Who lives without electricity? Or has in the past?

Your welcome, I had be ingenious. I lived in a nieghborhood where all the nieghbors where close and running a generator was out of the question not to mention much more expensive and too many trees for any decent solar or a wind turbine. So I figured I generated enough juice for my power needs going back and forth to work and worse case senario I might need to let the car idle a few minuits to finish watching a show, though now I have a laptop
that I can use as a radio,dvd player, computer of course and with the addtion
of a small usb card a Tv. at minimal power usage. still being single I didnt have a big demand for electricity when home.

I've found that buying solar cells at eBay and fabricating my own solar panels is cost effective. I get solar cells for about $1/watt and buy the enclosure parts for another 50 cents per watt. For your uses you should be fine with about 200 watts of solar panel, and with 400 watts you would never have to think about it.

__________________
Ask Me About Linux System Administration

might of been feasiable in the winter but in the summer it was like being in a jungle, I use the google satalite to view that house before all you could see was the canopy from that view you would have no idea a house was there.

currently Im investigating wood gas to power a gen. where Im at now theres
power but the price is going through the roof and I could run a gen regularly here theres no close nieghbors. Solar panels would be good here also as there isnt the shading issue. though I think in the long run the gen would be the cheaper more dependable anwser (theres more people here so there is a much more demand on the power.) run the gen during the day to power the house and charge the battery bank for use at night and use stackable inverters for the actuall transmission.

as far as the wood to produce the gas even though there are not many trees on the property theres are lots of places I could get dead fall free and easily and a small lumber mill down the road and a few miles farther the amish have piles of sawdust.

veyr interesting thread

__________________
http://lownfamilymaplesyrup.com/ max@lownfamilymaplesyrup.com
Professional Tool. 1220 Woodmere Ave,Traverse City, MI. 49686. 231-941-8003. http://professionaltool.com/

awesome thread, good rainey day read...

I'll post my PM reply publicly so everyone can see where I source my stuff.

******
Sure. I've always sourced my solar cells from eBay seller fred480v, located in Michigan City, IN.

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/fred48...Q_fromZQQ_ipgZ

In fact I just bought enough of these to make 2 more panels.

http://cgi.ebay.com/36-4x4-solar-cel...d=p3911.c0.m14

Normally solar cells are 1/2 volt. You need 18 volts to have a good charge flux into the charge controller & battery bank, so at 1/2 volt each you'll need 36 cells to make a panel. Of course, the cells will all be soldered into series to get the 18 volts.

The amount of wattage you'll get can be obtained by multiplying 36 times the wattage for each cell. For example, the cells I just bought are 2 watts each, so they will make a 72 watt panel.

If you don't have the wattage given in the auction, multiply the volts times the amps to get watts. For example:

0.5v * 4a = 2 watts

You will probably want to follow this guy's guide on how to assemble the panel. You can forget what he says about how they're sometimes shipped in wax, since no one does that anymore.

http://www.mdpub.com/SolarPanel/index.html

You will want to order both tabbing ribbon and bus ribbon from eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-SOLAR-CELL-TAB...d=p3286.c0.m14

You will also need a diode for each panel.

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-pcs-6A10-6A-1...d=p3286.c0.m14

Everything else (plywood, moulding, paint, plexiglas, silicon, etc.) should be available at your local building center or hardware store.

__________________
Ask Me About Linux System Administration

Me and my dearly beloved made the choice to live without electricity about a year and a half ago. We first lived in a one room house we built. Circumstance led us to a 100 year old farm that was over grown and in need of a lot of repair and love. We chose to bring the old farm back to life. The house was wired for electric, but we made the choice to continue our non electric life. I can say as long as we are physically able to live like we do, we will not be getting any electric or alternative power.

We have a Spring on the farm that we store our home made butter, raw milk, and other items in that need to remain cool. We just finished the root cellar. We haul water from the Spring and collect rain water for baths, dishes, laundry and watering animals. We heat with wood and find ways to stay cool in the hot summer months. We use oil lamps, I sew by hand, we use hand tools that require no power. Yesterday I got a long time dream come true. We lucked up on a good Home Comfort wood cook stove. We will have it hooked up today and I will try my hand at cooking on it. I am more excited than you can imagine because I have lived without an oven for well over a year and miss my cornbread and biscuits.

