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

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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  • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday August 05 2015, @07:14AM

    by Magic Oddball (3847) on Wednesday August 05 2015, @07:14AM (#218367) Journal

    From what I've read, it's now entirely possible to live off-grid by using solar energy to both power things during the day and charge batteries or a battery-powered generator for night-time. (Well, possible if you can afford the cost of the generators, solar setup, plot of land in the middle of nowhere, to build an efficient house, etc.)

    I do recall that back when I took an ecology course in 1996 at a local community college, the instructor had an amazing home that supported most of his and his wife's energy needs — they had built it into the side of a hill in order to get the natural insulation effect, aligned it so certain rooms would be warm/cool at certain times of day, added solar panels, and so forth. Given solar tech 19 years ago was nowhere near as good as it is now, I have little doubt that the place would be self-supporting by now.

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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 05 2015, @03:13PM

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday August 05 2015, @03:13PM (#218575) Journal

    Solar Panels seem to be the way to go currently. Assuming you can afford the cost of getting them installed, you should be able to have them pay for themselves in 10 years. Currently in our area you end up having to pay about $20k out of pocket for a $50k system. That leaves 15 years of the warranty left where you are actually getting money back from the system. Some installers will also hook up the solar panels to your electric first, so you sell excess, and buy when you aren't producing enough. As opposed to the electric company getting all of your juice and you buying everything you consume.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"