Aggie Infantry said:

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I just finished a 2,200sf metal building from Carolina Carport (don't let the name fool you). I insulated the inside with R30, put in two wood burning stoves and lined every outside wall with Level IIIA "ballistic drywall" (5ft up from the floor).

There is an outfit in Waco that makes it. You provide the sizes and they can make each sheet to order.

They are heavy as hell, so don't go too big unless you've got two or three guys to life them.

It ain't cheap, but neither is a trip to the hospital.

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I have a friend who used that company for his Master Bedroom, they used some sort of fiberglass sheets that are bulletproof. They have have a killer saferoom off the bedroom. Was with Dell back in the day and money seemed to be no issue.

Texas has fire concerns, too.

I'm envisioning a reinforced concrete bunker system dug into a hillside complete with a large interior cistern, barn, food stores, multiple fuel tanks, a dedicated generator, and a couple portholes (for shooting out of, of course).

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-hacker-off-grid-solar-home-batteries/

We have our first self sustaining oilfield piece of equipment leaving this week. Think we just found a new market using the same technology. Battery, onboard generator, grid power, or PTO.

agingcowboy said:

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https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-hacker-off-grid-solar-home-batteries/

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Yeah but what happens if I set a EMP over the house, sucker.

P.U.T.U said:

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Oh yeah we added solar as well

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So, couple ideas.

A) I think you need to think like a scaled down, mini-plant, which means a battery pack, which everything pulls off, that battery pack can then be charged by wind Mills/solar/or a generator.

B) The earth homes, if you have a hill around, or the "name I forgot, but it's a house built inside an outer shell" can take a great deal of the climate load off. (Just a roof helps - it's why we have them over our freezers.)

C) Manually pumped wells actually work pretty easily.

How deep in the ground do the batteries need to be stored to keep them from being drained due to the cold weather?

My cousin is a custom builder in the area you are looking OP.
He can build anything you want & I'm pretty sure he has a bunker on his land ready for TEOTKAWKI.
PM me for contact info if you are interested

OnlyForNow said:

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How deep in the ground do the batteries need to be stored to keep them from being drained due to the cold weather?

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It would be easier to get a battery blanket, uses energy but makes it a lot easier to service the batteries if needed. Plus a NEMA4x or IP69k enclosure is not very cheap

FYI rough ballpark after you get above 15-20kwh is $1000 per kwh, so would need to calculate the power required plus your charging options. Since they are using Tesla batteries the most efficient way is to use an engine with the same voltage as the battery pack coupling to an engine or use a standard generator and have an AC to DC convertor.

As for fire, the ranch we had as a kid, had three acres cleared around the house.

We kept it rough mowed/some was lawn.

Most of it was irrigated, but we didn't bother watering the grass, except for right around the house.

A few times, we had brush fires come up to the house, to stop right at the line of short grass, with 15 minutes or so of irrigation.

We also kept the cedars cleared away from the house, of course. (I would want at least 300 yards of short grass and irrigation between my house and cedar break, but I'm not sure that less than half a mile is safe from cedar break)

cbr said:

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Can all that be built for a 200mph sustained wind load?

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Get yourself a structural engineer. A decent one will charge a good chunk of change. At those kinds of wind speeds, you'll be looking at some sort of ballasted roof system (concrete, typically) to resist the uplift pressures.

OnlyForNow said:

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Ya I mean, by a hospital sized propane generator and a 10,000 gallon propane tank.

A mill or two for the generator and 25K to fill the propane tank.

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The farmers/ranchers in Western Nebraska can be without power for a month after a blizzard or ice storm. Since work must go on, it's common for them to have an irrigation power unit set plumbed into a natural gas line that runs a 480 volt 3 phase generator to power the place until power can be restored.

Quote:

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I would want at least 300 yards of short grass and irrigation between my house and cedar break, but I'm not sure that less than half a mile is safe from cedar break

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What is the danger of green, live, growing trees near the home? Especially cedar. Do they have some fire catching explosive powers that I dont know about?

Aggie Infantry said:

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I just finished a 2,200sf metal building from Carolina Carport (don't let the name fool you). I insulated the inside with R30, put in two wood burning stoves and lined every outside wall with Level IIIA "ballistic drywall" (5ft up from the floor).


