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If we were setting up off grid these days, I would look into geothermal and have an underground system for air intake set up while we were having the septic and drainage system dug out.
It's a closely held secret. (Next door neighbor might be Dick Cheney?)
Well, that would just be a plus
Seriously though, we have an off grid house that we use on weekends for an escape. Unless you plan to spend a lot of $$ on the solar system it sounds as though you aren't willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do the 'off-grid lifestyle'.......
This magazine was the bible. https://www.homepower.com/ Sadly, it went out of business last year. The changes in the publication over the years were astounding. For the archive to be free is a true "public service."
I wanted to mention that a wind turbine is REALLY noisy. I wouldn't want one. It's a really loud WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH whenever it's windy. It would drive me completely batty.
If we were setting up off grid these days, I would look into geothermal and have an underground system for air intake set up while we were having the septic and drainage system dug out.
Wow, National Geographic would not let me read the article unless I gave them my email address. Not. Normally, you can click an X and make that go away, but nope. Totally held me hostage.
Would have loved to read it, too.
I love the idea of having heating in floors. When I looked into those types of systems, though, what made me nervous was the idea of having to rip up the entire floor and move furniture, etc., if it malfunctioned.
But, they didn't seem to require a lot of power. Seemed really doable off-grid.
This magazine was the bible. https://www.homepower.com/ Sadly, it went out of business last year. The changes in the publication over the years were astounding. For the archive to be free is a true "public service."
Very cool! I learned a lot from Mother Earth News, too, over the years.
We lived off grid for 30 years (me for ten). When DH first built, the grid had not come to his "street" yet.
So he installed a mere 1K watt system back in the 80s.
Originally he had a propane fridge which IS a pain, but soon Energy-Star appliances came. We had a totally decent electric fridge and washing machine.
The latter we used when the sun was out. But we only do laundry once a week anyway. We had LED lights, big TV and stereo. We had a swamp-cooler for A/C and it worked fine (but it has to be a dry climate for that).
No dryer; hung our laundry out to dry. Power strips on everything which got turned off when not in use.
Had several golf-cart batteries for back-up, and we always had power when the grid went off in our community. This was outside Moab, UT where it's sunny most of the time.
Our system was old and outdated and one could do much better now.
Video games don't draw much current...we even had toasters and hair dryers, LOL.
Hardly "camping" and I've lived for years like THAT.
Thank you, this was very helpful. My kids get only 1-2 hours of internet or video game time daily. Otherwise they're outside working, instead of burning through electricity...
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