you warm food, but it provides added comfort to double
as a heater. Efficiently fueled by denatured alcohol, it's very
safe even as a boat or RV heater! In heater mode, it gives
you ample heating power for a cozy get-together outside and
you can use the stove for cooking or for keeping your food
warm. A heat pal is on the expensive side and hard to find.

Mr. Heater. Mr. Heater is a prepper favorite. This indoor-
safe portable and reliant radiant heater has been approved
for indoor/outdoor use for spaces up to 225 square feet. It's
clean-burning, nearly 100% efficient. It connects to a
propane tank (event the small and convenient camping
ones). This propane heater connects directly to a 1 lb.
cylander and is the perfect solution for heating enclosed
spaces like large tents up to 200 square feet. Best of all, you
can get one for as little as $77.

#4: Cooling without electricity.
When things get deathly hot in the summer months, you'll need a
way to cool down.

Solar fan. One way to stay cool without electricity is with a
solar fan. The Ansee solar fan, is a small-scale fan that's
under $23 and can be used as fan with high wind,eye-care
LED table lamp and spotlight torch.

Swamp cooler. GoCool is a swamp cooler that keeps a small
space cool using ice and water. The GoCool portable air
conditioner is made for cooling small, enclosed spaces using
ice and water. The caveat is that you have to have ice to use
it, so this really isn't an option for long-term off grid living.

Geo-thermal cooling. Geo-thermal cooling is the ultimate
answer to cooling without electricity, but it's a sophisticated
system that requires planning. The good news is that you
can make cheap air conditioning with earth tubes! Earth
tubes are underground tubes that use geothermal energy to
cool or heat-temper the air for your home. It works like
cheap air conditioning because you can build it yourself for
several hundred dollars and the best part is that once you
set it up it's totally free to run with no electricity needed.
Being completely passive, this is a sustainable technology
based on designs that are 3,000 years old and still used
today around the world to cool homes. This Do-It -Yourself
homemade air conditioner can keep you cool off-grid. Sharon
Buydens shows you how to make this non-electric and
sustainable design using geothermal energy.

#5: Refrigerating without electricity.
Keeping your food or diabetic supplies chilled in an off-grid
scenario is much easier than in years past. We've come a long
way with gas, solar and hybrid generators to fuel them. As well,
preppers can take advantage of refrigeration methods of
developing countries and from our ancestors.

Natural refrigeration options include:

cold flowing water if its on your property can help.
root cellars
water pumped from wells or cisterns
ice refrigeration
A z eer pot provides natural refrigeration and you can
make it yourself.

Alipicool. Suitable for Car and home using work on 12/24V DC
and 110V to 240V AC and run great with your solar system.
Alpicool freezes without ice. It's about $249.

Dometic cooler/freezer. Suitable for solar operation, the
Dometic Electric Powered Portable Cooler has a 3-Stage
battery protection. Memory maintains preset temperatures
even if systems is turned off. Cooling compartment has
removable wire basket. Great for adding refrigerator or
freezer space to any RV, car, truck, or boat. Use multiple
power sources to take your refrigerator deep freezer with you
on any adventure.

Kerosene refrigerators. Unfortunately kerosene
refrigerators aren't readily available ~ unless you live near
an Amish community.

Solar refrigerator. Sundanzer solar refrigerator provides
exceptionally low energy consumption, requiring less
expensive power systems and providing lower operating
costs. Can run on a solar panel, battery and 15 Amp charge
controller

Solar freezer - power generated.

#6: Water without electricity.
One of the most basic things you must have in an off-grid life is a
well or water source. Life without running water isn't going to be
easy, but if you have a water source you can manage living an off-
grid life the way your ancestors did.

Obtaining potable water without electricity.
To ensure potable water, have a gravity fed water filter, like the
Big Berkey pictured right, an AlexaPure, or a LifeStraw water filter.

Rainwater. Many Amish collect rainwater directly from their
roofs! They store water in a cistern and while it's not used
for drinking water, the water does provide for their other
water needs. For more, read harvesting rainwater.

Windmills. A windmill can pump water into a storage tank.
The water then flows by gravity into the home, making
plumbing possible without a pressurized system. Outdoor
Water Solutions offers a 12-Foot Galvanized Backyard
Windmill for around $259, unfortunately its ornamental, but
they have 20-feet wind driven aeration system, which is a
great way to clean up your pond100-percent electricity-free
system can be located up to 1,000-feet away from your pond
or lake and is designed to aerate ponds from the bottom up,
reducing algae, bacteria and odor.

