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Op-Ed: How I Gave Up Alternating Current

posted by takyon on Tuesday August 04 2015, @10:36PM   Printer-friendly
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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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday August 05 2015, @12:12AM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday August 05 2015, @12:12AM (#218241)

    If I eat out, three times a day, it can cost me around $20 per day.

    Wow, that's some definition of "eat out" you have there. What kind of "restaurants" are you talking about there, Burger King?

    If you eat out 3x a day at *real* restaurants, expect it to cost at least $50/day.

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  • (Score: 3, Flamebait) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday August 05 2015, @12:29AM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Wednesday August 05 2015, @12:29AM (#218250) Journal

    Forgive me your highness! My apologies. I am truly sorry that I confused a sandwich shop, pizza place, Chinese restaurant, Mexican restaurant, Greek Restaurant, Indian restaurant, and the dozens of other restaurants in my neighborhood for !!!***REAL***!!! restaurants. And here I was thinking I was eating at real restaurants. Those $8~$10 meals I get must be the scraps and droppings tossed out by REAL restaurants frequented by royalty such as yourself. Oh, forgive me sire!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @08:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @08:17AM (#218385)

      He just meant you're underselling your valid point. :)

      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday August 05 2015, @06:16PM

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday August 05 2015, @06:16PM (#218693) Journal

        He just meant you're underselling your valid point. :)
         
        Well 8*3=24 so yeah, I'd say he's underselling it by about $4, before taxes, minimum.

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 05 2015, @02:50PM

      by Freeman (732) on Wednesday August 05 2015, @02:50PM (#218557) Journal

      Since when did a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a small jar of Jam cost $15? Maybe, if you got all Organic, but man that's expensive.

      --
      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"

      • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday August 06 2015, @01:47AM

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday August 06 2015, @01:47AM (#218907) Journal

        Not overestimated as I probably used the prices for large jars of PB and jam (skippy and welches).