Grid Down Perceptions of Reality

by Bruce Buckshot Hemming

  He led them into the kitchen and explained, “You are going to have a wood stove going in the winter to heat your house, right?” Not waiting for an answer he continued, “So all you have to do is have a wood burning stove to heat the house and cook on, plus plumb the stove with tubing to heat water. Having the water tank near the stove, you can let thermo siphoning move the hot water to the tank for storage. As the water heats, it naturally rises in the tank, displacing the cold water. Placing a boiler tank by your wood stove, you can run a loop of pipe inside the wood stove and then to the tank. As the stove heats the water, it rises into the tank, circulating the cold water into the stove to be heated, thus eliminating the need for a hot water heater. Constructing it this way, you wouldn’t have to worry about adding a circulating pump to move the water. Let nature do it for you using a thermo siphon system.”

  Joe and Preston looked at each other and then to Scott, who had a quizzical look too.

  Brett went through some papers on the counter and pulled out a single piece of paper. He held it up, showing it to them and said, “Here gentlemen, I wrote it all out for you. It’s all of the principles you need to understand. First, let’s look at the hot water heater part. There are a few technical details you need to know before you can just run off and do this. You want to use galvanized ¾ inch pipe. One inch is better, and preferably stainless steel pipes if you can find them. You make one simple horseshoe loop inside the top of your wood box and run it out the back. Now, in order to get nature to work for you, your cold-water return has to be a certain height above the wood stove. Here’s a simple rule that you must follow in order for it to work.” Brett pointed to the drawing and said, “For every two horizontal feet away from the stove your storage tank is, you must have 1-foot of vertical drop, so if you’re wood stove is 5 feet away from the hot water heater you need to be 2 1/2 feet above the wood stove. It’s fairly simple. Are you following me?”

  Scott looked at the drawing and said, “It sounds fairly simple. I think I can work it out from the information you have here.”

  Brett continued rattling off information. “Also, try to avoid 90 degree elbows because it interrupts the flow of the water, so 45s are preferred. Only thing you have to be careful about is making sure the pressure relief valve on top the hot water tank is operating properly and is piped safely outside. If you’re getting the water too hot, you don’t want your water spraying inside the house. It’s kind of a delicate act to get this all just right, but once it’s set up and finished it’s well worth the time.”

  He continued, only pausing long enough for a breath, “This would be your fall and winter hot water source. In the summer, when you may only have a fire in the stove for a meal, I suggest that you guys build a simple solar tank and install it on the roof. Paint it black and let the sun heat the water for you, while gravity provides the water pressure. Doing this would give you hot water year around and eliminate the need for a propane or electrical water heater.”

  Preston was getting a little frustrated, as they just came to get the information on the wood gasifier, said, “Thank you very much for all the technical information. Now the most important question is how do we get our generators running on wood gas?”

  Brett picked up a black binder and said, “I have that information right here. The most important thing is finding enough barrels and fittings to produce them for all of the residents.”

  He quickly added, “Like I said before, I think people should use batteries to run lights and small electrical devices, keeping them charged with the gasified generator. When you really think about personal comfort, you only need hot water, which we just solved, a refrigerator with a freezer to keep food from spoiling, and it would also be nice if the washing machine worked. Clothes could be hung to dry. Hang them outside in the warmer months, and inside by the stove in the winter and colder months. Drying the clothes indoors in the winter would also help the humidity.”

  Brett’s mind was working faster than his mouth, and barely taking a breath he said, “To run the electrical appliances, you would run the generator. You could run it a couple of hours a day to provide electricity for those. Limiting the opening of the refrigerator and freezer, it would stay cold enough throughout the day.”

  “Now, with generators you have to keep the oil changed to keep them running, so you need to find a source for that. I think most gas generators are only rated for about a thousand hours. So let me see,” he closed his eyes and did some math in his head, “if they ran up two hours a day for 365 days, that’s 730 hours. That leaves us with about 135 days, so they should last about 16 months per generator. That’s of course if the people maintained them.” He managed another breath and continued, “The air filters must be cleaned regularly and have the oil changed on time. And let me see, those calculations were if we started with new generators. If we have used generators, it would of course change the length of time they would last, but it would definitely give us some time to get other things in operation, like my wind generators, and that’s why I’m still working on them. And if we could find a couple of large industrial diesel generators, like the hospitals use, we could provide electricity to whole neighborhoods.”

  The three men could only listen as Brett gave them all of this information. They politely nodded every once in a while, letting him go on.

  Brett continued, “As for getting some cars and trucks running on wood gas, we would have to find some of the older models that were still working before the EMP, and then we could adapt the gasifiers to fuel them too. They did it in Europe during the war, so there is no reason we can’t do it now.”

  Scott took Brett’s brief pause to say, “Right now, we should probably focus on getting everyone generators, batteries and wood gasifiers, then each household could have and manage their own power.”

