- #Worst states for off grid living generator#
- #Worst states for off grid living skin#
- #Worst states for off grid living code#
- #Worst states for off grid living tv#
We use about 500 gallons of water per month, whereas some families use that in a day. We consume approximately 150 kw-hrs per month of electricity, compared to the typical American household that uses more than 1,000. So, with some painful lessons, a little cash, and a lot of patience, we live very comfortably now.
#Worst states for off grid living tv#
And we learned that we really didn’t need to watch as much TV as we thought. We learned that there is a major difference in power used in different light bulbs.
We eventually got a wood burning stove and took advantage of the acres of already-dead trees not far from our home.
We learned that since we had a well pump drawing power out of our system, that wasting water meant wasting power (yellow is defintely mellow at the Bergethon home).
#Worst states for off grid living code#
If we had known Morse code we would have said ‘Bring soup!’. We opened and closed the shades so often the neighbors probably thought we were sending Morse code. And when there was no sun we shut the blinds tight and hunkered down. When the sun did shine, we learned to milk every drop of heat from it to help heat the home by opening shades. We learned that EVERYTHING needed to be on power strips. My wife and I grew closer, learned a ton about our new home, and became conscious of every watt that flowed out of the system. So this is the part of our life where we got used to setting the thermostat to 50 degrees, warming up by shovelling endless amounts of snow, and sleeping under enough blankets to cover a jumbo jet. And as soon as they did plow, we’d promptly get 12 more inches of snow, sealing off our isolated little home from the propane man. Being isolated and at the end of the road, which seemed so attractive just a few months ago, the snowplows couldn’t get to us until late afternoon. The worst part was that when we ran out of propane, which was about every 15 days, the propane truck couldn’t get to us. When it wasn’t breaking down, freezing up, or getting overcome with snow, it was burning through $1800 worth of propane per month.
#Worst states for off grid living skin#
Since there was no sunshine, and since we decided we like the pigment of our skin to be decidedly un-blue, we were running off the generator. Even the toothless old timers with the long beards had never seen anything like it.Īnd worse, our builder had suggested a forced air electric furnace for our modular home to save money. We had 3 solid months of snow, 6-12 inches EVERY DAY. We figured out in a hurry that our panels didn’t run on snowflakes. And that just happened to be the winter that our little hamlet would break the record for snowfall in one year. We chose to move into our home in December of 2007. This would be easy right? Just wash the clothes on sunny days! Piece of cake.
#Worst states for off grid living generator#
We had 16 batteries, 1300 watts of solar, 300 sunny Colorado days per year, and a propane generator backup. We are not rich folks by any means, but we felt we had a comfortable home that we could grow into a little. With the help of friends, family, and a builder that had built in the neighborhood, we felt we had the perfect house for us. In fact the only real utility that existed was phone lines, and those are soooo 1996, right?īut there were other houses in the neighborhood running on solar and small wind generators and we naively thought ‘How hard could it be?’. Not only was there no power, but there was no water, sewer, or high speed internet. We fell in love with an area that had phenomenal views, a lake nearby, and was close to a skiing community. We decided that the life we wanted was in the mountains. Since this is my first post for Renewable Energy World I thought I’d do a quick introduction and talk about my baptism by fire in solar.Ī few years back, we grew tired of the city and noise and hassle that came with it. Hello, my name is Kriss Bergethon and I am a solar system designer and sell solar power kits to homeowners and contractors.
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