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From:
 David MacClement <[email protected]> Date: Sat May 3, 2003 4:53 pm Subject: (2) living on the sun, off-the-grid | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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earlier note I said: "tell you later about it." � My daughter's arrived, so I stopped that experiment; I ran it for only 24 hours, and am back on mains/grid power now. � I found it harder to do than I'd expected; partly because it's late autumn (cloudy, & sun up for fewer hours and lower in the sky), and partly because I am running on only 4 75 watt panels (and 4 6.3 volt batteries), and want to keep them in good condition for when we move to our retirement house, so I don't discharge the batteries very far. � I used only one 8W CF lamp; I only used this computer twice in the 24 hour period; I brewed my tea in a stainless-steel tea-pot on a propane camping stove; with a timer I turned off the fridge the whole time between 1:30 PM and 9:30 AM (when there was too little sun to power it, basically); and as I have done for the last 11 years I didn't cook any meals, just ate my sandwiches. Oh, and I had no shower, and did no clothes wash. � The biggest drain on my stored sun power would have been the fridge. It is a standard fridge-freezer, bought more than 12 years ago, and not suited for minimising electricity use (the insulation is too thin, and the motor is not as efficient as it could be). � But the essentials were available: computer 2-3 times a day for a few minutes, listening to the radio while I ate my meals, and enough light to read by in our long evenings (and in the before-dawn when I normally get up). {I am reading Michael Crichton's *Timeline* ISBN 0345417623 } � What I learned: 1. Only try it if you're willing to _really_ minimise your energy use; 2. Use _at_least_ 300 watts(peak) of solar collector; twice that if possible 3. Don't use electricity for your hot water supply; and 4. Do something about food preservation that's better than a standard fridge � But at least it _is_ possible to totally live without mains/grid power (in this climate at least); I know others who are doing it on a regular basis, but finding out what it's like for myself, was eye-opening. David. (David MacClement) Civis Mundi davd @ ihug.co.nz http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/ ZL1ASX ***************************************** | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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