All Solar Articles
A complete collection of solar, energy, and backup power articles.
This page contains every article published in the Solar & Energy section of the site. Here you will find how-to articles, product reviews, resources, lessons learned, system documentation, and practical discussions related to solar power, backup power, energy independence, and preparedness. Together, these articles provide a broad collection of knowledge, experience, and insights gained through nearly 20 years of learning, planning, building, and operating real-world energy systems.
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Do you have enough candles stored away?
note: article first appeared in August 2015 I have a number of preparedness friends that talk to me about their generators. I listen patiently and allow them to go on and on about how their…
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Will we really be hit with an EMP? (part #2)
note: article first appeared in December 2015 In part #1 yesterday I laid out the case for the probability of an EMP strike on America. I started laying out the case for the severity of…
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Will we really be hit with an EMP? (part #1)
note: article first appeared in December 2015 I’ve pretty much stayed away from the whole EMP subject over the years. I’ve been asked about it a bunch of times but given some pretty vague answers.…
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Yaesu FT-8900R Go Box & Power Box Together
note: first appeared in late 2015 As you know I’ve been working on a series of highly portable, field going Ham radio boxes and the portable power boxes to juice them with. This article is…
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Glowtech60 Solar Kit
note: article first appeared in August 2015 I am not a big one for generators, I believe they have their place, but in a very limited way. But there is a bona fide need for…
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GoalZero Boulder 30w Solar Panel & Guardian Charge Controller
The first large(r) solar system that I purchased was a GoalZero Boulder 30w Solar Panel with a GoalZero Guardian 12v Charge Controller. It came already packaged and ready to put into service, which I did…
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Heavy Power Cable for 12vDC Power Boxes
note: first appeared in August 2015 Having already designed portable radio boxes and portable power boxes there is the question on how to hook the two together. It would seem rather easy to provide a…
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Portable Power Box – Part #2 (update)
note: article originally appeared in October 2015 Last July I wrote about a “power box” project that I felt added a lot of capability and versatility to by Ham Radio operations. And I expanded it…
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Portable Power Box – Part #2
note: this article originally appeared in July 2015 In Part # 1 of this series I outlined the mission for this portable power box. Here it is to refresh your memory – “Provide sufficient power to allow…
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Portable Power Box – Part #1
note: first appeared in July 2015 I am not a Ham radio “geek” but I do have a couple Ham radios and I like using them. One thing for certain, when an emergency, disaster, or…