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Posted by Don on February 5, 2007, 11:42 am
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> wrote:
>>
>>Chris,
>>While the monthly bills are high, they are remedied with money.
>>(thats not to say I'm happy with the bills)
>>Its the unexpected, random complete loss of power that is frustrating.
>>Anyway, we now have this current home (3 years old) on the market and are
>>going to purchase another in another state.
>>I'm in S Fl and we may be moving to S Indiana on some acreage.
>>What I'm thinking about is to ease into this off grid thing gradually,
>>maybe
>>1 room at a time.
>>I'm in the beginning stages of researching all this alternate energy stuff
>>and I'm very inspired by the challenge of getting off the grid.
>>We're not rich folk so we need to do our homework and spend our money
>>wisely, so I may become a pain to you guys on down the line with my
>>questions. ;-)
>>Basically, I don't want any wires or pipes leaving my property and I don't
>>want anyone to have any control over anything in our lives, whatever it
>>takes.
>
> A worthy goal, but are you willing to spend over $50,000 if you
> install it yourself to achieve it? My calculation in this thread is
> just for the panels, I'm not figuring the inverters batteries or
> installation. If you are willing to live without air conditioning and
> don't mind propane for heat and hot water, you can significantly
> reduce the cost. I wouldn't recommend this in the midwest. An
> alternative would be to stash $50,000 in a laddred portfolio of
> treasuries or cd's; the income you will get will just about pay the
> electric bill.
>
> To give you a little more info: our house is light colored with a
> white roof and big overhang on the south to cut the sun. We have
> cfl's in just about every often-used lightbulb and our ac is usually
> set to 78 during the day, 72 at night. I don't believe in leaving
> computers or anything else on when it isn't being used. Our house
> only has four-inch walls, so it could be better insulated, but our
> windows and siding are new and well-made.
Hey Chris,
Its about 14 months later now and we did what I described above.
We sold our FL house and bought a 7 y.o home in south Indiana on 5 acres in
the dense forest, lots of wildlife all over the place, very few people (only
15k in the whole county) and the region has lots of steep hills....paradise.
The house has propane heat and water heater and everything else is electric.
We also put in a non-electric propane fireplace for back up heat.
We moved here last April after finally selling our house and walked away
with about $120k profit after everything.
Spent the past 4 months building a stand alone double garage/workshop with
attached office (36'x24').
Its cold here now but come spring I'll be converting the new office to
solar.
I built it myself and all the wiring is in and adaptable for 12v.
Right now I have electric baseboard heaters in the office as electric is
real cheap here, our monthly is about $95 as opposed to the $350 we were
paying in FL.
Propane however is on the moon. We've filled our 500 gal tank 3 times so far
and the costs were $800, $500 and last week it was $600 and thats not even
for a full year!
So obviously propane is out of the question and as soon as possible I'll be
flipping out that propane water heater for a new electric model.
Like I said, I'm easing into this whole off-grid thing a little bit at a
time as I want to spend my money wisely.
Next summer I'm thinking about building a stand alone 12'x12' cabin that
will be my wifes office and it will not be connected to the mothership or
anything else in any way.
I'm looking into water recycling and a cistern and rainwater piracy.
As summer approaches I'll be asking you folks some questions, hope you don't
mind.
I also lurk quite a bit in this group and have run down numerous leads
posted her.
Thanks all!
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