north Idaho land for sale---for dome homes (Sandpoint, Salmon: real estate, power lines)

[MrGerardo]

I was looking at various parcels of land for sale in north Idaho. Personally, I would rather buy cheap land and build a dome home with solar paneling and possibly sell an excess solar energy I absorb back to the electric company. I've heard of people doing that. Is this possible in north Idaho?

[pnwmdk]

Originally Posted by MrGerardo

I was looking at various parcels of land for sale in north Idaho. Personally, I would rather buy cheap land and build a dome home with solar paneling and possibly sell an excess solar energy I absorb back to the electric company. I've heard of people doing that. Is this possible in north Idaho?

As far as I know, there is no cheap land anywhere in the northern 1/2 of the state.

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by MrGerardo

I was looking at various parcels of land for sale in north Idaho. Personally, I would rather buy cheap land and build a dome home with solar paneling and possibly sell an excess solar energy I absorb back to the electric company. I've heard of people doing that. Is this possible in north Idaho?

What is your definition of cheap land? Everyone will have a different idea what that means.

Regarding selling excess power back to the power company, I believe Northern Lights supports such arrangements. See their web site here. I know they provide service to much of north Idaho (and western MT as well), but I'm not sure of their exact service area. Based on their district map for election of officers it would seem they cover pretty everything north of the south end of Lake Pend Oreille.

Dave

[banjomike]

I haven't seen any new dome houses built for a very long time now. I thought their day had long since come and gone, because I haven't seen any new ones in my travels around the state either.

There were several built in my area back in the late 70s and early 80s, but from what I learned from a real estate friend, their geodesic construction makes them prone to leaking mostly due to how the joints ice up during the winter and forces some of their many surfaces to loosen up and crack apart.

He also said owners found them noisy to live in, and are hard to furnish, as their curved surfaces don't allow much ability to put cabinets and furniture up against any exterior wall. Everything has to be curved to fit, so that means lots of custom cabinets and furnishings.

The homes here are all occupied, as far as I know, but one that went up for sale about 10 years ago took a couple of years to sell.

Seeing someone who wants to build one is interesting to me; the OP made me wonder if some of these problems have been conquered these days. For sure, a dome still requires a lot more labor and time to build than a conventional home. I may be wrong, but I think they also need more framing material than a conventional house as well.

Maybe they're not for me, but what the heck- more power to anyone who wants one.

I think the electric companies are compelled to take any excess energy generated by a homeowner by law, but I'm not sure as to who pays the costs for striking the power line from the property to the closest main power line. When power lines were first run in some of the mountains here in the S.E. area, connecting a home to the main line's cost was up to the home owner, and only underground lines were permitted. Our ranch's cabin is about a mile from the nearest road, and it cost my family over $9,000 to have the line run and the transformer installed over 20 years ago.

That was the lowest rate charged at that time, because the power company was trying to get a lot of the ranches in the area hooked up fast after footing the costs of running the underground lines so far the year before. The cost was only break even for Idaho Power; I'm sure these days, hooking up for excess power has a lot of built-in profit for the power companies, as the law is more a pain in the butt for them than any possible profits that could be made from the piddling amounts of generated power the solar panels would provide.

We just used solar to panel a couple of wells up there; one bank of panels is 2 years old, and the other was put in last year. and the excess power is used to recharge battery banks that are connected to each pump. I think this would be a more effective use of any excess power; keeping it on the place has worked very well in our case.
Our panels are all moveable; when we no longer need the pumps in late fall, we move the panels into secure sheds for the winter and shut all the pumps down for the winter.

[pnwmdk]

Originally Posted by banjomike

I haven't seen any new dome houses built for a very long time now. I thought their day had long since come and gone, because I haven't seen any new ones in my travels around the state either.

There were several built in my area back in the late 70s and early 80s, but from what I learned from a real estate friend, their geodesic construction makes them prone to leaking mostly due to how the joints ice up during the winter and forces some of their many surfaces to loosen up and crack apart.

That was a flaw with panelized wood domes. Nobody has been able to fix it, either.

These, however, do NOT have that flaw.

Aidomes.com - Domes from American Ingenuity, Inc.

Further, they are incredibly energy efficient and long lasting with minimal maintenance.

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by banjomike

I haven't seen any new dome houses built for a very long time now. I thought their day had long since come and gone, because I haven't seen any new ones in my travels around the state either.

