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We've scrimped. We've saved. We've searched far and wide. At long last
we're here- The Country.
Whether our Country is 100 acres in the center of the middle of nowhere,
or nestled among other small homesteads of a few acres each, we take very
seriously the stewardship of this precious land we have chosen to call
Home Sweet Home.
Organic gardening? Of course.
Learning and/or perfecting farming crafts and skills? Absolutely.
Self-sufficiency is the core of the Apple of Homesteadery. Duh.
A few of us are settling virgin acres miles from conventional power, while
most of us are building reasonably close to utility hookups or renovating
old farmhouses with varying degrees of modernization.
The former group of Homesteaders has no choice- alternative energy is
thrust upon them, and they have my undying admiration. Their task is huge,
their dedication to the "simple" life inspiring, mainly because there is
nothing simple about it.
I belong to the latter group, those of us who unthinkingly turn on the tap
and water comes out, flip a switch and lights come on, adjust the
thermostat and feel comfortable. We must consciously choose between
conventional consumption and alternative, possibly less convenient but
undeniably more Earth friendly utility options.
My family is at the point of choosing, and although we have never been
accused of being "normal" or "average", I believe our findings and plans
match many other contemporary Homesteaders'.
If you are looking for a really good, technical article on the science of
photovoltaics, there are hundreds of them on the web and whole shelves of
books devoted to that, but this ain't it. I don't necessarily need to know
How this stuff works, I need to know Why it will work for my family and
our tiny fragment of Earth. This is one country gal who barely made it
through high school science trying to gather enough basic knowledge to
make sense and make a difference.
In a nutshell, here's how it works-
Energy from the Sun is collected by solar panels. It's transported to
batteries that store it, and from there it goes to an inverter that turns
it into usable, garden variety electricity. It then travels a) back into
your house to power your stuff, or, in an inter-tie situation, b) back
through the meter (which will run it BACKWARDS) and into the grid to run
other peoples' stuff.
*Disclaimer* The following thoughts, ideas and plans are the express
opinions of the Dixon family. Each family has their own level of comfort
regarding utilities, and except for possibly using genetically enhanced
hamsters on amphetamines running little power wheels, everyone's opinions
are correct for them, and to be respected. *End Disclaimer*
Our current utility situation includes city water, city sewer,
conventional electric and natural gas hookups.
Our first task was to decide how much energy we wanted to cover, and our
confident albeit naive answer was "Hey, since we are going to do it, why
not do it up right? Let's produce ALL our electricity with the help of Old
Sol."
Next, we needed to look at our existing electrical usage (egads!). Using a
handy worksheet I downloaded from RealGoods, we ascertained that during
our high-usage months, we use just shy of 80,000 watt hours per day, or
2,400 kilowatts per month. This was verified by looking at our electric
bill. Oh sure, I could've just looked at the bill and saved myself several
hours lookin' under and behind stuff with my reading glasses, a
flashlight, and a large shoe to squash creepy things, but the worksheet
itemizes and highlights the powerhogs. (Plus I now know where all the
dustbunnies go when they die).
For a system to power our current house at our current usage using our
high month figures, we would need to write a check for right around
$100,000. Hmmmm, we need a Plan. This is obviously not one of those
projects that can be tackled of a piece (unless I'm holding the winning
Texas Lottery ticket).
Also, if we lived in the Austin TX area, AustinEnergy would pay us $5 per
watt towards our installation. Given that cost is between $6 and $9 per
watt, that's pretty sweet. My husband thinks it's reason enough to pack up
and move to Austin, but he's always looking for an excuse to do that...
STEP ONE: we need to TURN STUFF OFF. I was assured that our electric usage
was pretty standard for a house of our size, but that only made me feel
worse, because I thought we already DID use less electricity than most
folks. Just paying attention and turning stuff off will cut our usage by
about 15%, according to Stephen the Technician at RealGoods.
