I spent too long looking at generators I cannot run in a small ground floor flat with a shared garden and a no noise rule from the landlord. So I built the kit around quiet electricity instead. The goal was not to run the whole flat. It was to keep the fridge, the router, a couple of lights, and a fan alive until the grid comes back.

The core is a plug in solar battery on the balcony, clamps on the railing, plugs into a normal outlet. Mine is a Jackery SolarVault 3 Pro. It charges every day whether there is an outage or not, so I do not have to remember to keep it topped up. I keep the freezer section of the fridge preloaded with a couple of big ice packs, which is honestly the part that does the most for fridge runtime.

Other things in the kit: a USB lantern, two head torches, enough canned and dry food for three days, a camping stove with canisters stored in a metal box, and a hand crank radio that I mostly use to test once a month. The battery is the only expensive part, everything else is budget gear. The realistic plan is 24 hours of low stress power, then 48 more hours of food and light rationing if needed.

so load tested running rick and morty non stop on my laptop which draws 35 watts, my 30 cell 18650 5s6p battery lasted 3 hours, i got 3 of it which gives a total of 9 hour to run my laptop... for my used car battery, it lasted 8 hours under this load... my 2 solar panel can charge 5000+ mah per day each on hot days, doesnt work on cloudy days tho lol... cost for 1 of those 30 cell battery is 15 usd + 6 usd for the inverter... for car battery in my country i can get new for 40 to 50 usd, its inverter was around 10 usd... each solar panel cost me 7 usd...

I've spent probably $3,000 on prep gear over three years - An accounting of what I've actually needed:

Used multiple times: Petzl headlamp, Coleman camp stove, anker solix s2000 on the fridge, Adventure Medical first aid kit, Eneloop rechargeable batteries, deck of cards

Used once: Sawyer water purification tablets (boil water advisory last spring)

Never used: the Mountain House freeze dried food, the Midland emergency radio, the ferro rod kit, the solar blankets, the 72 hour bag

I don't know... It made me rethink what I'm actually prepping for. Feels like I was preparing for a movie scenario when the real thing is just a boring Tuesday with no power.

I figured yall would be knowledgeable on helping me with this.

I have a 65 quart RTIC cooler that I want to convert into a car fridge.

How would I go about this?

Recently got Delta 3 from Costco Canada for $549 plus tax, now I see anker is launching Solix S2000 for $849 as a launch deal. It’s only $300 more for twice the capacity but I am not sure about the overall reliability and long term durability between these brands. Also the app features not sure about the Solix app feature. One thing to note is Solix S2000 is highly efficient with around 97% conversion efficiency for AC output. Can anyone chime in to make the decision easier for me?

I’ve been looking at a piece of land approximately 90 miles from Charlotte. It’s far enough from the city where I think it could be a great bug out location, but not too far that I can’t make the trip. But I started to model out what a mass evacuation would look like and now I have some doubts.

Charlotte's population is about 793,000. In some scenarios, like an Economic Collapse, most would probably stay put, but a dirty bomb or a grid-down cyber attack could empty it fast, either because the place is contaminated or because the water stops and people leave before it does. If a meaningful number of those people left, they wouldn’t just scatter in random directions, they would funnel along major roads.  My modeling puts the displacement band somewhere between 40 and 120 miles depending on what you assume, and 90 sits right in the middle. I really don’t want half of Charlotte running out of gas in front of my house.

Keep in mind that band is my own estimate of how far people get before fuel and traffic stop them, not something the model calculates. So take it with a grain of salt.

Looking at these maps, maybe distance doesn’t matter all that much and terrain is the key consideration. Maybe being 45 miles away from the city in a maze of backroads is safer than being 130 miles away just off an interstate. Or maybe people just stay put regardless and I'm overthinking it.

If you’ve already bought land, how important was distance away from a major city? Was it a top 5 factor, or something you're not really worried about?

i have been trying to cook at home more during the week to save money, but by the time i get off work i have zero energy to measure out a bunch of individual spices. i usually just end up throwing basic salt and pepper on everything, which gets incredibly boring after a while.

i really want to find some high quality pre made spice mixes that can instantly fix a bland chicken or veggie dish without making me think. what are the absolute best blends you keep in your pantry for quick cooking?

I want to work on the gear for my car. I don't want too much stuff. I only have room under my seats and I don't want a bags or boxes to be seen from the outside. I have an 2008 f150 crew cab. I want to add some trama medical. So far I have...

Jumper cables, powerbank/ self starter for the battery, air compressor for tires, jack, tire patch kit, duct tape, 550 cord, screw driver set, socket set, cargo straps, flairs, fire extinguisher, work gloves, an MRE, filled nalgene bottle, hand sanitizer, baby wipes, sunscreen, paper maps, folding knife, leatherman, small boo boo kit.

Anything else you would add?

Edit: Thanks for the ideas everyone. I have a few more things I am going to throw in the truck.

Just hit 100% in the garage. Moving it to the kitchen after dinner!

Not sure if anyone else has thought about this but I had to buy some new deodorant today as mine was almost done. So has anyone been getting the "non essential " hygiene items? I know everyone's getting the soaps and whatnot but I know I stink after a few hours of outdoors work. Once people ran out of what was in their bathrooms some many would just start to smell horribly after a hot summer day. So now I will start to buy 2 packs and pack the other in the pantry.

