Energy Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Prepper power! Part 1

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #136 • July/August, 2012 The interesting thing about being a "prepper" is most preppers don't want anybody to know they are one! No doubt many fear they will be ostracized...

Making and using a solar cooker

By Joe Radabaugh Issue #30 • November/December, 2004 Solar cooking is a delightful alternative to conventional cooking methods. The solar cookers available today really work and they deserve serious evaluation by a much larger audience. For...

Solar Power 101: Inverters

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #89 • September/October, 2004 This article is the third in a series of our beginner's course in solar electricity. Simultaneously we have instituted a Home Energy Information (www.homeenergy.info) section on...

You could furnish an entire homestead at Lehman’s ‘Non-electric’ Hardware Store

By Don Fallick Issue #47 • September/October, 1997 Let me state my bias right at the beginning: Lehmans Hardware has been advertising in Backwoods Home Magazine for a long time, but I made my first purchase...

Radiant floor heating — Alternative to forced-air heating is solar-powered, too An interview with...

By Michael Hackleman Issue #64 • July/August, 2000 Hydronic, or radiant floor heating is a method of heating a home, shop, or other building with the heat concentrated in the floor. It works by embedding special...

Grid-tied, Grid-connected, Off-grid. What’s the difference?

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 Several weeks ago I received a call from a woman in Florida complaining that they just had a power outage lasting several days and her solar...

Homemade electric power

By Jim Van Sant Issue #131 • September/October, 2011 Ever wonder how you could live off the grid when the sun isn't shining on your solar panels? Our homestead alternative energy system is based on 12 volts...

What if the electricity GOES OFF?

By Michael Hackleman Issue #55 • January/February, 1999 Just as everyone was getting ready to throw the party of the century and millenniumout with the old and in with the newsomeone springs Y2K on us. Power...

Power Up Light, Water, Communications in Emergencies

By Jeffrey R. Yago, P.E., C.E.M. April/May/June, 2019 Preparing for any emergency or future disaster is never easy. What should you prepare against; what is the likelihood it will actually happen; how long will it take...

Dim bulbs in California

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #107 • September/October, 2007 By now many of us have heard that under a bill proposed by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D), the state of California is about to become the...

Solar-powered water purifiers

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #146 • March/April, 2014 Most of us can stay alive up to a month without any food if stranded, but we could not live longer than three days without water...

Battery-Powered Tools are Changing

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., C.E.M. April/May/June, 2019 Battery-powered tool technology is now undergoing some rapid changes in both the power of the tool motors and the batteries supplying the added power. For many years most battery-powered...

Keep those gadgets working after the power goes out

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #84 • November/December, 2004 The recent 2003 northeast electric grid failure taught the residents of many large cities what most rural residents learned years ago: Lights, air conditioners, televisions, stereos,...

Build your own solar-powered water pumping station

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #91 • January/February, 2005 In the last issue, there was an excellent article by Dorothy Ainsworth on water pumping using mechanical windmills. In this issue I will address another form...

Our journey to modern off-grid living

By Jackie Clay-Atkinson Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019 We’ve lived off the grid for decades. Throughout the years, we’ve traveled the path from living a very rustic lifestyle with few amenities to our current off-grid homestead...

Solar charge controllers — myths, hype, and facts

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #153 • May/June, 2015 Most people with a basic understanding of solar power are aware they need a solar module and a storage battery to power an electrical device using...