Background
The “last mile” is often referred to as the elusive, final goal of economy in shipping. Enormous ships burning the junkiest fuel in engines using pistons the size of your F-150 float millions of tons of products between the continents. Henry Timken optimized rail transport with his tapered roller bearing for the next leg and then 18-wheelers move product to regional warehouses. Does it make sense for Amazon to use the US Postal Service or UPS to deliver a 1 lb. box of Cheeze-Its to your door in a 3 ton truck? How about an $18/hr college kid on an electric Vespa instead? Or a robot? Thus was born the Last Mile problem.
Off-grid power for resilience has been the Holy Grail Quest since I first became a scientist and started reading. Other than the radioactive elements in the Earth’s crust, the sun powers all life on this planet. Plants have the photon capturing system to rebuild long carbon chains and from there we’re off to the races ending in glorious bacon. So why can’t Man directly benefit from solar power?
He can but it’s the ageless “how much for how much?” question. Thus the fusion of these two ideas.
Electricity
Edison and Tesla reformed the world, like the wheel. Just spend a weekend camping without electricity and you’ll understand the measure of that statement.
Walk down the Wal-Mart aisle tagged “Small Electrics” and you’ll see how motors and heaters enhance an everyday life you rely upon. Thus, electricity is equated both with comfort and for some, survivability.1
In our house we use the grid as much as possible. Because it is present and cheap. But what if it wasn’t? You have three choices as I see it.
Hire a nerd to put in a custom solar system that only they understand. That has been the go-to for 40+ years. Medium cost, medium effort.
Write a check to Generac for an externally installed pad-mount generator that feeds the whole house. A viable option if you gots the Benajmins, high cost low effort.
Buy a personal power system the size of a camping cooler. Low cost, low effort.
This post is about #3.
If you don’t have anything but are caught in the analysis paralysis cycle then I can help: go buy a Jackery portable power system at Harbor Freight. They have one that fits your budget and you don’t have to wring your hands one day longer. Will it be perfect? Probably not but it is something and that is a lot better than a complicated wish list on paper.
This market segment was originated with companies like Goal Zero as I recall but as Brad Feld, the VC investor of a former company I worked for, once said “Sometimes it’s better to go second than first.” So companies like Jackery, Bluetti2, etc. have camped on this idea. Ultimately you are the winner in this contest of Capitalism!
We had all the kids up to our remote ranch in the Rockies a decade ago and my wife bought a bunch of 900 LED headlamps at Costco for them. I looked at these horrific feats of Chicom engineering and compared it to my sleek Petzl backpacking headlamp with great disdain.
In my smugness, I was wrong.
They were entirely good enough for the task at hand. I have learned this lesson over and over since then.
Remember, you can always barter away your initial gear to fund something better as you progress and in the process help out someone starting out. One less liability is one potentially less enemy when it all goes pear shaped.
Get something in place this week.
A subtext in the book One Second After is how the protagonist can keep his daughter alive by preserving her insulin supply, requiring cooling to not go stale.