  “Yes, yes, of course gentlemen,” Brett interjected, “but that just puts a temporary patch, a Band-Aid if you will, on the problem. We need to think bigger. Plus the word will spread quickly around the different areas, which will mean more people coming here for the good life. Have you thought about how you’re going to deal with that? More people generally equals more problems. Anyway, I think for the long-term, we need to get the wind generators fixed and use the existing electrical grid. I’m not quite sure how to fix the transformers, so I haven’t figured out how to put out the high-voltage. We need at least 10,000-volts to even run a mini electrical grid, and then we have to step it down with a transformer to 110-volts going to each house. With all the transformers blown, I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. Maybe the wood generator is the best way to go, for now.”

  Pausing to think, he continued, “But even with little generators, you will need at least a 5,000-watt output to operate each home. It is still just a Ban-Aid fix. And then there’s the other option of going with gas or diesel engines, out of vehicles, to power a 10 to 20-KW generator, providing power to several houses at a time, but again we come back to a temporary solution.”

  Preston smiled, “You did a great job Brett, and we really want to thank you. We’ll get the Band-Aid going and you can continue to work on your long-term project. If we get the bigger engines, the 3 or 4 cylinder types, we might even get lucky and get 4 years out of them.”

  “Yes, yes, of course gentlemen, but it’s still a Band-Aid fix. I have a book here somewhere that shows how a big power plant works. We could even make a steam plant, or something along those lines, but I must get back to work.” And without a pause, he said, “good day gentlemen.” With that, Brett turned and left the room. The men took their cue and left the house.

  Scott smiled, “Yes, he’s a little eccentric, but you’ll get used to him after a while.”

  Joe said, “A little? I’d say a lot. Okay where to now?”

  Scott suggested, “Let’s go see the guy in charge of the salvage team. His name is Bob Shoenrock. He owns a junkyard and is a master at turning junk into treasures.”

  They rode the horses Scott ha
d provided for about an hour and pulled into a big salvage yard. Bob was out in the garage clearing an area so they had space to work on the gasifier. Scott made the introductions and asked for an update.

  Bob started, “Well, finding enough generators can be a problem. We have 75 homes that need them, and so far we’ve only been able to find 12 generators. So what I think we should do is start looking for 5 to 10 horse power size engines, and we can rig up alternators,” pointing out into the junkyard, “from the cars to run DC lighting, using 12-volt automobile lights, but we’d still need inverters to power the AC items like water pumps, freezers, and clothes washers.”

  Scott handed Bob the plans for the gasifier and asked if Bob could build one of them. Bob looked it over and said, “Sure, but 75? I doubt it. We’ll be doing good to get 20 of these up and running before winter, heck it maybe only 10 of them. I say we get a couple of trucks running first, that way we will be able to travel further and salvage more. Plus we can definitely use them for patrols. We can rig up a couple of 4 x 4’s with a trailer and we should be able to haul in a lot of stuff.”

  Scott said, “Patrols out of a real vehicle? Tell me I’m not dreaming.”

  They all laughed and Preston said, “This wood gasifier was for a fixed system, so how can you adapt it to work for a moving vehicle?”

  Bob said, “For the short run, I can find enough old oil and cooking grease to run diesel engines, without having to adapt them. For running other engines on wood gas, you let me worry about that. Now if I were you guys, I would get out salvaging and even if you can only find generators with blown engines, it doesn’t matter; we can replace it with a good engine. We just need the generators.”

  The three men rode out, heading back to Scott’s place. They discussed how they would go about finding the generators. Where would they look? What would be most likely place to find some?

  Joe said, “We’re not fussy. A 5,ooo-watt generator is all we need. Heck, we’d even settle for 3500-watt, if that’s all we could find.”

  Preston offered, “If we can get a water pump, clothes washer, and a freezer going, we would be in great shape.”

  Back at Scott’s place, he took them over to a map and pointed to a spot. “All right, here’s the section the salvage teams have already searched. Generators are first come first serve. Whoever finds them, keeps the first one for themselves. It’s only fair since they’re the ones doing the work. After that, they add them to the pile. You guys are going to have figure out who gets what. You let me worry about making them work. Two of the guys that used to work for me are on the salvage team, so you two need to relieve them because I need them here. You will also need to take over being in charge of the salvage team, because George needs to get back to work on the farm.”

  “Okay then, we’ll get out of your hair.” Joe said.

  Scott turned to Joe and Preston, and said, “I’ll see you two in the morning.”

  Scott took their horses and they got their bikes, said their goodbyes, and headed home.

  When they got home, they had a new problem. They needed water and without the horses and wagon, they had no way to haul it. Using two bikes, they strapped two by six pieces of wood across the frames, making essentially a four-wheeled cart. They strapped eight of the 5-gallon buckets onto the wood and walked it down to the lake.

  They filled each bucket, secured it back on the platform and took these back to the house. They almost filled the 55-gallon drum. They repeated this, filling the barrel the rest of the way. While doing this, they discussed how Michael might be able to do this by himself. They both concluded that he would have to carry fewer buckets and make more trips, but it was doable.

  Joe said, “We have got to get a generator up and running so we can run the water pump. This hauling waters for the birds.”

  Preston laughed. “Maybe we should just pick the house up and move it closer to lake. Sure would be easier.”

  Joe chuckled, “Okay Superman let me know when you get it done. Maybe we should look for a better location. Something closer to water this time.”

