Off grid (Norway, Hartford: foreclosure, insurance, condo)

[tatans]

Just saw an ad for wind power with new technology, small, unobtrusive, completely silent and very efficient,vertical axis curved vanes, it seems all the new stuff does NOT incorporate large vanes like most today, check out some of the new innovations as things have advanced eons in the last year, you may be in for a big surprise, I'll try and find the site I saw and forward any information to this site.
Some of the technology coming from Japan is far ahead of North America (strange eh?)

[gcberry]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

We have valves in-line that allow us to change our line-up.

In one valve position our propane water heater supplies hot water to our radiant floor.

In another valve position our wood stove supplies hot water to our radiant floor.

In the third position our electric water heater supplies hot water to our radiant floor.

I wish we had thought of this but due to the design I don't think it would be possible to retrofit

[porpose]

Your posts are all so appreciated. Wow....thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience with us. It is valuable. We have some more research now to do, and learning to better equip us when we do go off grid. I will continue to read any further posts regarding your experience with living off grid.
Kudos to all of you.
Randy

[RMoore007]

I use an old flip phone and don't have a smartphone yet. Is that living off grid?

[BozHogan]

I'm curious about why anyone would disconnect from the grid in the first place. I agree with doing everything necessary to go off grid, but having done that, couldn't you stay connected anyway. I'm not challenging the idea, just curious. The benefits of staying on would be:
1. If something goes wrong, you've still got power.
2. If you end up generating more than you consume, you can sell it back to the electric company, making money, helping to power the whole system with just a little more renewable energy.
3. It could save a lot of money and mined materials by avoiding the need for a battery system.

In fact, if everyone did this, we would cut down, if not altogether eliminate, the need for polluting fossil fuel power plants and seriously reduce the cost of energy.

Does any of this make sense? Am I missing something?

Thanks for explaining this to me,
Boz

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by BozHogan

I'm curious about why anyone would disconnect from the grid in the first place. ...

If a person were in the group that thinks there is a link between CO2 and changing weather patterns; then they might appreciate lessening their 'carbon footprint'.

If a household were adversely effected by power outages, then secondary [or tertiary] power supplies might help. [we lost a lot of poultry last spring due to power outages].

The expense of municipal utilities seem to continue climbing. The ability to provide some or all of your own power may lessen utility expenses.

When I was shopping for land in Maine, many of the properties I looked at had no utilities at the property line. If the owner wanted utilities they would need to pay to bring power/phone lines to the property. For one property I was looking at I got an estimate that exceeded $20,000 to bring power/phone to the property line.

Among the off-grid homes in my township, one of them has no power at his property line. If he wanted municipal power on his property, he would need to pay to have the line extended to his property.

Today there are two other properties that lay adjacent to my land, neither of them have access to power/phone lines. If either owner wanted power/phone they would need to first pay to have lines extended to their property. One of those properties is currently up for sale. $300/acre for 345 acres [but no power/phone].

[Northern Maine Land Man]

BozHogan ponders:
"I'm curious about why anyone would disconnect from the grid in the first place."

You are on the right track, Boz. I'll help you along. You have not reached the most important question yet. The most important question is what you do when the grid disconnects YOU. It happens. Sometimes it's for a few seconds which means you have to run around and reset your clocks that are blinking 12:00. Sometimes it's for hours and sometimes it's for weeks. The 1998 ice storm comes to mind.

After three weeks without power one lady called WVOM which was "Storm Central". She said she had just taken a loaf of bread out of her wood fired oven. She was sitting at the window watching birds at the feeder and was having a cup of tea. She volunteered to be the very last person in Maine to be reconnected to the grid.

[Nor'Eastah]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

The most important question is what you do when the grid disconnects YOU.

NMLM, you have inadvertently stumbled onto the really pertinent but ugly future of the electrical grid in this (and other) countries. It's called the "Smart Grid". Most folks have never heard of it, but it's coming - to a grid near all of us. Google this, but I'll give some particulars.

When hooked up to the Smart Grid, you have a 2-way interactive electrical communication system. For instance, on a hot summer day, you may decide to turn on the air conditioner. If the Smart Grid detects too many homes using air conditioning, it simply turns them off. They may come back on later in the day, when you don't need them.

Suppose you put a load of laundry into the machine. If electrical usage is too high at that time, your machine is turned off, the cycle to be resumed perhaps in the middle of the night. Not a big deal, unless you are a light sleeper or really need that dress shirt for a meeting in an hour!

The issue here is CONTROL. The current (no pun intended...) administration wants to reduce eveybody's 'carbon footprint' whether they like it (or believe in that green stuff) or not. He's already said that 72 F is too high a home temp and "that's going to stop". So if you choose to hook up to a public utility, you'll get what they're doling out to the public.

My wife has circulation problems, and needs about 75F in the house during winter. We can easily do that with wood. So we will. I wonder what the winter temps are in the residential portion of the White House? I wonder how many folks want the gubmint and public utilities controlling their lives?

[BozHogan]

Thank you for your thoughtful responses. You've made me think about things that I had not considered, which is kind of what I was hoping for. I learned something today. Always a good thing.

Cheers,
Boz

[Northern Maine Land Man]

"NMLM, you have inadvertently stumbled onto the really pertinent but ugly future of the electric grid."

Oh, it isn't inadvertent. I have been on this for decades.