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November 2014

Mixing different solar panels

Like many people starting out going off-grid, your pocketbook is being pulled in many different directions, so you buy a few solar panels to get started, then later on you add to them, it’s easy to end up with a hodgepodge of different solar panels on your roof. We are certainly guilty of that ourselves. We started out with four 55 watt Siemens solar panels, we bought them used on Craig’s List. We added a few Harbor Freight solar panel kits, eventually ending up with many more HF kits (thanks Seth!).

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November 30, 2014 4 Comments

Never a better time to unplug in South Africa

Soaring utility costs and power blackouts are pushing more and more South African homeowners to find new ways of living.

Warnings earlier this month that power utilities would be implementing rolling blackouts in light of collapsed coal storage depots prompted communities to consider installing power-saving devices or arrange their own power supply.

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November 30, 2014 No Comments
Utility power companies fail to meet their obligations
Energy

In UK and US – fears of winter blackouts

PANAPRESS & D Tel: – What does New York City have in common with London? They are both threatened by ageing power plants and failing Nuclear reactors that might plunge the world’s twin financial centres into darkness if there was a cold snap.

What makes us think the City that is so great they named it twice could be on the edge thanks to a power plant some 300 miles away on the shore of Lake Ontario?

The answer lies in a little-noticed, highly technical document filed in August with the state Public Service Commission.

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November 24, 2014 No Comments
Community

In the beginning, the first night

Early skycastle
Winter 2007
The wind was blowing a gale, harder than any wind I have even been in before. The walls were shaking and rattling, threatening to blow over any moment.

“I’m going to bed.” I announced, “This place will stand or fall whether I’m asleep or not.”

I crawled into the tent that was set up inside the one room cabin, I was wearing thick quilted coveralls to stave off the cold, I found out the following day that it got down to 14 degrees F overnight. Much of our canned food was inside the tent to take advantage of our body heat to keep it from freezing. I’ll explain why there was a tent inside the cabin a little further down.

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November 24, 2014 No Comments
Bristol group want to take themselves off the grid
Community

UK Surf Centre to go off-grid

A SURF centre in Easter Compton near Bristol is launching a £150,000 crowdfunding campaign that will help fund some of the site’s sustainability plans.

The Wave Bristol’s campaign got underway Monday, November 24 and Chris Hines MBE, head of sustainability for The Wave, said: “We want this project to be sustainable in all senses, including socially and environmentally. We have ambitious plans to sustainably power the site and eventually take it off-grid.”

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November 24, 2014 No Comments

Competition for off-grid ideas

Solar turtleWWF South Africa is hoping for more entries into its annual Climate Solver Awards. The competition is a chance to show off innovative technologies geared towards reducing carbon emissions and boost energy access. Entries to the competition are open until January 30.

One of last year’s winners was SolarTurtle. The brainchild of company Ugesi Gold, which operates out of Stellenbosch, the aim was to give people affordable electricity off the grid. Packaged in a shipping container, the container unfolds during the day to charge numerous battery packs via solar power. These battery packs can be taken to where they are needed to provide electricity to power lights or appliances.

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November 24, 2014 No Comments
Community

The beginning…

02

Spring 2007
“What do you think?” PB asked with a hopeful look on his face.

“What about your job? Our families? Your kids were born in this trailer.” I responded, we had been discussing the possibility of moving away and completely changing our lives, he was showing me pictures and videos of the rough, desolate land in far western Texas, this was not outside the realm of possibility for me, in fact it was something I had dreamed of since I was a young child, I just never thought PB would be interested in living this life as well.

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November 23, 2014 No Comments
Energy

Australian Micro-Grids challenge Utilities

comm-powera3The penetration of rooftop solar in Australia tells the story of just how keen consumers are to generate their own electricity. But some are going a step further by managing the flow of their own energy usage through microgrids and smart grids.

“Once a household or business has a solar panel on the roof, or a home storage battery, they are no longer a passive consumer,” says Mark Coughlin

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November 23, 2014 No Comments
Community

A solar bus home

box-truck-to-solar-mobile-cabin-001

I have a great love for small homes and portable homes, many of the DIY bus conversion homes are pretty good, but this one is tops in my books, it’s functional, it’s roomy, but it’s not too huge to drive, I could live in this.

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November 22, 2014 1 Comment
Community

Waste oil heaters

cold!Winter is here, all the way down here in far west Texas, tonight it will get down into the low 20s(F), definitely wood stove fire weather, along with some good warm gear to wear and sleep in. Thermal underwear is my constant companion day and night, well more night than day, we often get up to a comfortable temperature during the day as long as the sun is shining, but I must remember, before the sun goes down to change into my night clothes, for as soon as the sun sets, the temps drop like a rock into an ice bucket.

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November 16, 2014 No Comments
Community

How to grow a Sky Castle

Ever wonder how a sky castle grows? One room at a time :)
In this case, this “room” was a semi enclosed deck between the bedroom and the laundry room. Like many homes out in my neck of the woods, people will build a deck, then enclose it, creating a new room, them add another deck, and enclose it, that makes for some interestingly organic homes, I know, I’ve been in many of them.

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November 13, 2014 No Comments

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