Durban - Batteries may suffer in the event of extreme load shedding. If the grid collapses, as has been bandied around as a possibility, a lot more will go down with it, Glenwood’s off-the-grid guru, Graham Robjant, has warned.
“When you get to stage 8, not even those back-up systems are going to help.”
His admits that during these dire times he is running out of answers, but he advises nevertheless: “Rather than using your car to run around in, use it as a generator to replenish your batteries. You may have to place a brick on the accelerator to keep the revs up a little bit.
“But that will work fine on a 12-volt system,” said Robjant.
Speaking to “The Independent on Saturday” at his Glenwood home where he harvests water, grows food and where power from solar panels enables his security system, internet, radio and irrigation system to function, he encouraged people to have 12-volt appliances.
“There is a lot of stuff around the house that runs off 5 volts and 12 volts.”
Among them, he said, are certain 21-inch television sets, car radios, LED lights, closed-circuit television and cellphone chargers.
If you are running a 24- or 48-volt inverter, you would have to charge the 12-volt batteries individually from a 24- or 48-volt charger, or solar regulator.
Robjant says the complete collapse of the grid could lead to shortages of water and petrol, both of which require electricity-driven pumps.
And the failure of cellphone towers.
“When the grid fails, your phone is useless. You might as well keep it as a paperweight.”
This would make the old citizen band radios more viable for communication as much modern communication is internet-based.
He suggests people start growing food.
“We don’t have a severe winter here in Durban. We have a moderate winter. A lot of stuff will grow and, if you now have to become a vegetarian, it’s sustainable.”
A start could be saving a few seeds each time one buys a butternut, or other vegetable, at the supermarket.
Meat could be difficult to keep fresh without a fridge.
He urged people to also harvest water, including using tricks such as hanging up groundsheets to catch dew.
He said he had learnt such methods during national service.
“We hated it, but it taught us to survive in times of having little.”
And his last word in the face of many things possibly going back 150 years: “Be on good terms with your neighbours. Don’t piss them off, because one day you might need them.”
The Independent on Saturday