90 North lets get off grid!

[13dragons]

Oh yes I guess I should also mention I have a budgeted bill of 400.00 per month yes in the warmer months its only 90.00 per month that is consumed going from last years bills however as the winter months can be up to 900.00 they take a year of bills then they divide by twelve to set people like us up on a budget it is reviewed every year and sometimes like this year I will be paying in excess of what we use however for december I get a reduced bill or no money owing for that month. then they adjust for there cost increase and what we used over the last 12 months and set up a new budget of what I pay each month.

[kurt]

if you take 1.4 kWh and multiply by 1000 you get 1400 watt hours not watts the hours just don't magically disappear they is still there

[Norm]

Typical budget like we have here.....

2 bedroom ranchstyle 1/5 acre

about $80 a month consume about $120 a month in

the winter.    

[SparWeb]

Diana,

Here's some inspiration for you, from a fellow Canadian (southern Sask).

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/1/24/155533/620

"Shadow" is probably too busy keeping everything running while he goes off-grid to chat here, but the great big turbines over his house let you know he's come a long way already.

[13dragons]

Shadow has done a wonderful job,

Thank you Steve for the inspiration. Seeing it being done and hearing about it being done are two very different animals.

A question about the earth berm, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do with the hole that will come from the scooped up earth?

Also as I understand it a system for pre-warming the water before it gets to the hot water tank I know hot water rises but if I'm just bringing it to room temp instead of 10 degrees right from the earth, by having the pump feed a pre-warming plastic drum do I need to use gravity feed or will the lack of pressure in the hot water tank be enough of a suction draw that it can pull the water on its own?

[TomW]

13;

A question about the earth berm, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do with the hole that will come from the scooped up earth?

A pond?

A place to plow the driveway snow?

Personally, I would skim the dirt off from a wide area and shove it in place rather than a "hole". Maybe you need to direct some runoff water away from the building and could use dirt removed for that [2 birds one stone etc]? Of course, here, by the time you paid a dozer to move the dirt simply buying a few loads of dirt / rock might be cheaper? I think head size rock would be a good main berm material then fill over it with decent earth. Limestone quarrying is pretty common here so rock is cheaper than "black dirt".

If you are thinking of human powered dirt work then I am at a loss. Wooden dirt tools not in my tool box these days.

Just ideas.

Tom

[13dragons]

Tom, I thought pond to but my husband killed that he says standing water equals mosquitoes, I can do the wide area skim tho, yeah its a shame to use the top soil I was figuring that as I will be increasing the fruit tree and garden area I would cut the sod into manageable pieces to place on top so its not such an eye sore till it grows its own grass Ill have to talk to my husband of just getting a load delivered vesus the time investment to do it ourselves, and either a hole or no good top soil personally I think we would be better off with delivery since I can't have a pond.

[electrondady1]

scape the topsoil off

dig a pond

use the dirt for a berm

cover the berm with the top soil

seed the berm with wildflowers.

or blackberries!

stock the pond with fish that eat mosquitoes.

later you can eat the fish.

put your windmills on top of the berm.

as far as the berm design goes

the only one i have seen up close was on a low energy use house

that my design class toured way back in the first energy crisis.

it was a crescent shape.

the house side started maybe 5 feet from the foundation.

it sloped rather steeply up until it was a little higher than the eves of the roof.

the back side(windward) sloped more gently at an angle very much like that of the roof itself.

i believe the idea was the wind velocity would be maintained .

air up would flow up and over the house without dumping its snow.

i think the earth berm will really make a difference for you as far as the energy drain on your house.

but you should  study it thoroughly(successful ones not just theory) so that you don't make a problem for yourself.

you don't want the gap to fill with snow and you don't want a lot of erosion in spring.

[jonas302]

Maybe the hole could be your root celler?

Keep a eye out if there are any construction projects nearby I just got 200 yards of fill delivered for 1 dollar a yard because they didn't have to truck it far which was cheaper than buying fuel to dig it

Wish the best of luck to you it really sounds like your getting some great ideas

[DanG]

Before a solution gets too complex, a description of what is in use would be good.

Plastic drums are not usually an answer to anything concerning potable water unless it is a truly primitive area.

A better bet would be a used glass tank water heater that is still serviceable for water handling; later on it'd be easy to add a recirculation line to a heat exchanger for scavenging wood heat or direct solar, or installing DC heating elements to absorb wind power, etc.

[Tritium]

Build a concrete block room for a root cellar and build the berm over it.

Thurmond

[13dragons]

I have a water pump that draws the water up to the surface which then has copper pipe that either goes to the hot water tank or to the cold water system, I have never heard of a glass water heater. Why not a plastic drum, they are available they also do not rust like steel drums do we do not drink the hot water we bath and wash in it. people drink out of plastic all the time eg. bottled water