January 5, 2005

Energy

Power Toys

Here are a few technical toys for getting and using power in an off-grid home.

Power Toys
Power Toys need power

Starting with the NiMH battery Charger, it holds 4 AA or AAA NiMH batteries, and charges from 120vac housepower or 12vdc car power as input. About $20 from Walmart, and came with 4 AA NiMH batteries.

That gives me power for all those battery sucking devices like flashlights, remote control vehicles my boy’s like, clocks, and caller ID phones.

Next up in the Power toolbox is my Kill-A-Watt.

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Energy

What is off-grid?

Being off-grid means something different to everyone. To me it simply means not being tethered to the services one normally expects of society.

Steve Spence and his Veggie Gen
Steve Spence and his Veggie Gen

No power grid, no water or sewer grid, and in some cases, no communications grid. Some are permanently off-grid (like ourselves), others only temporarily off-grid, in the form of RV’s, boats, vehicles, etc. When one is off-grid, one has to provide some of those services (the ones deemed necessary) for oneself.

As a new addition to the Off-Grid team, I will explain ways to obtain power, water, communications and other self provided services, and show some of the neat appropriate technologies available to you in this area. I will be presenting solutions like Rain Water Harvesting, Composting Toilets, Solar, BioThermal and Wind power, Cellular and Satellite voice/data communications, and environmental controls (Heating/Cooling) in stationary and mobile environments.

I currently use a combination of wind, pv, and Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) fueled diesel co-generation on our off-grid farmstead.

Welcome to the journey.

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Join the Off-Grid Team

POSTED 12TH MARCH 2005

We need at least three people to help us build www.off-grid.net into a center for people who want to live, work or travel in a new, free, eco-friendly way.

Ad sales person
UK research/admin volunteer
US research/admin volunteer
Other research volunteers – e.g. Australia and New Zealand

AD SALES PERSON

This is a paid position, based in the UK or the US, and on your shoulders will rest the responsibility to make the site financially viable.

We need a web literate, commercially minded person, who believes in the message on the site, that we can live off-grid in comfort, save money and be good to the planet at the same time.

Responsibilities include: supervising all advertising sales; developing relationships with long term advertisers; marketing to support the ad sales effort; coordinating with the tech team to ensure banners are well positioned and web stats are fed back to clients; promoting the retail items we sell on the site; sourcing more products for us to sell on the site.

You will need to know the nuts and bolts of Internet commerce, how do I do a good affiliate deal, and what is a bad one? What is a fair price for a banner ad? How do you count clickthroughs? No Nu-be’s please!

You will be equally at home offering a discount to an advertiser of solar panels for a banner on our home page, or negotiating with a manufacturer for a discount on a wind turbine to be sold in our online store.

At least 3 years relevant experience preferred; good teamwork vital.

This is a full time job (or more) The basic pay is $800 per month as an advance against sales targets. With excellent bonuses and achievable targets you should be bringing in $2500 within three months. After that pay will increase with the success of the site.

Please email nick@off-grid.net or call +44 7971 543703.

RESEARCH VOLUNTEERS

We need people to be constantly out there researching the latest off-grid developments, finding good stories, good writers, potential advertisers; making links to to other sites, and requesting links from them; representing off-grid in discussion groups and forums.

All expenses paid — i.e. phone calls and Internet connections.

Please email: nick at www.off-grid.net or call +44 7971 543703 – due to high levels of spam, do not assume an email you sent was actually received.

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