GET OVER THE SHOCK

POWERFUL ALTERNATIVES FOR WHEN THE GRID GOES DOWN

- CHRISTOPHER NYERGES

We’ve all grown accustomed to having electricity in our lives. Some would even say we’re addicted. However you see it, modern life as we know it would cease to exist without the steady flow of electrons. But most of us have so acclimated our lives to the availability of electricity that it is hard to imagine any life without it. We flip the switch and we have light, or a TV, radio or the computer, along with a whole host of power tools for your shop and yard. Modern banking would not exist without electricity, nor would modern communication.

We’re fortunate that so many inroads have been made to de-centralize electricity, at least for those who choose to educate themselves and build little systems so they can get off the grid, whether a little or a lot, and be able to have power if the whole grid goes down.

Ted Koppel (from the popular Nightline TV news show) wrote a book called Lights Out in which he explored what it might take for a terrorist to take down what are essentially three grids in the United States. Although he points out that this would not be easy, it could be done. Koppel also points out, perhaps to the dismay of the reader, that there is really no meaningful action plan to deal with such an eventuality.

We have no crystal ball, but let’s just look at life without electricity and explore the way in which we would then live.

THE TRANSITION