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."