Interestingly, there is a dome home for sale north of Sandpoint right now. Based on the price they are very proud of it! It's certainly true that you don't see very many of them.

Originally Posted by banjomike

I think the electric companies are compelled to take any excess energy generated by a homeowner by law ...

In some states this is true. I don't believe Idaho has implemented any uniform regulations that address net metering (which is what this is called), although all the investor owned utilities in the state apparently allow it.

See here and here.

Dave

[banjomike]

Thanks, pn!
I thought some of the problems found a fix over the years.
While I still wouldn't want to live in one, it's very good to know there are now reliable dome builders. They are very energy efficient, and those kit domes look to be very low maintenance as well. Everyone should have the choice to live in whatever house suits them best, for sure, so it was also good to learn potential buyers can now find financing for their dream dome!

There is an Idaho company that has specialized in building concrete domes for over 30 years. Their domes are mostly used for storage, but many have been built as dwellings. Their method is using a huge inflatable rubber 'balloon' ( I don't know the actual term), then spraying the balloon with concrete in layers, using re-bar in the middle layer. When the concrete is hard, the balloon is then deflated and moved out of the structure.

The company still has it's headquarters in Firth, a small town south of I.F., but does business all over the world now. The domes are used to store everything under the sun, from crops to oil and the domes have an excellent reputation for reliability and long life.

Where there is a will, there's almost always a way.

And thanks, Cynrat, as well!
I met a rancher who lives in Salmon years ago who has a big spring high up on his property. He piped the spring and uses the water to run his own small turbine generator, which is hooked to the Salmon power grid, as it generates much more electricity than he will ever need.

The coolest thing is what he does with the water after it flows through the generator. The water goes into a series of big metal stock watering tanks, each designed to slow the water down before it goes to the next. Only one or two is actually used for watering livestock out of 9 tanks. After the pressure is decreased, most of the water then goes into irrigating his hay and grain fields. Then the water ends up in the old creek channel nature made for the spring and empties into the Salmon river.

The entire system is very ingenious and superbly designed and built. The rancher did all the designing during the winters by himself, when he had the spare time, with no formal training at all. He said that he was so worried about the water pressure at the generator head he built a concrete wall in the generator shed to protect him if the genny blew up when the water hit it for the first time.

Nothing happened that wasn't supposed to, much to his delight. He had wired everything in his house, yards and barns to the genny, and said everyone in town cheered when all the lights came on at once. An all-night party followed.

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by banjomike

And thanks, Cynrat, as well!
I met a rancher who lives in Salmon years ago who has a big spring high up on his property. He piped the spring and uses the water to run his own small turbine generator, which is hooked to the Salmon power grid, as it generates much more electricity than he will ever need.

The coolest thing is what he does with the water after it flows through the generator. The water goes into a series of big metal stock watering tanks, each designed to slow the water down before it goes to the next. Only one or two is actually used for watering livestock out of 9 tanks. After the pressure is decreased, most of the water then goes into irrigating his hay and grain fields. Then the water ends up in the old creek channel nature made for the spring and empties into the Salmon river.

The entire system is very ingenious and superbly designed and built. The rancher did all the designing during the winters by himself, when he had the spare time, with no formal training at all. He said that he was so worried about the water pressure at the generator head he built a concrete wall in the generator shed to protect him if the genny blew up when the water hit it for the first time.

Nothing happened that wasn't supposed to, much to his delight. He had wired everything in his house, yards and barns to the genny, and said everyone in town cheered when all the lights came on at once. An all-night party followed.

I love this kind of stuff! I wish we had that sort of hydraulic resource on our property.

Dave

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Cnynrat

I love this kind of stuff! I wish we had that sort of hydraulic resource on our property.

Dave

Me, too!
His place doesn't have a flat spot on it- it's all hillside, all the way up to the top of the mountain. I didn't ask, but it looked like he owned about half a mountain in total, and all directly above his house. it may have been all timber at one time, but it was 2/3 plowed fields and pastures when I visited. with the timber only on the top, where the grade became steeper.

I didn't go up to the spring, but there has to be at least 1,000 feet of elevation between it and the generator shed. The pipe lies above ground, and comes down the hill in a straight line. I could understand why he was worried his turbine might fly apart!