Going off The Grid

Well I've begun to get the ball rolling on something I've been thinking about for several years. I'm selling out, and dropping out. I'm selling my 2200 sq/ft colonial in CT, buying about 20 acres in VT, and building myself a small cabin and nice shop. Ill be meeting with my realtor again Saturday to finalize an asking price. When my house taxes jumped to $6000/yr last year, It was the last straw. I've begun designing a passive solar cabin of about 600 sq/ft. There is a large stream on the site which I will be using to generate electricty by micro hydroelectric, and I will be using a wood furnace to heat the shop and cabin. I lived for several years out of an RV as a surf/ski bum, so my plan is to live out of my camper while I build. Wish me luck with selling this house...

Wow! 6000 a year for taxes? Mine are less than 1200 a year!

Good luck with the sale!

Joey

Ambitious. I take it this may be one of your last posts online? That's regrettable as I'd like to hear how this turns out.

Self employed homeowners are getting taxed right out of Ct, and Vt is no picnic either, but by downsizing, I'm planning to be under $2500/yr on 20 acres. I'm on 2.5 now.

Xceler8x wrote: Ambitious. I take it this may be one of your last posts online? That's regrettable as I'd like to hear how this turns out.

I'm not going caveman..lol, just looking for ways to live a bit more independantly. The site I'm looking at has electric on it now, but I'm very interested in generating my own. I think there is a market for solar/hydro building and consulting. I'll get my feet wet building my own and go from there. I 'm thinking about putting everything up on a blog as well, which will be a major undertaking for me and my limited computer skills..

double post

Epic, that you followed your last statement with a double post!

Good luck with the sale, and the experiment! You will have to post up an address for that blog, if/when you get started. I am sure a bunch of us would be eager to read it.

I'm jealous! I'd love to do this. The benefits of living in town (and being with my two daughters) are outweighing moving out for now. I'd love to do off-grid in town someday though ;). That wouldn't be technically legal, I'm sure (I doubt the health dept would be thrilled about compbosting toilets).

I've lived in 600 square foot houses for 5+ years now (most of that with a family of 4). It's very doable. I could make do with 300 sq. feet or less, given a shop in addition.

Clem

I'm also jealous.

So the plan is a 600 sq ft house and a 2000 sq ft shop right?

Congratulations! Keep us posted on developments.

For years I have been interested in small scale hydro. Can you refer any good Web sites or reference materials?

I have nothing other to add other than I too am interested in hearing more.

Good luck, but it can be adventageous to stay "on-grid" and produce your own power. Sell it back to the utilities at the going rate

It can also be advantageous to move out of the northwest to somewhere where taxes are lower (I realize that this is probably to late for you, OP, since you seem to be finalizing the deal). But....Vermont, NH, and Maine are gorgeous....almost worth the E36 M3ty weather.

I've thought about doing the same thing in the Ozarks. Land is cheap, beautiful, and sparsely populated in many spots down there. Lots of good mountain roads too.

You rarely get to sell it back at "the going rate," though. You probably know this but you sell it back at something more akin to a "wholesale rate." The rationale is that the energy company has an infrastructure to maintian, and thus the extra costs.

I do agree though that it is certainly a good way to do things. You've got power from the grid when you need it (say, in the winter for photovotaic users, or in the dry fall for hydro users), and can sell excess when you have it.

Now that I think of it, you probably meant "the going rate" as just whatever the energy company happens to be paying. Got it now.

Clem

the way i understood it is that when you need it, energy flows through your meter and to the house, and turns the meter. when you have excess, it flows out of the house and through the meter back to the grid, turning the meter backwards. seems to me that as long as you always have a net consumption from the power company, they wouldn't even ever have to know

Jensenman wrote: Congratulations! Keep us posted on developments. For years I have been interested in small scale hydro. Can you refer any good Web sites or reference materials?

