Point Zero Energy HomeGrid™ 5000HD Solar Electrical Generator

I'm a pretty jaded type. I don't often get excited, but I was all "a-tingle" when I got word of what was heading my way for review.  Most of my reviews are of small items, handheld radios, machetes, hand axes, not 200 lbs. of high-end, high power solar generator.

Needless to say, I was as giddy as a little school girl.

You see, any serious prepping plan needs a foundation based on sustainability. You need to work from a sustainable supply of anything to hold your own, whether it's a supply of beans, bullets or banjo strings. This applies especially for electricity.
The ultimate goal is to live comfortably "off grid".  Unless a life of a wilderness mountain man with flint & tinder is your bag, if you want electric lights, air conditioning & internet, you'll need a powerful electrical generator.

The HomeGrid™ 5000HD Solar Powered Generator.

Just like it's name, this solar-powered electrical generator is made to supply a entire household with clean, continuous electricity, for totally off-grid living.

Four heavy boxes arrived from Point Zero Energy by ground freight, with two large deep cycle 12V DC batteries, the inverter/generator unit, unit base, cart wheels & handle. Plus two pairs of solar panels, with two 100 watt panel built into sturdy frames with hinged supports & carry handles. Total capacity of the included solar panels came to 400 watts. Also included, was an assortment of parts including a heavy duty battery charge controller, three heavy-gauge jumper cables & connecting cables for the solar panels, along with an illustrated manual & instructional DVD.

Assembly was straight forward... the generator  bolts to the flat metal base with welded axle for the two wheels. At each side of the generator sits the two 12VDC batteries, on top of the generator a heavy duty handle is bolted on. Everything can be pushed around like a hand truck. The two batteries get wired in series to the generator to supply 24 Volts DC. On the front face of the Inverter/Generator are four 110VAC outlets, two USB outlets & One 220VAC outlet. There's also a power & standby toggle switch and an LED Display that shows battery status & output voltage.

With the large capacity deep cycle dry cells & heavy duty inverter, the Homegrid™ 5000HD is capable of 5000 watts of continuous 110 & 220 AC Power, and a whopping 22,000 watts of peak surge power. Read that again...TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND WATTS Surge power.  Meaning the generator can easily power multiple home appliances simultaneously including refrigerators, freezers, microwave ovens, and cooking appliances. It's pure sine wave power output will safely run power tools, electronics, and medical equipment.

A "Mac-Daddy Cadillac" Solar Generator, perfect for off-grid living. Two things make it deliver... Massive Dry Cell Batteries with tremendous capacity & a robust DC/AC inverter, built to take tremendous demand. The 220 Volt output, wired to a household circuit breaker system can give household appliances clean dependable electrical power day & night.

For my test, I plugged into my house transfer switch circuit, specifically to isolate my home off the Utility Company power meter, (and avoiding back feeding). There was no noticeable difference to the house load. The TV worked fine, my computers booted up, lights came on through the house, the refrigerator & microwave ran without a hiccup. Even my water well, with it's 220V AC motor did it's job. Then I ran some power tools... my chop saw & band saw in the shop, they all cut wood with no telltale difference in performance.
Overall, the power draw on the generator was usually less than 2500 watts, most often less than a thousand watts. It was when the refrigerator compressor came on, or when the well pump kicked on that power surged. Throughout my test, the generator was loafing along, operating well under capacity all day & even all night. One exception though, my house AC unit wasn't in the transfer circuit. When I wired up my transfer switch, I didn't include it in the circuit so I couldn't put it to test. Still, the AC is rated to draw 1500 to 3000 watts when operating, the HomeGrid™ 5000HD has the capacity to handle the load.  Through the night there wasn't much demand, just the few lights I had on, my computer & TV, and the refrigerator... altogether, no more than 1000 watts. By next morning, the battery status indictor showed less than one quarter depletion, and within the first hours of daylight, the system had regained a full charge by the solar panels.


Using the 400 watt solar panel array, the generator's batteries can easily be topped off throughout the day letting the system handle the heavy lifting alone only during the night. The generator can also accommodate a second 400 watt array as well.  Typically the deep cycle battery service life offers 7 to 8 years of reliable service.

Granted, my review was a weekend of use test, and in the long term, my energy demands would widely vary from day to day & seasonally. However, with some reasonable budgeting on the amount of power use, the Point Zero Energy HomeGrid™5000HD could give me a totally off grid existence right out of the box. Just by adding additional batteries & solar cells, the well of electrical power I'd have on tap would be far more than my modest needs. The great news is the HomeGrid™ 5000HD is easily expandable & PORTABLE.

