diy solar

diy solar

Why Bother!? $$$OffGrid$$$

Ampster said:
Kamala Harris is a Senator at the Federal level and my experience is Senators don't care about local issues. Try your State Assembly person, a County Supervisor or a City Council person.
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Yes, I am aware of that. Trust me, I started with my county district board of supervisors and worked my way up - the only one I heard about back through the grapevine was the call from Kamala's office. Nobody else much cared. I made an impassioned plea to the board of supervisors - said they'd give some old folks a bag of pellets and pat themselves on the backs for having kept them warm for a month, but they could keep us warm for decades just by spending 35 cents on a green-sticker. Mom is on a respirator, I'm on BiPap at night, and my adult special needs handicapped son is on CPAP. Nobody cares. It isn't like we want them to give us anything, we just want to buy electricity like everyone else - we had it for 25 years but it got an emergency disconnect when we had a house fire. Oh they gave me a permit to put in new electrical service, I spent a year's worth of my disability to put in a new pole, service entrance, meter box, cables, conduit etc, passed a very expensive electrical inspection, and an inspection by the power company then when it came time to sign off on my completed project the county code people said NO. It is all a bunch of bullshit, but I've moved on - if they want to consider me to be a squatter on my long paid for and current on taxes property then so be it. The Federal Government, and the State of California both agree I live here just not my stupid county. I suppose at some point someone must have had their hand out expecting a bribe and I didn't catch on - wouldn't have paid it anyway.
 
Trukinbear said:
Yes, I am aware of that. Trust me, I started with my county district board of supervisors and worked my way up - the only one I heard about back through the grapevine was the call from Kamala's office. Nobody else much cared. I made an impassioned plea to the board of supervisors - said they'd give some old folks a bag of pellets and pat themselves on the backs for having kept them warm for a month, but they could keep us warm for decades just by spending 35 cents on a green-sticker. Mom is on a respirator, I'm on BiPap at night, and my adult special needs handicapped son is on CPAP. Nobody cares. It isn't like we want them to give us anything, we just want to buy electricity like everyone else - we had it for 25 years but it got an emergency disconnect when we had a house fire. Oh they gave me a permit to put in new electrical service, I spent a year's worth of my disability to put in a new pole, service entrance, meter box, cables, conduit etc, passed a very expensive electrical inspection, and an inspection by the power company then when it came time to sign off on my completed project the county code people said NO. It is all a bunch of bullshit, but I've moved on - if they want to consider me to be a squatter on my long paid for and current on taxes property then so be it. The Federal Government, and the State of California both agree I live here just not my stupid county. I suppose at some point someone must have had their hand out expecting a bribe and I didn't catch on - wouldn't have paid it anyway.
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Друг, добро пожаловать в народную социалистическую республику Калифорния.
 
LB3 said:
Друг, добро пожаловать в народную социалистическую республику Калифорния.
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My problem isn't with the state but is with my very Republican, and successionist county. The State says I'm just fine.
 
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And what is with the Russian? They haven't been communist in over a generation. State law is the only thing that keeps the county from getting me if my property.
 
I just filed a pro se motion recently. It was free to efile in Texas. Not sure what your options are in California but the cost of them hiring one of the 3 attorneys in the county would be far more than the cost of issuing the permit.

That or file to run for a county office in the next primary. Local politicians hate having to spend money on primary fights and might grant the permit if you agree to withdraw.
 
Plot Twist:

Hooking up to the grid would involve not only running wire, but installing a transformer from the high voltage lines that pass along the road. I could probably add a connection from the neighbor in the local village, but that would still be expensive because the lines would have to pass through a significant amount of forest before they'd get to my cabin. I think I'm back in the solar power camp now.
 
heatwave said:
for example, to run copper from the power line pole closest to my property, it would be as much as my pv system cost that powers the entire ranch. The power company says it is my responsibility to pay that. Blackouts are commonplace for days at a time, in the peak of summer, when we reach130F.
It became my choice how to begin being way off grid. At the end of the day no one can 'turn me off' at any time nor lien on me for any reason. It is not a bad thing in any way to adapt yourself to how you feel comfortable. This may a spectacular turning point for a person for understanding the actual need for less in their lives. Do, 'you', and what you are comfortable with. I watched SolarQueen vids for at least a year or 2 before diving in.
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How far away is that?
 