Why do we continue to live this way?

Before we went non electric, we had a TV on all the time, two computers, we stayed in different rooms on the computers and never talked much. The grandkids came over and watched TV or played video games. They never went outside. I stayed stressed a lot. Now, we talk to each other, we play board games, we spend a lot of time outside, we share things, we are much closer than before, we work through trials and troubles together and enjoy the peaceful feeling of sitting by the fire, reading, sewing, knitting, talking and loving life together. The grandkids, I was afraid they would never want to come back over. I was very wrong....they never want to leave. We all love it and I have never regretted this decision.

www.homesteading.us documents our journey

Cyndi

I highly recommend reading Forest Breath's journey at her website and in part on the city-data forums. Folks can learn a lot from her adventures and misadventures.

A link or two for Forest Breath's website and the messages at city-data forums would be handy, although I suppose a search engine may be able to find them?

I've had several stints of living without electricity as well as extensive living off the grid. We are currently off the grid but we have PV and a genny for when the sun doesn't shine or we want to run big power hogs. I do like being able to use power tools occasionally, although when I lived with no electricity one of the first things I got was a really cute and tiny generator to run sanders and other small wood working tools.

Living without power, I was living on a sailboat. There was water available at the dock and the boat had storage tanks and a foot pump. Cooking was done with propane although some folks had alcohol stoves. I started out using kerosene reading lights and eventually included a car battery with a small PV panel and some small electric 12V lights. There was an ice chest and once a week there was an eight pound block of ice put in there.

I lived off in the jungle for three or four years, off power again. That started out with no power at all, although there was phone. A 4WD road, catch the rainwater and all hand tools until we got a few PV panels, a couple of car batteries and then we had electric (12V) lights and radio.

Then several years on grid, got a computer and now we are living off grid but with an inverter so it is almost indistinguishable from on grid living with the exception of the amount of power available. The computer is a great tool, a fun toy and a huge time waster. It sucks up huge amounts of time, but we also get huge benefits from it from things such as online shopping, finding things on Craig's List and finding out information without having to go to the library just to find out they don't have any books on whatever it is we want to find out. So, I suppose it is worth making electricity to run the computer with.

We lived in NW Montana without power for 6 years. Cost to hookup at that time was $15,000. Most people did without. Used kerosene lamps, propane stove and refrigerator. Out house, hauled water from the river for all uses except drinking. We hauled drinking water from town. Wood heat. Everything takes longer, but it is a nice way to live. It makes you realize you don't need a lot to survive. You become very inventive and read a lot, no TV. Used a radio with batteries for news. No phone. Not a bad life.

__________________
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird, that cannot fly.

Link to Forest Breath's "newer" house thread on city-data: http://www.city-data.com/forum/green...-100-year.html

Her older house was in the Tennessee forum there. Don't have a link offhand

Cyndi I read your webpage and loved your story! You went through a real struggle, but I think the farm you have now is just wonderful.
You guys should be very proud of your hard work.
I would have left a comment at your webpage but i couldn't figure out how to. It asked for a usernamer and password?

Link to Forest Breath's "newer" house thread on city-data: http://www.city-data.com/forum/green...-100-year.html

Her older house was in the Tennessee forum there. Don't have a link offhand

I was speaking of this place.

www.homesteading.us

We have no electricity
We have no running water
We have no indoor plumbing
We have no noise
We have no two legged visitors
We have no stress
We have no bills
We have no pollutants
We have no sickness
We have no work saving appliances
We have no deadlines etc. etc. etc.

WE ARE LOVIN' IT!!!

Diane
http://www.frombeyondthegrid.com
:banana02:

It's been very interesting reading everyone's journey without electricity, thanks for sharing!

