Interesting "Off the Grid Article" for Australia:

[Lexicon7]

I love solar! As I learn more about it, how logical it becomes to use the energy of our star and not the dreaded corporate crap!

Forbes article you may enjoy :::

[LenSatic]

There was nothing like that in Hermosa. Parking was our biggest problem. I assume that the new condos may have some rules like that.

Our lots were mostly 25'x100' so we did have to play well together in order to get along. Anytime someone was going to change the color of the house they would just show the color sample to those around us that might be affected by it. No one ever had a problem.

We only have 15 panels and that's more than enough at the moment. We may add some more to get better sky coverage in the future, though. We paid 80 cents a watt for 220w panels. At that rate, 100 panels would be less than $18,000. I don't know what other equipment is needed for a grid-tied system. CA's labor costs are probably higher also.

LS

[pnichols]

DAS26miles wrote:
CCR's are covenants, conditions and restrictions. Those crazy rules, laws etc that don't allow home owner freedom to do what they want on their property. Like park an RV on their property, paint their house a certain color, if you can build a fence etc, park on your street after dusk. The list goes on and on. Newer communities go overboard with them. They says it's to protect the neighborhood. RV access may be come a thing of the past. I have my MH in my driveway. Some of my old co-workers have them on the side of their house hidden by a fence and others can't have them at all on the property. Some are given time limits of 24-36 hours parking in front of their house for loading and unloading. Crazy!

That whole CCR issue is ... IMHO ... a whole bunch of baloney!

Someone with lots of money should run that whole private property covenants, conditions, and restrictions issue up the flagpole all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to once and for all clear up as to whether or not that kindof stuff is, ultimately, UNconstitutional. :M

[DAS26miles]

CCR's are covenants, conditions and restrictions. Those crazy rules, laws etc that don't allow home owner freedom to do what they want on their property. Like park an RV on their property, paint their house a certain color, if you can build a fence etc, park on your street after dusk. The list goes on and on. Newer communities go overboard with them. They says it's to protect the neighborhood. RV access may be come a thing of the past. I have my MH in my driveway. Some of my old co-workers have them on the side of their house hidden by a fence and others can't have them at all on the property. Some are given time limits of 24-36 hours parking in front of their house for loading and unloading. Crazy!
OH, my neighbor around the block built a second story on his house and installed over 100+ solar panels. I should take a photo. How can anyone use that much electricity? LA DWP will only allow you to turn your meter in reverse to offset usage. Must have cost him $30,000 plus.

[LenSatic]

DAS26miles wrote:
Wow, LS I'm impressed. That's a far cry from Hermosa Beach. No CCR's or community bylaws either. Plus you probably have RV access up the gazoo. And a big open dark sky at night to gaze.

I thought I told you that, Dave.

BTW, I have no idea what CCR's and Community Bylaws are. HB is pretty independent and that made it a great place to live. Living 8' from our neighbors, not so much after 25 years. HB is 1 square mile. It took my wife as long or longer to drive to Von's, in HB, as it does for her to drive 8 miles to Fry's market here. Well, if she doesn't get stuck behind those pokey old road runners. 😉

Pat

[DAS26miles]

Wow, LS I'm impressed. That's a far cry from Hermosa Beach. No CCR's or community bylaws either. Plus you probably have RV access up the gazoo. And a big open dark sky at night to gaze.

[LenSatic]

pnichols wrote:
LS,

My comments above earlier were kindof in relation to living off the grid in an RV, since this is an RV forum.

Oh, OK, but you started the post I was responding to with, "Camping/living off-grid," so I touched on the "living" aspect although, if you think about it, we live in a scaled up RV.

And, in an RV, all of the above still applies except you have to take the RV to the dump and refill the water and propane.

We didn't set out to live off-grid, it's just that our land is not served by a power company. Well, it is, but it would have cost us about $10,000 a pole (or $10,000 a mile, I don't remember which) and we live 8 miles from the nearest pole. Plus they wanted a $250,000 deposit. And then, we could pay them a monthly bill. It was a lot cheaper to put in a $45,500 solar system that came with some tax incentives.

Individuals will have different, specific, health concerns and those need to be taken into account but, for the most part, help is more easily summoned, and faster arriving, than in the past. And we do have a heliport. 😉 It's our front yard. One thing that someone with serious health problems should probably have is a Personal Locator Beacon or SPOT (to send messages) in case they are out of cell service range when something bad happens.

