Visitors...(RANT)

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  • PhilS
    PhilS Solar Expert Posts: 370 ✭✭✭
    #32
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)
    Dave Sparks wrote: »
    Not too many things as sad as an offgrid home that is empty!

    That's my published opinion too. Being married well over 40 years, sometimes separate vacations are planned so nobody else is needed to monitor the homestead.

    This has absolutely nothing to do with the fun my friends and I have in Las Vegas every June.

    Also, nothing to do with the fun she'll have in China with her friends next year.

    Only to do with keeping an 'off-grid' home from being empty. (Dave, doing anything next September? Wanna compare panels?).

    Phil
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  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,006 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #33
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)
    plongson wrote: »
    My little primer from the beginning has fallen on deaf ears, these GREEN HYPOCRITES don't know the first thing about saving energy or where it comes from. They think it comes from the energy fairy...

    You should set them straight right off, just tell them the truth, that, off grid can't be green, it takes more energy to make the amount you use and store than someone connected to the grid.

    After that they might be able to understand that the only way you are "Green" is in your conservation of energy.
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #34
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)
    Photowhit wrote: »
    You should set them straight right off, just tell them the truth, that, off grid can't be green, it takes more energy to make the amount you use and store than someone connected to the grid.

    After that they might be able to understand that the only way you are "Green" is in your conservation of energy.

    i don't know if that answer will work as they will then be mad at him for not being "green" and they will still use as much power, water, etc as they have been and maybe even more if they are mad at him.

    conservation is being green and his guests certainly aren't conserving, which is why he called them hypocrites. being off grid is just switching suppliers to one that is more limited in capacity as he is his own electric company and he can't seem to afford the big generation plant his guests have come to expect.

    it still boils down to his being disrespected in his own home. this alone warrants a more demanding solution with the most severe answer being to invite the bums out of his home permanently.
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  • Vic
    Vic Solar Expert Posts: 3,208 ✭✭✭✭
    #35
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    IIRC, Paul uses one of the nicest, heavy duty diesel gensets that I've seen -- a Kubota SQ-1200. It is Super Quiet 21ish KW genset. Think that there is enough there to do the job.

    Perhaps Paul should get a very cheesy, LOUD gasoline generator and place it on the front porch, to demonstrate when the generator is needed to make up for the high demands the guests are palcing on the system, and the lack of green-ness of those demands.

    Those of us who are GTed often do not appreciate just how much power it takes to do many things ... oh, that is obvious! Vic
    Off Grid - Two systems -- 4 SW+ 5548 Inverters, Surrette 4KS25 1280 AH X2@48V, 11.1 KW STC PV, 4X MidNite Classic 150 w/ WBjrs, Beta KID on S-530s, MX-60s, MN Bkrs/Boxes.  25 KVA Polyphase Kubota diesel,  Honda Eu6500isa,  Eu3000is-es, Eu2000,  Eu1000 gensets.  Thanks Wind-Sun for this great Forum.
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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #36
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    I like Vic's idea of a very LOUD generator on the porch. :p:p:p
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  • plongson
    plongson Solar Expert Posts: 115 ✭✭
    #37
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    Here are a few photos of the place. I posted some on the Midnite forum if they look familiar. Man it's cold here right now with night time lows at -5*f but the sun has been shining during the day and we've been making good power. We finally got rid of all the "homesteaders" and it sure is quiet...Just the way I like it.

    IMAG0105.jpg

    BDRanchHouse12-04-2011004.jpg

    IMAG0057.jpg
    The little Honda Rancher had a LOAD!!

    BDRanchHouse12-04-2011016.jpg

    2011-11-20_11-30-55_424.jpg
    3500w solar, 800AH with Rolls Surrette, Magnum inverter, Midnite charge controller, Kubota 21kW diesel genset...private well...and just recently connected to city power for additional options...nice to have options 
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  • chevenstein
    chevenstein Solar Expert Posts: 100 ✭✭
    #38
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    Being off grid may not be green in and of itself, but it sure can teach people about how much energy they use (per my own experience with house guests and those previously voiced here: the guests that "got" it left with a better appreciation of energy use in their every day life).

    The observation I will add is that the people who do get it seem to have a preexisting ability to appreciate details that those who don't get it do not. It's in the implications of things: I can scoff at my Prius driving friend with my antique diesel pickup truck on the carbon dioxide issue if I fill it with 100% biodiesel; there are those who immediately "get" why I can scoff, and those who don't, sometimes not even after lengthy discussion about where the fuels come from, etc. (Of course, he can scoff at my particulate air pollution, then I can lob it right back on where his batteries came from, and it can go on from there over some good beer ;) ).
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  • RandomJoe
    RandomJoe Solar Expert Posts: 472 ✭✭✭
    #39
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    Now that I've picked myself up off the floor...

    WOW that is a GORGEOUS place you have there! :cool: Absolutely fantastic, I love it!
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #40
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    nice place. love that view off of the deck.8)
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  • techntrek
    techntrek Solar Expert Posts: 1,372 ✭✭✭
    #41
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    Yup, officially jealous here. :-)
    4.5 kw APC UPS powered by a Prius, 12 kw Generac, Honda EU3000is
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,613 admin
    #42
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    Heck yea! I would bring a couple of jerry cans filled with Diesel or a hundred pound propane tank as price for a visit. :D

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • plongson
    plongson Solar Expert Posts: 115 ✭✭
    #43
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    Thanks everybody. This home has been a LONG time coming with years of planning and saving. Only about 5 more till retirement but we're planning on living there at least 75% or more. Good lord willing, we are still kick'n like kids (well, that could be a bit of an exaggeration) but we are in good shape.

    We sure got some great info here and we really appreciate the help.

    Paul
    3500w solar, 800AH with Rolls Surrette, Magnum inverter, Midnite charge controller, Kubota 21kW diesel genset...private well...and just recently connected to city power for additional options...nice to have options 
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  • Grandpaclark61
    Grandpaclark61 Registered Users Posts: 5 ✭
    #44
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)

    We all need a good rant every once and awhile! People can't seem to get a clue these days. Speaking of getting a clue, I need some advice on the solar panels I am installing in my home. Is there a good San Jose electrician out there with experience that anyone knows about? There are a few areas where I just don't want to go out on a limb and try it myself. Thanks!
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #45
    Re: Visitors...(RANT)
    Grandpaclark61 wrote: »
    We all need a good rant every once and awhile! People can't seem to get a clue these days. It's like they have no concept of anything besides their needs and WANTS! Tell a kid to get off their cell phone or video games for more than a half hour and all hell breaks loose. Not like it used to be...

    Curmudgeons of the world, unite!

    http://www.phespirit.info/montypython/four_yorkshiremen.htm

    [...]
    FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
    Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.
    FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
    And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.
    ALL:
    They won't!
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