STEP TWO: upgrade/eliminate our appliances. We don't use some of the watt
guzzlers anyway- hair dryers, curling irons, coffee makers; but our water
heater was old when we bought the house, so no telling it's exact age, and
from the faded label on the side, uses a whopping 4,500 watts of
electricity. Granted I'm a terrible laundress and only wash in cold water,
we don't have an automatic dishwasher (well, sort of- my wonderful husband
gets up from the dinner table and automatically does them), and we all
take short showers in the morning, but DANG. So Mr. Water Heater is first
on the appliance Hit List- my husband has been drooling over the tank-less
super-efficient ones at the Home Depot for several years anyway.
Our other appliances are not too bad. Our fridge and freezer are both 1/3
smaller than most folks' and under 5 years of age. Our little apartment
sized dryer, bless it's heart, was a reject from the clinic I manage when
they upgraded to a full sized model, but since it's smaller, uses less
than half the watts of a full sized dryer. Our washer, handed down to me
used when my 18 year old son was still in cloth diapers, will have to be
replaced also, but not mainly as an electrical issue, but a water one- our
plumber estimates it's using almost 50 gallons per load.
The kicker of course, is that these trusty old appliances are STILL
WORKING. I guess there's something to be said for replacing them BEFORE
they screech to a halt, but I'm still from the "You don't buy new, you
make do" generation. Replacing our appliances with new efficient ones will
shave another 35% from our usage, taking us down to half our current
consumption without touching a solar panel, battery or inverter.
STEP THREE: we can address the solar installation in stages, starting with
enough panels to produce about 1/2 our needs, during most months, and
build up from there.
You can, if you are a do-it-yourselfer, climb-on-the-roofer, not-askeerd-of-high-voltager,
put together your own solar system, buying piece by piece the panels,
batteries, inverters and whatnots OR you can find a company who's been
doing this for years and has pre-packaged units that are slightly altered
according to situation, who come to your house and install the whole
shebang (Howdy, come on in, I'll whip up a fresh batch of tea. Sweet or
Unsweet?).
Now, since we already have electricity, courtesy of TXU Electric, a tie-in
system just makes sense. If we have rain for a week like we did back in
June and we deplete our stored power, the system will shift to TXU
electric so seamlessly (supposedly) that only our computer will notice it.
If we are making more than we can store, the surplus power gets washed
back into the Grid and our meter runs backwards (I want to SEE that)!
There is a disconnect option, so anytime we want to, we can completely cut
off from the Grid and be a free-standing entity.
Armed with my electric bill, the customer service number, and the
righteous knowledge that it's federally mandated that power companies must
buy back excess electricity produced, I bravely called TXU Customer
Service. Note that I HAD been warned that the power company would not
HAPPILY buy back electricity nor would they make it easy. After mucking
through the swamp of "for my convenience" voice mail options and people
who had no inkling of what I was talking about ("So why are you putting
lights on the roof?"), I reached the executive offices and was told by Ms.
Generic Phonevoice "Your call is VERY IMPORTANT to us. Please leave a
message and we will return your call". Still waiting...
After chatting with Phil at Solar Installations in Dallas, who has been in
the solar business for over 20 years, I was assured that he has installed
systems for folks using our electric company, and after he educates them
some, they have always gone ahead and installed a net meter.
Well, Class, what have we learned? We have learned something that our
friends Homesteading in the Boonies already know- we need to THINK about
where stuff comes from. We are so removed from the sources of everything,
even those of us growing our own fruit and veggies (turn on the sprinkler
and water comes out, cook and can on the stove, store in the freezer),
raising our own livestock (electric fencing, lights for those early
morning and winter evening feedings, tank heaters for the Snowbirds), and
working those Homestead Crafts and Skills (power tools and tractors
anyone?) need to sit up and take notice.
If we pay more attention to our consumption, and take steps to be
responsible for our own power production, we will pay less to Reddy
Kilowatt, and simultaneously pay into our children's healthy future on a
healthy planet.
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