And for some grassroots content, I'll try to find the page about a guy who uses a simple water wheel to drive an automotive alternator by belt to charge a pair of 12v car batteries..

http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_hydro.html

https://www.motherearthnews.com/

http://www.offthegrid.com/micro-hydro.html

Congrats! Keep us updated. I watched a really good episode of "Modern Marvels" yesterday; "Environmental Tech 2." There were a few really cool ideas there, including Jay Leno's "Green Garage." Simple, innovative technology FTW!!!

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/4216780.html

There was also a nifty gadget that you hooked to your meter to monitor usage from inside the house, and another DIY switch that cuts power to all the little things that have lights constantly going (Cable boxes, portable phones, oven, microwave, etc, etc, etc.) while you're gone, or at night.

If you want to go super-psycho, the "earthship" thing seems pretty cool. I'm pretty sure I've got enough tires and empty whiskey bottles to build a badass house:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9jdIm7grCY

I've lived in a direct-gain, passive solar house since 1978. I built it (mostly by myself). I funded a lot of it with a tax refund program that Jimmy Carter initiated.

I'm not off-the-grid by any means, but it's provided great energy saving over the years. And my kids (now married and in their 30s) still think the house is cool.

As soon as #40 came in, he killed off that specific tax program right away.

I have to start doing my homework concerning VT tax breaks and grants...

House and shop?

Yuppie.

If you were hardcore, you'd live in the shop. (says the suburbanite with the SUV and neighborhood covenant)

Curious about the electricity, keep us informed, a blog would be great, I have a shop in the country and will follow your progress with eager anticipation

I also remember reading a story on a DIY heat exchange using a an old fridge heat grid (from the back of a broken fridge), some cheap water hose and fittings, some old window glass etc...the guy had less than $35 in it and it heated his 100 sqft shed to an avg of 65* with a daily avg high of 40 in march (provided the day was sunny).

required items: heat exchange grid from both a full size and small dorm size fridge. about 15' of 2x4. 3x5 window pane or plexi, large black plastic mat, about 15' of lastic water line and fittings as needed. The guy who wrote this sourced a majority of this from a junkyard.

Basically, place a 5 gallon bucket full of water that has low brine content (the salt allows for more contraction and expansion based on heat) up high near the ceiling on a shelf in a corner where it wont be exposed to any heat from the sun. placing it in an attic is even better to separate it from the heated room. Next, run a line going down to a heat grid from the old fridge place outside the building in thin a 2x4 box. The box has a black plastic mat facing in on the back and glass on the front. The black mat heats the water in the fridge grid by absorbing sunlight. the heated water is forced by the gravity of the colder water above since the hot water is less dense than the cold, and passes into the shed thru another hose and heats a smaller grid (from a small dorm style fridge) inside the shed which gives off the radiant heat needed to heat the air inside. the water moves then from the smaller gid back to the bucket where it is cooled...wash rinse repeat.

I wrote this kinda fast, sorry if it seems ramble-ish, but it seems like it should work very well...

aussiesmg wrote: Curious about the electricity, keep us informed, a blog would be great, I have a shop in the country and will follow your progress with eager anticipation

From everything I've read, if electricity is available at your site, its the way to go. The reality is that it just takes too long to recoup the investment in a good solar electric set up ( which can run upwards of $5-10 thousand.) My goal is to use gas for cooking, and backup water heating, and build the solar and hydro systems as I go. What I'm trying to do is just downsize and live simpler. In the ten years I've been back here in CT (Colorado before that) I've just gotten so caught up in the rat race that I'm miserable. The loss of both my folks, and getting divorced in the same year ('06) really put alot of things in perspective. My two sons who are 11 and 6 will be staying in school here in CT, but will be with me on weekends, vacations etc., and will be moving to Vt when their Mom's boyfriend retires in two years... The land I've got my eye on is only two hours from here. Basically, I want to work less, travel more with my kids, and build my own place my way...

Vermont? You NEED to be looking at Idaho.