Sadly, I don’t have the time or money to put into the plans that we should really have in place. Both for this, and just for hurricane emergencies. The plan would be mesh networking and local data caches though. I’d follow the book on these matters. (The book is the freely distributed “Wireless Networking in the Developing World”, a practical guide to building local networks anywhere.)
I switched to dryer balls several years ago and haven’t looked back. I do still have an old box of dryer sheets that I sometimes use with extremely static-causing things but the balls are usually enough. Some people like to soak a few drops of essential oil into the balls as well if you like a little fragrance.
I haven’t noticed any issues with the balls banging into more delicate clothes. If you worry about delicates or piling, I would recommend line drying or using a garment bag to wash and dry them. For piling you can also use a fabric shaver designed to trim them off.
But ultimately, clothes just wear out especially when washing, piling and fading are signs of wear. Clothes I want to preserve I wash on delicate, use the fancy detergent (Woolite), try to skip a wash or two by just hang things to “air out” a bit between washes, and hang to dry.
But would people still swim in a pool if they could see the wind turbine blade on the bottom? What if it were an L-shaped pool?
I recently got a Jackery for camping and I like it! Haven’t had it long enough to tell you long term problems, but my initial impressions and first real usage were good. The displays are nice, I didn’t test bluetooth/wifi (seemed like a waste of power), but the solar panel and other charging options all worked well. Build quality was good. I wish I’d splurged to get a bigger model though, the Explorerer 300 Plus didn’t have quite enough juice for all our needs.