How you choose to own energy is the whole thing of what investing is about…
That’s what Tom Dyson said to our investment membership on our monthly call last week. This perspective struck me as so insightful that we’ve been talking about it all week in these pages – from several different angles.
Today I want to wrap up our discussion by sharing with you my absolute favorite ways to own energy. They may not be what you expect…
I’m a big proponent of what I call “home resiliency”. It’s the idea that we should make our homes as self-sufficient as possible. I see this as a key principle underlying Thomas Jefferson’s vision for America.
And a key part of home resiliency is backup energy.
We take it for granted that we can flip a switch and lights will come on in the house. We think nothing of the fact that we can adjust a thermostat and the house will heat or cool itself to our liking. And we certainly don’t think twice about turning a dial so the oven warms up to cook our food.
But for nearly all of human history our ancestors lived without these luxuries. They would be in awe of the conveniences we enjoy.
At the same time, these comforts disappear the second something happens to our power grid. Then what?
Typically the electric company can restore our power within a few hours for us. But occasionally a disaster strikes that makes the power restoration process take much longer than normal.
For example, a Derecho storm ripped through the mid-Atlantic region back in 2012. It left millions without power. Derechos are long-lived windstorms that feature intense thunderstorms.
When that storm hit, most households in my area here in the Virginia highlands lost power for at least a week. Some went closer to two weeks without power.
This speaks to why owning backup energy sources is so important. I consider these to be “alternative investments”.
When we think about backup energy, the first thing we need is something that allows us to cook when the power’s out. The easiest solution here is to keep a propane grill and several extra propane tanks on hand.
I also love having a wood-burning stove. That’s not going to be an option for some people. But in places where it’s feasible, a wood stove means we can always cook and heat the house… so long as we have wood to burn.
And the easiest way to get fire wood is to buy it from somebody locally. I’d wager most towns have numerous people who sell firewood on the side. We just have to ask around a little bit to find them.
So propane grills and a wood stove provide us with heat and allow us to cook for an extended period of time – no electricity needed.
I also highly recommend solar-compatible batteries. We keep a few of these around the house and fully charged at all times.
These are batteries that can be charged by plugging them into the wall or hooking them into the solar panel they come with. The Jackery brand is probably the most popular of these products. You can find it right on Amazon.
The batteries are equipped with power outlets that work the same as our wall outlets. So they are good for powering any electronic device during a power outage. Then if we drain the battery, we can always recharge it with the solar panel in the event of an extended power outage.
And that brings us to the big one…
I absolutely love having a whole-home generator. We’ve got ours tied into a 500-gallon propane storage tank.
The cost of these systems has come down substantially in recent years. And big box stores like Lowes even offer zero percent financing for the generator itself and the installation.
With 500-gallons of propane, our generator could power the entire house for about thirty days if we were smart about it.
And by being smart, I mean we would need to adjust the heating and cooling settings such that the HVAC unit will not run unless we absolutely need it. We would also need to refrain from doing laundry, running the dishwasher, and other unnecessary tasks.
If we do these things the generator could run the house for about a month. That brings incredible peace of mind.
So to sum up, it’s not overly difficult or expensive to make our homes incredibly resilient today. It’s all about securing backup energy sources. This is my favorite way to own energy.
-Joe Withrow
P.S. We cover alternative investments like these within our investment membership The Phoenician League. We also talk about other ways to build our home resiliency… and we discuss other alternative investments as well. These are items that can improve our quality of life dramatically.
If you’re interested in this type of thing, I’d like to invite you to sign up for our membership’s waiting list. You can do so right here: The Phoenician League Waiting List
Up to this point we’ve only opened our doors to new members on two occasions. We do this because we always take the time to onboard everybody individually. This includes personalized attention for those who would like it.
That said, we’ll be opening our doors for a third time very soon. And we’ll give everybody on our official wait list advanced notice and attention.