Oh, we have our traffic problems too. Just this afternoon I was driving to our mailbox and got stuck behind a grandma Road Runner (Road Walker, really). 😄

LS

[pnichols]

LS,

Interesting comments above!

My comments above earlier were kindof in relation to living off the grid in an RV, since this is an RV forum.

Regarding non-RV off the grid living, I have a philosophical take on intentional, so-called "off the grid living" that I won't get into ... as it's very idealistic and subtle and in no way would be bought into by most folks.

What I will add is that we - almost by accident - wound up in a living situation very similar to what you describe that you have, but just outside of Silicon Valley. The way I describe our situation is "we live in an island bubble surrounded by a sea of chaos". We have superbly moderate weather, a meadow, blue skies, clean air, a well, a spring, a large propane tank, a state of the art heatpump, backup generators, plenty of greenery and trees, nearly full-time quietness and serenity... and all of this only a couple of miles from a dentist office and a well stocked country grocery store where they know myself and my family by name. However, in order to leave our bubble and it's surrounding couple of miles anytime other than between 10 AM and 3 PM on weekdays ... requires creeping along in bumper-to-bumper "chaos". (It's a good thing we're retired so 10 AM to 3 PM weekdays is doable.)

In relation to RV off the grid living, I have an observation regarding one of your statements above - "Well, knowledge of First Aid is helpful. It’s not too often that really bad things happen and, when they do, why wait for the first responders to show up and pronounce you dead?"

Have you ever went through multiple in-a-row kidney stone attacks, and/or have you ever went through multiple-in-a-row gall bladder stone attacks? The pain from either is excruciating and requires as-soon-as-possible immediate attention. With no warning during the preceding decades of my life, I have been very painfully surprised by both since last October and it took strong prescription pain pills and surgery to fix both situations. I WOULD NOT have wanted to be living really off the grid - in an RV or otherwise - any more so than we already do when these couple of health emergencies occured.

These two incidences so shook us up that we're seriously considering a satellite communication device and helicopter medical evacution insurance for when we're out in the middle of nowhere way off the grid in our RV camping and looking for rocks.

[LenSatic]

Camping/living "off grid" involves a lot more than where your electricity comes from ... what about:

- Food replenishment?

That depends on where you live. We live between Sierra Vista, Bisbee, and Tombstone, AZ.

- Sewage disposal?

Septic tank.

- Potable water sourcing?

Well.

- Keeping cool in heat?

Daikin mini-split heat pump (air conditioner/heater).

- Keeping warm in cold?

Wood stove or Daikin heat pump mentioned above.

- Vehicle refueling?

There’s those towns again plus several cans of gasoline treated and stored. It’s pretty hard to live very far from civilization.

- Getting unanticipated medical help fast enough so you end up alive afterwards?

Well, knowledge of First Aid is helpful. It’s not too often that really bad things happen and, when they do, why wait for the first responders to show up and pronounce you dead?

Who’s talking about living where the “dragons be”? If you were to visit our house, you would not know that we live off-grid. We don’t have broadcast/cable/satellite TV by choice, but we have dedicated wifi/internet TV/phone plus our individual cell phones. We have a washer and dryer, dishwasher, one large and one med sized refrigerator/freezer, and microwave. The only difference is that we have to (except for the refridg/freezers) run them when the sun is up. The stove and Weber Genesis grill are fed by propane. All lighting is LED and at least 2 ceiling fans run 24/7.

Ninety-nine point 99 percent of civilization lived off-grid while developing civilization and probably a majority of the planet still does. We just do it more comfortably.

LS

[pnichols]

Camping/living "off grid" involves a lot more than where your electricity comes from ... what about:

- Food replenishment?

- Sewage disposal?

- Potable water sourcing?

- Keeping cool in heat?

- Keeping warm in cold?

- Vehicle refueling?

- Getting unanticipated medical help fast enough so you end up alive afterwards?

:h :h

[LenSatic]

We've been living off-grid for almost 4 years now. It's very easy, just not cheap initially.

ETA: Now that I've read the article, it doesn't have much to do about actually living off-grid. And being grid-tied is not exactly getting even with "the man". When you "sell" electricity back to the utility, they only pay you the wholesale rate which is a fraction of what you pay them. Plus, they will try to raise your rates to make up the loss.

BTW, if grid power goes down, so does yours, you can't have batteries when grid-tied.

And...I ain't no hippie!

LS

[oldmattb]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/teradata/2014/12/04/living-off-grid-no-longer-just-for-the-hippies/

[Lexicon7]

Link went wonky... Try this one.. Living off the grid!