In my arsenal of tools and goodies I’d like to have several ways of generating power…
*a pedal generator
*a solar cell/panel
*a wind turbine
*a stream/water turbine
Some kind of converter / storage system they could plug into.
I suppose one would ideally have a couple sizes of each of these. But for starters it would be neat to have compact units that give enough power for a few necessities.
So, what kind of things really need power?
Lightbulbs are handy — but when living camper-style a few 50W Aladdin hurricane oil lamps would do. Still, a few bulbs couldn’t hurt. But would you want to sacrifice your lifestyle to have them? That is, don’t get suckered into investing in more power supply than you need.
Batteries are handy — for flashlights. For computers. A radio, a TV. Sometimes we get useful info that way. (But can you believe what you see? …Ha, a new challenge to the structure of belief! It used to be that belief was about things we didn’t see. Now we need to know that we can believe what we DO see! And, can we?)
Powertools are handy, too.
Then there are the power needs of living at home versus living in a camper.
A washing machine is handy — but in a pinch a manual washer/wringer would work.
As the first guru of pedal power generators says: the most efficient use of power is direct-drive. Use your power to mechanically move something. Everything else involves losses. The worst losses come from stunts like converting 12v to 110AC. Of course, electric motors can be darn efficient (far more so than gasoline internal combustion), so we use ’em in a pinch, when they’re worth their weight. But I note that wool clothing with its powerful antibiotics, plus enough care to keep them clean in the first place — plus old age and its loss of stinky hormones — results in far less frequency for washing.
Anyway, those power-generating goodies would still be neat to have and likely handy in a lean time or occasion for gridlessness.
