Energy

A good survivalist needs to back up all of his energy uses. This is especially true now with crude oil prices so high. As crude goes up, gasoline goes up, electricity goes up, diesel goes up, fuel oil goes up, etc. etc. etc. It behooves the survivalist to have a backup for all of his energy needs and to start replacing some of the needs he now has with things that can be made by a reasonably handy survivalist. There are many ways that money can be saved on energy. First, if at all possible do some of your heating and possibly some water heating with wood. This is one of the things that I do at the present. Other than a little gas for the chain saw and an occasional trip to the National Wildlife Refuge 12 miles away, there is no cost. So if at all possible burn wood. One thing I will warn you about is that if you must purchase your wood, it may not be much cheaper than what you are now using. That is because the people selling wood raise their prices along with the rest of the energy industry. The only advantage then, is that you most times do not have to rely on electricity to run your heating system. Another thing that I have done is to build passive solar panels with which to heat one room each. In my book "AffordableEnergyBackups which I wrote in 1998, I had plans for a four by eight foot, one room heater. Even with todays prices and if you had to purchase everything new, it still could be built for less than $50. While I no longer sell the book. I still sell the plans. The book also contained plans for a home built wind generator. One of the reasons I no longer sell the book is that I found some flaws in the system with use and am now in the process of redesigning it. I will continue this energy discussion on my next post.