My only gripe isn't really a gripe at all.
I was staggered by the weight the Point Zero Energy HomeGrid™5000HD.  Although designed & built to be portable, you'd be smart to have a couple of stout helpers to pitch in moving the generator & battery unit. By myself, it was a task. The solar panels are not a problem, but you certainly work up a sweat horsing the generator unit & batteries around. Imagine taking a hand truck and deadlifting a small refrigerator up some stairs.  Again, this isn't really a gripe against the gear, more it's against my own lack of strength. The weight is actually a good testament of the sheer ruggedness built into the unit. Point Zero Energy isn't building wimpy gear here, it's high quality, high capacity & highly reliable power generation equipment. It's well worth the sizable investment to insure safe, reliable, & dependable electrical energy to live totally off-grid, yet still enjoy modern electrical appliances in your household.  Until Doc Brown & Marty McFly shows up with a Mr. Fusion home reactor, the Point Zero Energy HomeGrid™ 5000HD is anyone's ticket to an off-grid lifestyle. Now that I've experienced life off-grid, I'm striving for more.
Pay a visit to Point Zero Energy's website to learn more about the complete line of HomeGrid™ Solar Powered Electrical Generators.

2 year service review: WORX 8 Amp Electric 14" Chainsaw

There are times when "You get what you pay for", doesn't hold water.
In the case of a 14"electric chainsaw by WORX, you get MORE.

Well into it's 2nd. year of hard service, getting this wood cutting powerhouse is money well spent. I had my doubts on a electric powered chainsaw, surely the motor & gearing can't possibly hold up to the

strain of cutting branches & logs, but after several good-sized tree-falls, and yards of firewood, the saw is just as sure & efficient as the day I pulled it out of the box.
My yard is full of trees. That means cutting up deadfalls, loping off branches, and harvesting firewood are common tasks. Over the years I've burned out two gas-engined chainsaws, each time cussing them for the aggravation of de-gumming clogged carburetors, despite keeping 2-cycle fuel fresh. Unless I was using the gas chainsaw daily, (which I wasn't) a year of use & storage was enough to turn a $100 investment into a crank pulling, blister-raising, pain in the butt. It got so I had to plan one whole day just getting the chainsaw running, to spend another full day using it.
When the second gas chainsaw finally bit the dust, I had had it. Worse, I had a big Bradford Pear decide to split in half on me leaving me a backyard FULL of fallen timber to cut up. I needed a chainsaw, & needed it right NOW!
So that's when I decided to take a chance on this WORX 14" Electric Chain Saw. I figured at half the price of a gas chainsaw, even if I only got a year's use out of it, at least I'm not out all the aggravation AND cost of a gas powered saw. Besides, with most of the work I needed to do... small branches with some thicker timber up to 20" thick... I figured I could knock out the small stuff, and if the saw puked on the bigger stuff, at least most of the cutting got done pretty cheap.

But surprisingly, that was TWO YEARS & more than three TREES AGO!

The WORX 14" saw is just as powerful, just as sharp, just as instant-on reliable as it was when I brought it home. No mixing gas, no priming, no choke, no yanking on a starter rope over & over & over. Lay out an extension cord, plug in & GO.

The WORX has an easy chain adjustment too. A twist of a knob snugs up the chain to proper tension, and just a top off of chain lube is all that's necessary for a full day of cutting.

It may seem like the saw takes a shade longer to cut through heavy work compared to a gas chainsaw, (but perhaps it was just the summer heat), but it certainly doesn't beat you up like a gas saw will. The motor is far quieter, the lighter weight of the saw is far less strain on your arms & back. I was totally surprised with the saw's cutting performance.
If your needs for a chainsaw is for light to medium yard work, mostly small diameter branches with the occasional larger log, the WORX 14" saw will do you very well, better than what you'd expect. Although tied to a electric power source via a plug in cord, you can kiss bye-bye all the starter rope pulling, spark plug fowling, gas mixture mess & smoky engine exhaust & ear ringing noise of a gas powered saw.
This has turned out to be one of my SMARTER investments.

Complete Water Analysis Test Kit / APN Product Review

It's not often when worry is put to rest, especially when it comes from playing in water.