Companies that still make windmills are:

Aermotor windmills - San Angelo, Texas

nforunately, Dempster of Beatrice, Nebraska is no

longer in

business

Fiasa company - Argentina

#7: Cleaning dishes without running water.
Doing the dishes without running water is accomplished with a
few scouting survival skills.Living without running water isn't
easy, but you can do it with a little ingenuity, like using an
Aquatainer water jug, pictured right to deliver water.

Clean dishes without running water.

#8: Having potable water without Electricity.
Water is not only essential for drinking, but also for cooking and
cleaning dishes, pots and pans; washing the laundry; washing
hands and bathing; and dealing with sanitation issues.

Gravity-fed water filtration:

#9: Doing the laundry without electricity.
Laundry happens. Surely you can survive a week without your
laundry, but eventually you're going to run out of clean clothes
and you'll have to start handwashing. Make your off-grid life
easier with the proper tools to both wash and dry your clothes.

Get cranking! The WonderWash, pictured right, is one of the
easiest ways to get started doing the laundry without electricty. I
will help you wash a 5-lbs.-load super clean in just a couple of
minutes. WonderWash uses far less water than even hand
washing. The WonderWash is ideal for one person, but of you
have a large family, you'll want to do laundry the way the Amish
do with a generator or by hand using the old fashioned techniques
below:

How to wash clothes without power.

wash clothes without electricity

, at the most basic level

you'll

need soap

and:

A galvanized metal bucket to soak clothes.
A washboard to get out the main dirt.
Handwash wringer.
Clothes line, rope or a clothes rack.
Clothes pins!

How to dry clothes without power:

Living without electricity, it is possible to dry clothes the old

fashioned way

(just hang them out to dry); however to dry

clothes without power at the

most basic level in modern

times

you'll need:

#10: Plumbing without electricity.
If you want water to flow in your home, you'll need to discover
methods to pump, heat and circulate water in you home.

Will toilets flush without electricity? The simple is answer is
yes, but your toilet will work for a limited time only. The
reason your toilets will work temporarily without electricity is
because most of the work already has been done to get the
water to your toilet and to build the pressure to enable it to
flush away the waste. It's important to put a simple toilet
system together for an emergency to deal with a quarantine,
a sewage problem or a long-term emergency. If you're living
off-grid you'll need to get

Taking a shower without electricity. A simple camp shower
will do the trick, but it might be cold unless you find a way
to warm your water at just the right temperature.

Pitcher pump. Hand pumps are bow the Amish deliver water
to their homes mounted on a modern sink. While heavy duty
pitcher pumps are available on Amazon for twice the price,
the red one pictured left is highly rated and is only around
$60. This classic pump is designed for rugged long life
service. All bolt lugs are reinforced for maximum strength
and all parts are made from close grain cast iron for optimum
strength.

Toilets: Can toilets work without electricity? The simple is
answer is yes, but your toilet will work for a limited time
only. The reason your toilets will work temporarily without
electricity is because most of the work already has been
done to get the water to your toilet and to build the pressure
to enable it to flush away the waste.Flushing the toilet with
greywater (or water from the rain) will work for a while, but
eventually the sewage will back up if there's a widespread
power outage, such as with an EMP.

#11: Staying in touch without Electricity.
When disconnecting from the grid may, you'll be cut off from
many of the modern conveniences like a television, but when it
comes to communications you can rest assured the technology is
there for you if the cell towers are.

Here's how to communicate without electricity:

Plug into your car's cigarette lighter outlet.
Charge cell phones and emergency radios with wood.
Solar and hand-crank radios can provide communications.
Get a Ham Radio license.

#12: Making clothes without electricity.
Sew with a treadle powered sewing machine! A treadle-powered
sewing machine gives you foot-powered control that your Great,
Great Grandmother had to start sewing without ever relying on
electricity.

Happy endings...
When the power fails, know what to do! Being self sufficient is
rewarding. Whether your goal is to live off the grid entirely or just
to spend a weekend being self-sufficient, being able to live
without electricity will give you confidence in your survival skills.
It may not be as comfortable as you'd have it with full utility
power, but you'll find new comforts in entertainment, such as
family game night, musical pursuits, or books!

Life certainly would be more comforting with air conditioning,
fresh running water, gasoline and refrigeration, but would it be
more interesting? The Amish people say that electricity provides a
distraction to life. One things for sure, without electricity you'll
probably spend more time with family, and who doesn't love that?

Orient yourself toward a self-sufficient life without electricity by
reading up on these ideas for an off-grid life:

You also may be happy to read these articles...

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