nicola

Off-Grid in a cold climate – tech spec

A fabulous eco-friendly home , has broken new ground by becoming a home that’s entirely self-sufficient thanks to renewable energies.

Like many of the best ideas, it was necessity that made Russell adopt renewables technology.

Building a new eco-home 400 yards from the mains electricity grid in 2009 left Russell Grogan facing an £18,000 bill to lay power cables and associated infrastructure.

Instead, the canny structural design engineer installed solar panels, solar water heating and, later, a wind turbine and wood-fuelled biomass boiler at his house at Long Rig, near Fyvie, Turriff.

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Community

Huge off-grid community

Ralph and Mary Johnson (pictured) live in Three Rivers Recreation Area, a 4,000-acre development near Lake Billy Chinook that relies on solar power for electricity.

The  development in central Oregon now includes 625 properties on 4,000 acres in a gated community where everyone is off the grid. Some of the homes sell for several million dollars, and include all of the amenities of modern life, including air conditioning. Others are little more than shacks bought for a few thousand.

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Energy

In Berlin, an experiment in living “off-grid ready”

How different is life in a super-efficient home designed to generate more energy than it consumes? The Welke family in Berlin are guinea pigs in a social experiment.

For 42-year-old Jörg Welke, it’s a dream come true. Shaped like a cube and featuring a lot of glass, Welke’s temporary new home looks more like an oversized designer-stereo than a house. A black touchscreen on the wall is the first  thing a visitor notices when entering the “efficiency plus” home. The control center allows the family to regulate its energy needs including lights, shutters, appliances and heating.

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Cómo construir panel solar para $100 – Usted puede también

En este artículo voy a describir cómo construir una foto de paneles solares fotovoltaicos para una fracción del precio que se pagaría a un fabricante. Le mostraré cómo los materiales de bajo costo y las herramientas simples pueden ser utilizados para hacer los paneles que rivalizan con los productos comerciales en la producción de energía, pero a un precio mucho más bajo.

Hace varios años me compré una propiedad a distancia en Arizona (en Ingles).

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