ArthurEld said:
I bet on grid sucks in Peru. They probably lose power 50 times a year or more. A lot of electronics don't handle that well either.
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It's actually not that bad. There are plenty of outages, but I was there in the middle of the rainy season last year for a couple months planting trees, and we had huge storms. I think the power went out maybe 2-3 times over the course of two months.
 
AgroVenturesPeru said:
It's actually not that bad. There are plenty of outages, but I was there in the middle of the rainy season last year for a couple months planting trees, and we had huge storms. I think the power went out maybe 2-3 times over the course of two months.
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I lived in Costa Rica and the power went out a lot. I assumed Peru would be similar.
My place was kind of remote.
A lot of the outages were less than one minute but we had to put battery backups on electronics. We had plenty of outages for hours or days.
I would have liked a grid tied solar system with batteries for uninterruptible power.
 
LB3 said:
I just filed a pro se motion recently. It was free to efile in Texas. Not sure what your options are in California but the cost of them hiring one of the 3 attorneys in the county would be far more than the cost of issuing the permit.

That or file to run for a county office in the next primary. Local politicians hate having to spend money on primary fights and might grant the permit if you agree to withdraw.
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I sat in on several county council meetings and all they ever discussed were all the lawsuits against them, they seemed rather gleeful about fighting each and every one of them. One of them was a homeowner who built a new (very nice) home but at the last minute changed the design to have a roof over the front entry - this put them a couple of feet into the setback. They were never allowed to occupy the house, tried to agree to remove the overhang but couldn't get a permit to do that - now some three years later all their permits have expired and the house has become an unpermitted structure and has been ordered to be demolished. Apparently, the county has spent some $60k in legal fees just on this one case, and they refuse to relent. My situation is such that they would actually make money off of me if they let me buy power, and the sticker is 35 cents. They just don't care. We're in a very poor area but they've got the idea they can turn it into Malibu just before they leave the state of California (they are state of Jefferson secessionist). The powers that be in the state are dismayed by our situation but have no sway (or haven't had) over the county. I also campaigned for my county councilman's competitor and told everyone at my end of the county - many of which called to ask why I can't have power - all about it.
 
Trukinbear said:
I sat in on several county council meetings and all they ever discussed were all the lawsuits against them, they seemed rather gleeful about fighting each and every one of them. One of them was a homeowner who built a new (very nice) home but at the last minute changed the design to have a roof over the front entry - this put them a couple of feet into the setback. They were never allowed to occupy the house, tried to agree to remove the overhang but couldn't get a permit to do that - now some three years later all their permits have expired and the house has become an unpermitted structure and has been ordered to be demolished. Apparently, the county has spent some $60k in legal fees just on this one case, and they refuse to relent. My situation is such that they would actually make money off of me if they let me buy power, and the sticker is 35 cents. They just don't care. We're in a very poor area but they've got the idea they can turn it into Malibu just before they leave the state of California (they are state of Jefferson secessionist). The powers that be in the state are dismayed by our situation but have no sway (or haven't had) over the county. I also campaigned for my county councilman's competitor and told everyone at my end of the county - many of which called to ask why I can't have power - all about it.
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?Your county leadership is worse than Soviets. At least you could count on the politburo’s corruption. It sounds like you’re dealing with the Taliban or ISIS.
 
LB3 said:
?Your county leadership is worse than Soviets. At least you could count on the politburo’s corruption. It sounds like you’re dealing with the Taliban or ISIS.
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Yeah, but they wave flags and claim to be patriots - they want to leave the state of California and form the state of Jefferson so they can open carry, and not pay any taxes (or probably provide any services either). State of Jefferson successionist a-holes - Yee-Haw!
 
SOme of this makes no sense.... How do you only have four hours of sunlight in Peru?
It sounds nice to have a single digit power bill, but how long will that last? I mean is there some sort of guarantee that it wont go up in the future? It also seems if you are only using a tiny bit of electricity, you could build a much cheaper solar system.
 
JoeHam said:
I am finishing up a critical loads panel run off solar with grid backup. This panel includes two refrigerators and my sump pump along with a number of other circuits.
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Having freezers to power is an advantage: you can let them run deeper than necessary when the sun is hot and let them off power overnight if they are insulated well enough.
The less sun comes out, the less power they need.
 
rin67630 said:
Having freezers to power is an advantage: you can let them run deeper than necessary when the sun is hot and let them off power overnight if they are insulated well enough.
The less sun comes out, the less power they need.
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I agree but my wife doesn’t want a big freezer in the kitchen to replace a normal fridge.

Decision made! ?
 
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