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I have been totally off grid for some time - including for a clothes dryer!!
Powering the poor pump was never a problem - nor, the pool heater
greatday you have mentioned on several posts that you are off grid. so many people have told me that i am insane, that it won't work, the costs will be astronomical etc etc etc.
i would love it if you could send me specifics about your house. your appliances, what systems you use, how it affects your lifestyle, your back-up systems, the costs of the entire project, size of solar panels, batteries etc
Using fossil fuels to provide heat and hot water in FL and similar climates is an obscenity. Simple common sense passive solar design can provide 100% heat & hot water. It's an example of what an artificial, obese, lazy, spoiled culture we've become that we can't even be bothered to walk outside to hang the laundry.
You might be able to scrounge cheap or free PV panels. Drivers crash into the PV roadside signs all the time. The companies just throw them out and get insurance compensation. Often the panels are just cracked but still work tho usually less than 100%. You might be able to persuade a local company to let you take some away to "experiment with".
I am building an AI dome AI domes.com in CT at the moment. Hurricane proof, low maintenance & very energy efficient. They're located in Rockledge and very easy to work with. You might consider DI Domes as a cheaper alternative although getting a response from them is like pulling teeth. Here's another option but I'm not sure they ship to US: I-Dome
Good luck with your project.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 58robbo
once more i agree with you 100% on what is being done, but i disagree with you 100% on what we can do.
i will be moving back to the states within 12months. i am designing our home to be off grid. we're moving to florida. our house is designed to use minimal energy and produce maximum energy.
first things first. detailed analysis of florida energy consumption. aircon, clothes dryer (WHY???), refrigerator, hot water, pool pump. we intend to counter this by shading, ventilating and placing air in only a few air tight insulated rooms. clothes line(remember those), very small refrigerator, solar tubes for hot water and we're working on the pool pump problem. we have also budgeted for rainwater/grey water collection. in addition we'll be fitting massive solar panels and a propane back up system.
i appreciate that it is going to be expensive, but not close to what many people think. you will be surprised how many very bright people will give you invaluable time and energy for free when you put a project like this infront of them.
at laboratory level we are leading the way in eco fuels and solutions. it just never made financial sense before to use them. now that there is an economic incentive in saving energy and in coming up with solutions things are going to start moving.
I don't know many geologists, oceanographers, glaciologists or paleoclimatolgists who are out for world control. None, in fact.
Above and beyond the fact that you are right, why would the government looking for control be so opposed to doing anything about climate change? I would love to hear the explanation for this from the crazies. I wish the paranoid people would get help and keep out of reasonable debates until they do.
I tend to view climate change as a much grander process than what we have been fed lately. There is, certainly, a natural ebb and flow of global climate as well as an effect due to human pollution.
However, what is interesting to notice is that there is a more prominent greenhouse gas known as methane.
From the EPA website: Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years. Methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 100-year period and is emitted from a variety of natural and human-influenced sources. Human-influenced sources include landfills, natural gas and petroleum systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial process.
Humans have been introducing appreciable amounts of methane into the atmosphere ever since the agricultural revolution. This has created a build up of green house gases faster than normal. The recent implosion of CO2 levels only add to this.
Large parts of of Antarctica and Greenland are melting away faster than expected due to some processes that we didn't understand until we could observe them in action. In Greenland melt-water on the top of the ice travels down cracks and gets underneath the glaciers providing a lubricant to make them slide down faster. In Antarctica the ice shelfs are deep enough to avoid lubrication but this leads to water freezing inside the cracks and essentially pushing the cracks wider and breaking apart the ice due to expansion. 10,000 year old ice shelfs have dissappeared within months due to these processes.
Now, the removal of ice, I feel, has an even greater effect because ice reflects sunlight back into space (with some getting trapped by greenhouse gases) whereas open water absorbs most of the solar energy. It is like taking off your white t-shirt and putting on a black one during the summer.
So, essentially what I am getting at here is that CO2 is not the only thing making Earth warmer. In fact, it might be the most minor effect compared to the overall warming effects of methane and ice loss.
