From: "ameijers" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.frugal-living misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Opinions on power for rural property
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2006 03:16:35 GMT


"jdoe"  wrote in message
news:cu0o22thcjdfbb1hh5jls10o9pg49k18ij@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 07:23:35 -0700, "Clark W. Griswold, Jr."
>  wrote:
>
> >Shawn Hirn  wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>I am cross posting this reply to misc.consumers.house to see if
> >>anyone on that newsgroup has ideas to share with you.
> >
> >You are really going to want to see if you can afford to have electricity
> >extended to the propoerty. Another alternative is LP heating and an LP
> >generator. It won't be near as cheap as PNM, but certainly cheaper to
install.
> >
> >Google on Guardian Generator or take a look at the Harbor Freight web
site -
> >should get you started.
>
> FWIW:
> Guardian is not well respected, look at kohler generators if you plan
> on going that route
Step one is to make your power/other energy needs as small as possible. Look
up as many references as you can on 'passive solar' and design your house
accordingly. (ie, an adobe-looking thing with thick walls, and a lot of
glass facing the sunny direction, with a big heat sink, like the household
water supply tank , getting pre-warmed by the sun.) Of course, passive solar
does involve some chores, like opening and closing blinds and air vents at
the appropriate time of day, but nothing like chasing firewood and keeping a
stove stoked would. Done right, you can even get most of the cooling for
free, with a tall tower on the roof acting as a vent stack, drawing cool air
from low-level vents or the basement. People have been living in desert and
high desert for thousands of years, and have developed a lot of cute tricks
to survive, if you can find the details to build into your place. As to
power- you can limit your need for 110v mains power- if the lot has a
semi-reliable breeze, a windmill is always useful. Either store power in a
bunch of truck batteries, or use an elevated water tank or pond on the high
end of property as a 'battery', with a small water-driven generator for 12v
or 24v power for lighting circuits. A lot of RV/Sailboat tech could be
adapted for household use. You do want to pre-wire the place for 'normal'
110v stuff as well, in case the power ever gets extended, and because code
may require it.

Standard disclaimer- I'm no expert, but have seen writeups in newspapers and
magazines about 'green' country houses like this. I know some colleges have
done them as projects. I'm sure you can find stuff to copy from out there.

aem sends...