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Op-Ed: How I Gave Up Alternating Current

posted by takyon on Tuesday August 04 2015, @10:36PM   
from the tune-out dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Soylent [food replacement] founder Rob Rhinehart shares his thoughts on extreme sustainability.

I am electrically self-reliant. My home life runs comfortably on a single 100W solar panel, which cost $150 and was available on Amazon Prime. I tracked down a few manufacturers in China who all said it costs around $40 to make. The US for some reason leverages massive tariffs on Chinese solar panels, so they ship them through Malaysian customs. Why do the politicians even bother?

For storage a $65 lead acid automobile battery does the trick. It's 12V so can be charged directly from the solar panel, and holds 420Wh, way more than I use in a day. That's $0.15 / Wh so I don't see why everyone is so excited about Tesla charging $0.43 / Wh for the Powerwall, sans inverter and installation.

He got rid of his fridge and other kitchen implements to make it work. What are the biggest energy users in your place? Could you pare things down as much as Rob?

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Original Submission

• What I learned from homesteading What I learned from homesteading (Score: 5, Informative) by SuperCharlie on Tuesday August 04 2015, @11:59PM

  by SuperCharlie (2939) on Tuesday August 04 2015, @11:59PM (#218231)

  My wife and I homesteaded raw land for 4 years until her health made us come back to civilization, here are a few of the things
  I learned:

  It is nothing like on TV

  It is hard as hell

  It takes a large family to do long term

  You make choices on what you can live without

  You grow appreciation for simple things, like water

  You always seem sweaty and/or dirty

  Ingenuity is a survival skill

  You have never had a real problem until you have a week worth of sewage to get rid of

  You will always need money to pay taxes, so you will always need a job or income of some sort.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+4
  Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Informative=2, Total=4
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		5

• Re:What I learned from homesteading (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @02:34AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @02:34AM (#218305)

  I lived 8 years without electricity or running water. I still sometimes pause for a moment of appreciation when I turn on the tap (especially hot water).

  Reading your post made me smile.

  (oh, and that guys battery is going to be toast in a few months without a charge controller)

  Parent

• Re:What I learned from homesteading Re:What I learned from homesteading (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @03:20AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @03:20AM (#218325)

  Exactly! I think some of those Alaska / Northern Canada shows are probably the most realistic, but even then I'm sure there some important, albeit boring or truly disgusting or politically-incorrect stuff they leave out. Even with the royalties they're making from multiple seasons of "Reality" TV , the richest member of Jewel's family is Jewel herself--which is probably why she never appears in any of the episodes. You have to hate civilization enough to go back almost to the stone age in order to really do this sort of thing.

  Parent

  • Re:What I learned from homesteading (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @11:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @11:35AM (#218440)

    What are you talking about? Who is Jewel?

    Parent