We have no city electricity and no immediate plans to install it in our new homestead. Currently, what little power we are using, usually an hour in the morning and 3 hours in the evening is being provided by a gas generator. We use that to power our coffee maker (can't seem to break that habit and like the taste better than perked) a toaster oven, a comp and one or two lights as long as the generator is on line. Then we switch to kerosene and wood power. I do most of my cooking on my wood stove, heat water on it also, or outside on an open fire in a fire pit as weather permits. Have I missed the convenience of switching on a light or tv? No, not at all. I enjoy spending the evening sitting in my rocking chair near my husband's desk with the kerosene lamp lit beside me as I read a magazine and talk with him about what is on Fox News on the internet or the weather. Seems as though our Amish neighbors have zeroed in on us for weather information so we have to keep informed. I have to admit that I DO miss getting hot water from a faucet. We will probably cave with that luxury and invest in an on demand lp water heater. If I was about 20 years younger, hauling those buckets of hot water for a bath probably wouldn't be so annoying. I wish we had tried this before now. There is a satisfaction about NOT writing a check to the power company every month. We still have our 'business' home that we have to occupy a few days a week and have challenged ourselves to see how much we can cut back on our electrical usage there. Unfortunately, we are still slaves to the power company with our business. Not much we can do about that other than write a check every month.

__________________
I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here!

Mine is a childhood memory, of the island summer cottage we had in the 60's and 70's. No electricity, but we did have running water. We had propane for cooking and the fridge, and mostly used Aladdin lamps for most things. There were about 150 summer cottages on the island, mostly families, and all of us kids managed to stay happy and entertained without any electronics whatsoever! We fished, rowed, and sailed during the day, and played games such as cards, cribbage, and chess at night. On special occasions, we even got to listen to the battery powered radio for an hour. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but what a contrast to the way (most) kids are today!

__________________
"What one generation tolerates, the next generation embraces." -John Wesley

I would find it pretty tough without electric right now, but I could do it if I had to. I would need to build an icebox/cold cellar first, and start canning my frozen meat. We currently don't have running water though, and we didn't all last winter either. I didn't care, but my wife likes having it, so I'm hustling to get the water tank ready for filling, and I will need to frost protect the pump...
We charge the batteries off a diesel genny, and I'm currently investigating the feasability of making biodiesel. Between us and the neighbors, we burn about 5 gal of diesel per day, and it's freakin 'spensive!

__________________
Go Big or Go Home!!
1 Tim 3:2-3 "Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out. Convince, Rebuke, Exhort with all long-suffering and teaching."

Biofuel need now be expensive or elaborate to make. I have a friend in IN who picks up used cooking oil from one restaurant and two lodges once a week. He picks it up in the same containers new came in. He just lets them sit to settle, then pours off the upper layer. He keeps doing so until it is virtually all oil. That is put into one of those white 275-gallon or so plastic containers. At first he didn't use any heat, but since he has an outdoor wood burning furnace with hot water capability he ran a loop from it within the tank. When he draws it off it first goes through a 20mc filter, then a 5mc one.

He burns it in a couple of 80s diesel engine vehicles plus farm equipment. Mix depends on season. During winter it may be 9/1 diesel and summer 1/9 diesel. When he is using the farm equipment extensively he can run 100% biodiesel. However, he does have to drain and run some straight diesel at the end of the day to facilitate starting in the mornings.

Only changes he made in vehicles/equipment was to swap out fuel lines for biodiesel compatible ones.

Back to the subject. I have a friend in Paris, TN who lives in a 14' x 60' mobile home without electricity (but does have park water). When he had a running vehicle he would spend as much times as possible up at Murray State University in KY - where he graduated from. As an alumni he had access to the gym showers. An information addict, he would spend most of the day at the library PCs. If weather cooperated he would sleep in his car in the nearby Wal-Mart parking lot.

When his vehicle blew a head gasket he would be ----ed if he would have it taken to any commercial shop as they would rip you off. So it has been something like three years now as it gets taken to one backyard mechanic after another who never gets around to working on it. That obviously limits his movement.

When it is really cold he puts on more layers of clothing or more blankets. Food is day-to-day, such as a meal of Chunky Soup straight out of the can. He does however know when a nearby supermarket deli discounts their chicken at 50% in the evenings.

He is a bit of an odd-ball. I offered to give him a bike I have. He said he didn't want it because there were two hills between him and town. He'd rather walk. Well, OK, you if you don't want to walk a bike up one side and coast down the other that is your decision.