A prime reason I chose my home was because it had a Water Well, a key item in maintaining independence from outside resource. Without need of a municipal water supply, I can live on my property without worry of  water suddenly not being available. I only then need to worry about it being drinkable.

Test Assured's Complete Water Analysis Test Kit

That's why I took on the task of doing a review of Test Assured's Complete Water Analysis Test Kit with enthusiasm.  I knew I had good tasting well water at my taps, but all the same, I wanted to know chemically how well my well water really was. (Say that 5 times fast.) Most importantly, I wanted to put to rest worries that there could be something in it that could potentially make me sick.

If you can follow directions how to mix cake batter, you can do all of the tests without messy eggs, butter, milk & stuff. It's simply fill a vial, dip in a test strip & compare colors from a chart. If I can do it, you can too.

The Complete Water Analysis Test Kit  is 10 tests in one.  Ten of the most common contaminants you need to be concerned about if you intend to use water to drink, cook or bathe.

Alkalinity: Water with low alkalinity can be corrosive and irritate eyes. Water with high alkalinity has a soda-like taste, dries out skin and causes scaling on fixtures and plumbing.

Hardness: The amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in the water. Hard water is high in dissolved minerals. When using hard water, more soap or detergent is needed to get things clean, be it your hands, hair, or your laundry.
pH: An index of the amount of hydrogen ions (H-) in the water. When water has a pH that is too low, it can lead to corrosion and pitting of pipes in plumbing and distribution systems.
Chlorine: A highly efficient disinfectant added to public water supplies to kill disease-causing pathogens. But too much of a good thing is not necessarily good. Too much can burn & kill.
Copper: Reddish metal that occurs naturally in rock, soil, water, sediment, and air. New copper pipes leech copper into water which can be harmful for babies. Older pipes not so much, because of the natural patina that develops on the metal surface.
Iron: Water high in iron may taste metallic, be discolored and appear brownish, Iron leaves red or orange rust stains in the sink, toilet, bathtub or shower.

Nitrates & Nitrites: Naturally occurring chemicals made of nitrogen and oxygen. The primary health hazard occurs when nitrate is transformed to nitrite in the digestive system. The nitrite oxidizes the iron in red blood cells to form methemoglobin, which lacks the oxygen-carrying ability of hemoglobin. Too much nitrate & nitrites in drinking water can cause serious health problems for young infants.

Lead: If you don't already know how dangerous consuming lead is, go back to eating your paint chips. Lead poisoning is a real concern with older homes with leaded plumbing.

Pesticides: Commonly caused by ground water contamination. Just where do you think the bug spray your neighbor uses winds up?

Bacteria: The most worrisome fear,  pathogens in your water that can make you REALLY sick. This test requires 48 hours for results.

The testing was easy to do. The kit is packaged well & clear in it's instructions. It makes me wonder if this is EXACTLY what is used by "Professional Water Testers" who charge $$$ for the convenience.

Is it worth it? 

The results largely confirmed what I already knew... I have safe, clean well water.

Test results showed that my water is clear of Chlorine, Iron, Nitrates, Nitrites, Copper, Pesticides or Lead. Further, (and most importantly), my water is Bacteria Free.

The test kit did show that Alkalinity is right in the target range for drinking water at 80 to 120 ppm. (parts per million). Hardness, in the moderate to hard side, with approximately 100 to 200 ppm. And the pH right in the ideal range of 6.5 to 8, (7 being neutral).

The bottom line... A water softener could be a smart purchase, otherwise I should fill a tall glass & toast myself for having good water coming from my well.

I highly recommend this test kit. Get several, since each kit is single use. It's a smart idea to test your drinking water after large weather events occur which can effect your regional water supply. Pack along some kits when you travel, and you need to be sure the water that's available is safe.

I suppose I could get an independent lab do the same tests for comparative results. But unless folks buy a kit or two from this AMAZON LINK, I don't see shelling out the $$$ for that. However, just by testing regularly once a year, I can determine any changes that may occur. The kit makes doing that very affordable. (Way cheaper than hiring it done)

Add the Complete Water Analysis Test Kit  to your Prepper Needs List.  If you seek to know just the Lead content, Test Assured offers a separate test kit for that as well.
For more information about this product & other products by Test Assured, visit their website.

Alpha Bravo Creations: Tactical Hand Signals & Phonetic Alphabet Flash Cards

I'm to review Flashcards teaching Army Hand signals & the Phonetic Alphabet?