There is an outfit in Waco that makes it. You provide the sizes and they can make each sheet to order.

They are heavy as hell, so don't go too big unless you've got two or three guys to life them.

It ain't cheap, but neither is a trip to the hospital.

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Why the ballistic drywall?

kappmeyer said:

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Quote:

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I would want at least 300 yards of short grass and irrigation between my house and cedar break, but I'm not sure that less than half a mile is safe from cedar break

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What is the danger of green, live, growing trees near the home? Especially cedar. Do they have some fire catching explosive powers that I dont know about?

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Cedar burns extremely fast and hot. Unless you are going to water it constantly to keep it moist, it will be a fire hazard near structures when it is even somewhat dry.

Look for video of the Bastrop fire, if you want to see why cedar break should be no where near a house.

These developments a-holes are putting in, where they wedge houses into cedar break will get a lot of people killed.

So the entire Texas hill country has their home in the same fire threat as bastrop?

If you're living in/near a cedar break, yes.

The locals have been mad at developers/confused why the move ins are accepting those cedar break developments.

The reason why people don't tend to burn cedar breaks, is they get too hot and either sterilize the ground/are too hard to control.

Those developments are death traps. I can't imagine any rural local is going to disagree.

No no I'm just generally curious. I've not seen a green mountain cedar burn. Did not know that was a thing. And given the high pop of folks in the HC and large percentage of cedars, I had no idea cleaning cedar for fire purposes was a thing. I've got quite a bit around my home, so this is why I'm asking. Good privacy screen, but had no idea green mountain cedar was a fire hazard.

When conditions are just right, juniper will burn hotter than just about anything out there and it will ignite as if the Germans just hit it with a bomb. Not a fun site. It is usually worst on a hillside as the fire pushes up the hill it gains tremendous heat. I live at the edge of a hill and I did cut the cedar back and trim some of the large trees. I don't think it's something to be scared of but it's something to be mindful of.

Wouldn't that be true of any thick brush? Including motts of small diameter oaks, elms, etc?

I understand the general hatred towards Ashe juniper as an invasive water hog, but I can't find a single Texas A&M forestry publication that calls out the hill country cedars as a specific fire threat.

All low growing under brush is a threat to a home.

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Cedar trees or bushes near the house can be extremely flammable when the weather is dry enough.

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https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/disasters-safety/safeguarding-against-wildfire/

EskimoJoe said:

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OnlyForNow said:

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Ya I mean, by a hospital sized propane generator and a 10,000 gallon propane tank.

A mill or two for the generator and 25K to fill the propane tank.

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The farmers/ranchers in Western Nebraska can be without power for a month after a blizzard or ice storm. Since work must go on, it's common for them to have an irrigation power unit set plumbed into a natural gas line that runs a 480 volt 3 phase generator to power the place until power can be restored.

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I doubt i need 3 phase but full time load 50kw pretty much for sure. Propane essentially doesnt ever go bad, right? So a buried huge ass tank is probably smart, along with redundant power/wind/solar base.

Is anyone making 'hands-free' long term reliable, disaster proof/hardened control system to manage a combined wind/solar/batteries/propane generator power array?

chaca5151 said:

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Already got you beat... completely off grid! 24kw generator, buried 500gal propane ( you get a lot more propane if you bury it) all solar with batteries and a 30k gal water collection tank with filters and uv light. Best damn water ive ever had.

PM me if interested ill get you going in the right direction!

I can't help you with the house, currently suing my contractor they all suck.

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Will pm you-interest in the water collection setup. I think combining that with a well would be smart. How much maintenance is it? Does it require a shed or shade for longevity? Does it require stirring or aerating or anything? Uv to keep algae out etc., i presume? Filtering? How durable is all that?

Even the big solar and wind developers have an operator around.

Curious about modern wind power/windmill. I would think that in a lot of conditions, a wind generator could also turn a well water pump and unless the wind gets below a certain speed, you'd getting basically a 2-fer- generating electricity and pumping water at the same time. How would that work with an electric well pump for when the wind pump wasnt working? Would that be a simole switch or require controls, or just have a wholly separate system that only tripped the electric pump when tank volume or pressure dips?

OnlyForNow said:

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Even the big solar and wind developers have an operator around.

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I figured. But i would think the capability is there today,