  “Well, after talking to Brett and Bob, it maybe a month or more before we get something up and running, so we should seriously think about finding another place.”

  “Well, we could let Amy, Michael and Jane search the area for another house. We could tell them the things to look for and if they found something, we could look at it.”

  “We should leave somebody here with the supplies. We have way too much to lose if everyone’s gone and someone stumbles across this place. I say we leave Jane behind, and let Amy and Michael go out searching.”

  Joe said, “That sounds like a plan.” He then asked, “Do you know how a ram pump works?”

  Preston shook his head no and Joe continued. “Basically it uses the flow of the stream and you can actually pump water uphill, as much as 300 meters. If we could find a house or a big camp near a fast flowing stream, we could rig up a ram pump. This can take some serious work, but it sure would be worth it.”

  Over dinner that night they talked about their plan. Michael said, “That’s a great idea, plus I can go fishing every day and I’ll bet you I can find where to go bear hunting.”

  Jane looked at Michael with raised eyebrows, saying, “Bear hunting? “You’re not going bear hunting. You’re too young.”

  Amy added, “That’s right. You have to wait until you get older.”

  Michael smiled and said, “Too late. Preston and Joe already said I could go. I’m going to use one of those new fancy 12 gauge shotguns. A 12 gauge slug would knock over an elephant, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

  Before either of them could protest, Preston quickly added, “That’s right, he’s old enough now and he’s definitely big enough. Besides Joe or myself will be with him at all times, so there’s nothing to worry about. He’s got to grow up some time.”

  Jane looked at Joe, “Next time you two make such a decision, I think we should all talk about it before giving or denying anything.”

  Amy jumped in, “They say bear lard is fantastic for bread grease. I think it would add to our baking, and I’m sure we can figure out how to make it taste good. Shouldn’t have to use very much, and we could definitely use it. I just think we should wait until it cools off, like the beginning of October. The bears should be nice and fat, looking for a place to hibernate.” She turned back to Michael and said, “Looks like you’re going bear hunting Michael.”

  Michael was beaming from ear to ear. “Cool. I’ll get a great big one, and have a great big bear rug to keep me warm at night.”

  The next morning they met Scott at his house, left their bikes there, got on the wagon with seven other men, and headed off in search of generators.

  Some of the summer homes were powered with off the grid solar panels, which charged battery packs, and had generators for backup. These were the places they were looking for first. The men on horse’s road ahead and three men would check a house, doing a quick search for the materials that they needed. Any and all pipefittings, pipe wrenches, barrels, inverters, were collected and brought back to the wagon. If there was a generator, they would direct the wagon to the house so it could be disconnected and loaded. One man always stayed out on the road to watch for trouble.

  This was the most efficient way to get the job done. That way the wagon wasn’t wasting time traveling down each road or driveway to an individual house. They were also looking for any survivors.

  By 2 o’clock that afternoon, the wagon was overflowing. They had found one more generator and some boxes of different pipefittings, but what filled up the wagon were all the different size barrels they’d found. They decided to call it a day and head back to the junkyard.

  It was already August and they needed to hurry up before fall brought rainy weather. They also had to find a couple of wood chippers to make fuel for the gasifiers. At least they were working together as a community, and everyone was pitching in to help. Tomorrow they would repeat the process
.

  The next day was pretty much the same thing, but as they were heading back at around three in the afternoon, they spotted a man near a house. He was wearing all camouflage and sitting on a horse, holding the reins of six other horses.

  They stopped and Preston pulled out his AR-15 from the wagon. Joe pulled out his new high-tech shotgun, and the rest of the men spread out around the driveway.

  Once the men were in place, Scott called out, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

  The man called into the house. “We’ve got company.” He then looked at the back of the open wagon and saw the barrels and generators. He called out, “We’re doing the same thing you’re doing. Salvaging what we need to survive.”

  Scott hollered back, “Sorry, but this area is protected and you will have to move on, preferably peacefully, if not, we can handle that too.”

  By then most the other men had come out of the house and mounted their horses. They rode right up to Scott and the wagon, and seeing that they were covered, they drew no weapons. The one that had been talking continued, “So where would you like us to go, and by the way, who the hell are you to tell us where we can and can’t go?”

  Scott responded, “The County here has duly elected us as the Wisconsin Militia, to patrol and protect this area. It is our duty to keep the community safe. We are not going to have any trouble in our community and we decide who stays and who goes. Any more questions?”

  Scott could tell that these men were battle hardened; you could see it in their eyes and he felt the tension mounting. They all had rifles slung over their backs, and none of them wanted to get into a shooting match right now.

  Scott tried to ease the tension and asked them, “Where are you boys coming from?” He was hoping to defuse the situation and hoped the men would choose to move on without violence.

  He could tell that these men were unafraid, and rather than answer Scott’s question, the man said, “So what happens if we decide to stay?”

  Preston interrupted. “If you want to make this difficult, you’ll have one hell of a fight on your hands. We tried being nice about it, to put it bluntly, so we hope you understand that you can ride out a here peaceably, or we can bury you here. It doesn’t matter to us if you want to fight. So what’s it going to be boys?”