Ask HN: How to Prepare for No Electricity

No offence meant, but this sounds like those doomsday prepper fantasies where they store chainsaws and crossbows in the garage because they think they’d thrive in a zombie apocalypse.

If your whole continent went without electricity for a year, something massively fucked up would be going on (like a gigantic war) and stocking up on beans and berries wouldn’t begin to address the issue.

Connecting phones peer-to-peer is a bad priority when civilisation and the government are collapsing around you. We already have cheap, reliable, sturdy walkie-talkies which run on replaceable batteries that can last for months and years, why would we waste precious energy resources charging expensive, fragile, unreliable phones that barely last one day?

Sounds like you don’t live in a city and are fantasising about being cut off from the rest of the world, but for most people collaboration would be key. Communities would need to form and be tighter to help everyone.

If you're expecting a continent-wide, one-year power outage you should prepare for something much longer.

Electricity: Solar panels, windmill, watermill, bicycle for charging batteries, and, of course, batteries.

Mechanical power: Windmill, watermill, bicycle for handling things like grinding grain and pumping water. You can do these by hand, but that's inefficient and if the environment (wind, water) can do it for you you're much better off. Burning calories to grind the grain that you use to get calories means you have to consume more, minimize your caloric needs and focus your energy on activities that can't be mechanized.

Heat: Propane is ok, but your scenario suggests no resupply. You also say you're near a forest, there are efficient woodburning stoves for heating and cooking.

Water: Do you really want to spend a year hand pumping water for irrigation and consuming or dragging it from a stream in the winter? A well with a mechanical pump (windmill). Use barrels to catch rain water (this is trivial to setup) for irrigation and toilets. You can use a mesh filter for the barrel water to make it suited for the toilet since potability is not a concern for that case. Cisterns can hold more, use mechanical pumps to move the water as needed. Elevated water tanks remove the need to pressurize your water, requires some power to move it up to the tank but that's what the windmill is for.

Communications: Solved over a century ago with radios, you need some batteries and some hardware. Get it now and start practicing. Mesh networks may be viable depending on proximity to other people and their willingness to contribute. A continent-wide, year-long power outage suggests a long-term sustained attack on infrastructure, I would not rely on any satcom system as something like that is unlikely to stay contained to only a single continent.

Something you didn't address:

Transportation: Cars will be useless in short order under your scenario. It doesn't sound like you have farmland already, or I'd suggest horses and oxen or other pack animals. Get bicycles and learn to maintain and repair them. They can double without much effort as a source of mechanical power and to charge batteries for some uses (lighting at night, radio).

Food: If you're sincerely expecting this, don't even bother with refrigeration anymore. You should learn to cure meats, can vegetables, and process grains (sounds like you do that already). Get cats, food storage will result in rodents and other pests.

Food: If you can afford it freeze dried foods last 25+ years (much longer if stored right). They maintain 97+% of their flavor and nutritional value. They can also be bartered with neighbors. Dehydrated foods are also an option, not quite as good as freeze-dried and then finally canned and foods with long shelf life like the ones you describe. Work on getting super healthy and fit now to reduce the impact of eating less than healthy foods in a crisis. There are also videos that show how the Amish prepare and preserve foods though I would avoid most of their unhealthy food selections.

Water: Numerous 5-gallon BPA free containers with water (5 are easier to carry) and a small amount of peroxide to keep anything from growing in it. Read up on water treatment as there are several options and one must get measurements right or the water will be unsafe to drink in a year. Avoid streams and filters. They do not work as advertised and getting diarrhea will deplete you of water. Those are absolutely last resort. Filtering rain water if the system is set up to do a first-flush of bird poop is a little safer but still requires chemical treatment. Research how deep the water table is at your location. If shallow enough you may be able to make your own DIY hand-pumped solution. That will also need basic filtration to remove large minerals and dirt.

Heat: Wood stove and a lot of seasoned wood can last a long time. One can usually find more wood. Propane services, deliveries, trucks will not be available. Use it while you can but then consider the multiple uses of a wood stove. If your country bans wood stoves then just don't tell them you have one. If you have time to build it, you can make an insulated green-house with large black containers of water essentially heat batteries that can store heat from the sun using water. Some people use clay-filled boxes that face the sun with tubing in them. You can use filters and vents with solar powered low speed fans to peel some of that heat off the green-house for your home. Compost can also produce heat.

Communication: Weather band emergency radios today are multipurpose. Some have very large batteries and solar that can charge themselves and your phone assuming cell sites are still working. A combination of FRS (UHF) and CB radio (HF) are great if your neighbors have them. FRS radios are cheap and easy to charge with solar. Many models of FRS radios also have built in weather-bands. Get a set of 12 or 24 of them so you can share with neighbors and have spare units. Coordinate channels and CTSS codes for different purposes in your neighborhood.

For DIY solar solutions check out Will Prowse [1]. He has an account on HN but no idea if he still comes here.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/c/WillProwse/videos