Tag Archives: emergency power

Toolmonger: Gas Caddy from John Dow

Via Benjamen Johnson at Toolmonger – The Gas Caddy, which allows the hauling of 25  gallons of gasoline (presumably diesel as well). This might be a useful addition to the inventory of responder organizations. It certainly seems easier than the non-wheeled lugging of five 5-gallon cans.

Gas Caddy, manufactured by John Dow (JohnDow.com). Image via Toolmonger.com

Gas Caddy, manufactured by John Dow (JohnDow.com). Image via Toolmonger.com

Link to Toolmonger post and comments.

For those that haven’t looked at the site, Toolmonger is sui generis. One of a kind – and best-in-class at the same time.

We find it interesting that our first thought was use in emergencies; the lens through which we view things at Popular Logistics is often a failure-assumed, worst-case, what-if worldview.

So our first thought was – “emergency power.” Toolmonger has it tagged as follows:

Amazon, Automotive, Lawn/Garden, Northern Tool, Storage, Winter/Outdoor.

So – while we quibble about meta-data and tags – we want to be clear that Toolmonger’s staff and readers are the kind of people who make disasters less likely – and make recovery and rebuilding more likely.

Moreover – if you post a question at Toolmonger – what you get back is (1) good advice; (2) usually from several people; (3) the less you seem to know, the nicer people are.

I wouldn’t know so much about questions from the well-informed, since I can’t claim membership in that population. But it’s a necessary read, and a priceless reference source.

Solar Stik: portable, rugged, solar (and wind) generation

Solar Stik, invented by Brian Bosley and in business for about ten years, sells easily deployable solar and solar/wind generators which can be easily daisy-chained into an array. We don’t think there are any other systems with these features.

Solar Stik 100 Terra

Chris Crosby of Solar Stik – a woman of nearly infinite patience, given the number of questions I asked more than once – explained that their systems have their origin in marine applications, and started out with water and wind resistance as baseline design parameters.

All of the non-marine systems (and, I gather, some of those as well) break down into Pelikan cases and can therefore be hand-transported.

The ability to interconnect relieves responders from constant monitoring of charging equipment during an emergency, like having many dishes on single burners with different cooking times.

The system can also accept power from marine/vehicle batteries, AC charging – so it can be kept ready with large reserves; the reverse is true – if the sun is shining and the wind blowing, the swappable Power Paks make it possible to harvest energy while it’s available for later use – and transport it and use the energy where it’s needed. In other words, the emergency power use isn’t limited to charging items immediately adjacent to the solar array – a charged Pak can be transported – that is, carried – to where it’s needed.

We’ll try to follow up on this in the next few days, including some comparisons to other systems. In the meantime, however, this gallery should illustrate some of the attributes of the Solar Stik system(s).