Please stop! You are blinding them with science. Touting the same half-assed and disproven arguments against global warming is the correct view. Sorry, I was a teenager in the 80's. Couldn't resist the reference. You are one of the few on here that actually mentioned truthful science. Thank you.
Above and beyond the fact that you are right, why would the government looking for control be so opposed to doing anything about climate change? I would love to hear the explanation for this from the crazies. I wish the paranoid people would get help and keep out of reasonable debates until they do.
For the scientists it is about grant money and recognition. Both are very important to universities and the ability to get either or both is personally beneficial for scientists. (It's worth noting that most university professors and researchers have political views left of center.)
For politicians it is about the excuse to regulate, tax, and feel important (and it makes them "feel good" to be doing something the "help" the earth).
There is also a third group of people involved - the Environmentalists. For them it is just the latest excuse to restrict our access to energy (why else sue over solar and oppose wind power), claim we are running out of resources and cry about there being too many people on the planet (ie Zero Population). They have been working on these three goals for decades and Global Warming is just a convenient fit with their agenda.
It's a sick, symbiotic relationship perpetrated by the Left who claim to care about the "little guy." In reality their "solutions" would doom billions of people to poverty and poor living conditions.
However the tide is turning against the Global Warming hypothesis. Someday the Global Warming scare will be studied as the first example of modern sustained mass hysteria fueled by the modern media and internet.
Large parts of of Antarctica and Greenland are melting away faster than expected due to some processes that we didn't understand until we could observe them in action. In Greenland melt-water on the top of the ice travels down cracks and gets underneath the glaciers providing a lubricant to make them slide down faster. In Antarctica the ice shelfs are deep enough to avoid lubrication but this leads to water freezing inside the cracks and essentially pushing the cracks wider and breaking apart the ice due to expansion. 10,000 year old ice shelfs have dissappeared within months due to these processes.
Now, the removal of ice, I feel, has an even greater effect because ice reflects sunlight back into space (with some getting trapped by greenhouse gases) whereas open water absorbs most of the solar energy. It is like taking off your white t-shirt and putting on a black one during the summer.
So, essentially what I am getting at here is that CO2 is not the only thing making Earth warmer. In fact, it might be the most minor effect compared to the overall warming effects of methane and ice loss.
There is always ice melting and always ice accumulating. We generally only hear about receding glaciers in news stories lately. But many, if not, the majority of glaciers are growing worldwide:
greatday you have mentioned on several posts that you are off grid. so many people have told me that i am insane, that it won't work, the costs will be astronomical etc etc etc.
i would love it if you could send me specifics about your house. your appliances, what systems you use, how it affects your lifestyle, your back-up systems, the costs of the entire project, size of solar panels, batteries etc
Some Basics: The main house is slightly over 4000 sq ft (refrigerated). There is also a 750 sq ft quest house. We have a pool with a heater. And, there is a barn for our horses (evap cooled). Our cooking appliances are LPG. We have a seperate refrigerator and freezer. We have several icemakers. We have our own water well - and a pump that needs electricity.
Being on solar has not adversly impacted our lifestyle whatsoever. We entertained over 40 people recently - for a weekend - and used everything - with no appreciable drop in electricty. We do have a battery backup storage system along with a generator - just in case. As for the "technical" stuff - that is beyond my job description really - I am giving you the link to the company who did our system - hope it helps.
I am really so impressed.
Greatday, your house sounds like a paradise.
Many good years in it.
Years back, when I was much younger, I perused solar and
all of the batteries and the constant checking and topping off
and if one fails, purchasing one that matched the average age
of those in the array - floored me.
I hear that today the systems are much easier.
Do you have to hose down the solar panels from time to time?
Please note that Greatday can afford all that stuff. Good for him but a little less practical for the masses.
Greatday - thanks for the link. GregW
i don't know so much. many of the big solar companies like solarcity have finance facilities. often the payments directly match savings and therefore it's a no brainer. if you have good credit.
imo the price of energy is on its way up. i reckon through the roof. for many people an investment of this sort would be the first time they have made good use of credit in their lives. (many use credit to buy clothes, holidays, entertainment etc but nothing that is income producing.)
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