I am using 2 Brunton Solaris 26 solar panels and I put them
inside the windows of my house. These are good flexible panels that are easy to
stick inside windows. People don’t notice them and they can’t steal them if they
are inside the house. These panels are used to power one of my Xantrex 600
Eliminators. 
These are battery packs with built in 120v inverters.
Duracell sells the same rebranded unit as the Duracell 800. The power packs
store enough energy to power my 60 inch sharp led television and dvr for about
an hour and a half. They also supply electricity to my PowerHunt 12 volt hair
dryer (the wife uses it, not me). I can also hook a chain of 12 volt lights
from Goal0 into the 12 volt. The hair dryer ties into the jumper cables on the
power pack. She also plugs her curling iron into one of the 120v receptacles.
She can do her morning thing from one of the powerpacks and
be left with a 50% charge. That is enough to run lights and charge a computer
laptop or iPad. I hook one of the spent powerpacks to the Solaris solar charger
during the day and it will be fully charged in the afternoon. The powerpacks
have an automatic charge shut off so they never get overcharged.
By using two solar panels and three powerpacks, I can rotate
the batteries around and have plenty of juice for internet, computers, lights
and other things. I also use the powerpack to run my Coleman 12volt
refrigerator. It uses only about 8 watts to keep things very cold. I can run it
for 24 hours on a battery charge.
For the main refrigerator and freezer in the house, I am
using a Honda eu2000i gas generator. This generator will run my fridge and
outside deepfreeze. A refrigerator and freezer motor can spike to as high as
1600 watts while turning on and then run at a constant 200 to 300 watts. I found
out the hard way that it is best to hook up either the fridge or the freezer and
let one run for about 5 minutes before plugging in another. I have been running
these appliances for about 4 or 5 hours at a time and then letting them sit.
This way I use about ONE gallon of gasoline a day to keep all my stuff cool. 
To heat the house, I have a gas stove insert in the living
room that is heated by natural gas. There is a fan blower that pushes heat into
the room. This blower runs at about 150 watts and it allows me to plug into the
same Honda generator. In case natural gas is not available, I have two Kerosun
kerosene heaters that I can use inside the house. These heaters are very
efficient, kerosene is still available and stores pretty much indefinitely. You
can buy 5 gallon metal cans of kerosene at most fuel outlets.
For cooking I use a cheap Coleman single burner propane
stove. These work great, they are not intended for inside the home but they do
work inside the home. Did I mention, they are not intended for inside the home. Really, they are not. For hot water, I use a Coleman Hot Water on Demand unit.
These units use a rechargeable battery pack which can be charged from a Brunton
Solaris. They work extremely well. A 5 gallon propane canister will provide
about 500 to 600 gallons of steaming hot water.
For water, I have a well. If for some reason I can’t get
water from the well, I have several large blue plastic 55 gallon containers.
These are very heavy so put them where you want. Don’t plan on moving
them until they are almost empty. If that plan fails, I have a Katadyn Ceradyn
water filter. This filter will remove the bad parasites and viruses out of
ditch water if needed.
The filter will hold 2.5 gallons of water and filter 1 gallon
per hour. That will give you 24 gallons of fresh water per day, since it is a
gravity fed filter, there is no pumping needed.
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