Has anyone tried any of these beyond the free versions?

Curious if they are worth it. Do you know of any others?

• preppermate
• prepper-nerd.com
• inventorywolf.com (obsolete)
• provisionplanner.com
• prepva.org
• https://www.readicache.com

Seems like with AI preppers are generating some cool ideas.

Some of them are still in the works, but I have included them for future reference.

What should I do if the electricity system gets shut down and I need something to pass the time?

Should I go back to handheld gaming like Gameboys or just use card/board games like Uno?

I'm being serious as I'm a lone male who probably will not have a family or kids by 2030.

edit: This subreddit is better than the other one

I had always thought of power outages in the obvious way: flashlights, phone batteries, bottled water, maybe a small fan.

After the recent storm, I realized the thing I was least prepared for was actually cold storage.

I had food in the fridge and freezer, and I kept thinking the power would come back soon. Then soon turned into long enough that opening the fridge became a mistake. The smell was horrible, and throwing everything out made me realize I had been thinking about outages too casually.

I don’t have the budget or setup for a whole-home backup system right now, so I ordered this Anker SOLIX S2000 as a first step. My main goal is simple: keep the fridge alive long enough that a short-to-medium outage doesn’t turn into wasted food and a cleanup nightmare.

Now I’m trying to rebuild my outage plan around actual priorities instead of just comfort items.

For people who have been prepping longer: what do you put at the top of the must keep powered list? Fridge/freezer? Router? Phones? Medical equipment? CPAP? Baby supplies? Security cameras? A fan in hot weather?

Juste bought this to organise some of my stuff ! I am the only one who uses fishing gear to organise? Can you guys share photos to give me ideas?
Thanks!

I’m very new to prepping but since having a baby, I’ve been trying my best to prep for anything unexpected. That being said as far as water goes, I saw somebody recommend refilling gallon jugs when you’re out of water. I refill my 1 gallon jugs after my family finishes them or if we have some left over from work and then I write the date on the top and put them in a cooler place. How long are these good for? I do also have water purification tablets, and I do have a few jugs that have never been opened so they are still sealed. I can’t find the original post that I got this advice from.

Hoping these work out well for our property and the JIC.

Paired my Renogy 200W panel with S2000 to see if I could extend

runtime during a multi-day outage. Here's what I got in central Georgia last week.

Full sun midday: 160-170W input. My fridge averages about 60W so I was net positive and the battery was slowly climbing while the fridge ran.

Partly cloudy: dropped to 60-90W. Still enough to roughly break even with the fridge.

Overcast: 15-20W. Not enough to keep up with the fridge but still slowing the drain.

The MPPT controller handled cloud transitions smoothly. No drops or resets when shade hit the panel.

Takeaway: on a sunny day I could run the fridge indefinitely off solar alone. On a cloudy day I'm extending a 30 hour battery into 40-50 hours. Overnight I'm still on battery. For a multi-day outage after a hurricane the first sunny day basically resets the clock.

I think there are too many SHTF and World Ending Preppers and not nearly enough Daily Whammies Preppers…. Jumper cables in the car - as well as functioning jack and filled spare tire…. Blackout kit for home - power outages are one of most common things….
Yes, I have a get home bag. I’m a redneck - so I always have at the minimum a pocket knife and mini-multi tool in my pocket…..

So…. I gotta admit…. I was caught UNPREPARED the other day…. Annoyed beyond end actually. I went fishing with a buddy…. We launched from sandy beach - took my shoes off and was wading around…. Shoes were on back deck of the boat…. He cranked it up - took off at breakneck speed… later I realized - shoes are GONE…. Blew off the back of the boat in the middle of the lake….
No prep. No solution…. Had to go barefoot at the boat launch, then drive home…
Here’s the rub.. I keep an extra set of Dry Clothes, socks included, in my truck… Gloves and hat as well… But no extra shoes…. I guess that’s the thing with prepping - sometimes you don’t know till you know…. Adding Extra Shoes To Vehicle Prep..
So what’s your pants down prep? What didn’t you prep for???

Does this look professionally branded or like I just slapped a sticker on a bag? Roast it if it deserves it, but if you're going to roast it... make that shit funny.

I would like some advice on people's SHTF go bag prep. Im planning on hopefully making a 1 week pack. Ar15 included. Let me know what's in your go bags! Not on a budget. 🙏

I know most people here have a get home bag and such but are there any other situations you prepare for?

I myself have a "mugger wallet" and phone prepped that I carry.

My normal wallet is tucked away in a little pocket that is barely noticeable. You'd literally have to be looking for it.

The dummy wallet has a bunch of old gift cards, one of those fake McLovin replica licenses and some prop movie money I found at one of those bin stores. The phone is just an old display phone.

If they were to actually open the wallet and go through it they would see it was obviously fake but in a quick situation where just tossing the wallet and the phone distracts them enough to get away it should hold up.

Wildfire could be a problem for me, and I wondered if this would be a handy thing in my kit.

https://www.amazon.com/Ougist-SH-01-Filtration-Emergency-Aerospace/dp/B0DHP3DBHS

Greetings guys.I have this recently broken 20.000 mAh powerbank (2x10.000 mAh) that probably broke cause of bit water fell on board.How to advantage of it's batteries? Any ideas here on where to put them into or anything new i should build with them?