When I received this assignment, I was skeptical. Certainly, communications modes are a specialty I'm familiar with, but I'm no Platoon Leader, and my days of playing Army Man is a bit behind me. Besides, this is a review of kids flashcards, my last dealing with was in learning math in grade school.
But I was surprised when I examined the deck of cards of the Phonetic Alphabet, I immediately got the concept & it's potential. Then, when I tried out the deck of Army Hand signals & American Sign Language, it struck me that these flashcards are invaluable for not just kids, but for adults too.

Communication in it's purest sense is simply transferring information from one place to another by any means necessary, either verbally, or non-verbally. So while from the standpoint of preparedness, the ability to convey information clearly & accurately is paramount, the ability to also do so silently can be vital.
So here's where these flashcards come in handy, (pardon the pun).
Use of hand signals offers clear communication totally unspoken, as any misbehaving youngster frozen in mid-frolic by Mom & Dad pointing at them sternly can attest. Message CLEARLY conveyed.

Each flashcard offers a term or statement with an illustration of it's accompanying hand gesture. There's also directions on how to do the gesture.  By learning to recognize the gestures and connect it to the word or statement, standard terms & gestures can be strung together to make whole sentences or concepts. By repetition of using these cards anyone can become proficient in using hand signals.
Like I said... very handy.
It didn't take long at all for this old dog to learn some new tricks, not long at all.
Hand gestures can be very useful...(bet you thought I'd say HANDY again), if ever I'd be in a situation where I NEED to communicate without speaking a word. Serious stuff, like  HURRY! THIS WAY to the RALLY POINT.
While Alpha Bravo's Hand Signals for Kids helps kids add realism to their playacting, what you can learn from them can be a vital aid for anyone in a disaster to emergency.

Next came the deck of flashcards teaching the Phonetic Alphabet.
If you've ever seen a Cop show on TV or a Hollywood Blockbuster War Movie, someone is always talking over a microphone saying stuff like"Foxtrot Uniform Bravo Alpha Romeo"...or some sort of drivel. It's not heatstroke that's got the actor talking gibberish, it's a PHONETIC ALPHABET used to verbalize individual letters, using spoken words. Tango is the letter "T", India the letter "I", Charlie the letter "C", and so on. Using phonetics is handy when noise conditions make it hard to discern single letters. Sounds like "Eee" & "Tee" &"Cee" can often be misheard in a noisy location. So by attributing a word starting with the letter, it's easier to understand because you're more likely to hear parts of a word and mentally fill in the blanks.
With the Phonetic Alphabet Flashcards,  Alpha Delta Creations has presented each letter with a picture symbol, depicting the word, as well as it's corresponding Morse Code symbol.

HUH! What? Morse Code? Hams do Morse code! Heck, even Rambo tapped out Morse code to send a message in one of his movies! Morse Code is HANDY!

While not a requirement any longer to know Morse Code, it's still a widely popular mode of communication in Ham Radio, the dots & dashes all to be heard & deciphered when signal conditions are so poor that vocal speech is "in the mud" & unrecognizable.
I know very well the phonetic alphabet, but I never acquired Morse Code. So now, armed with a set of flash cards depicting them, I bet picking up the code could be just as easy as picking up these cards. Or better yet, it'll be CHILD'S PLAY.

My review started out skeptical, but I quickly came around. I seriously suggest getting your kids these flashcards & using them yourself. Who says kids get to do all the fun? In fact, make learning how to do Tactical Hand Signaling AND the Phonetic Alphabet & Morse Code a family fun project. One that may pay SERIOUS dividends later.
(I almost forgot... did anybody catch the reference of "Foxtrot, Uniform, Bravo, Alpha, Romeo"? Learn the Phonetic Alphabet & watch Saving Private Ryan again till you do. )
LEARN MORE or ORDER a set of flashcards, visit Alpha Bravo Creations Website. www.alphabravocreations.com

VPRacing Small Engine Fuel stays fresh for YEARS!

The weakest link with Gas Powered Tools is the shelf life of Gasoline Fuel. Gas with Ethanol attracts moisture, especially over winter months. To store gas for the long term, you spend $$ on fuel stabilizers needlessly, when you choose the wrong fuel in the first place. VPRacing Small Engine Fuel products are Ethanol free. The difference? How about Gasoline with a 5 YEAR SHELF LIFE? Interested? Check this out.    Available HERE.