All you need to go off-grid

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Energy

Banks and Utilities manipulating energy prices

Britain’s top energy companies have been accused of fiddling the price of gas and electricity. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. The UK Government is looking into it.

But has the same thing been happening in America?

British bank Barclays Barclays has been fined $470m by US regulators for manipulating the American electricity market.
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has provisionally fined the bank $435m and ordered it to repay $34.9m in “unjust profit.”…

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November 13, 2012 No Comments

Turn off your power for a week… what would you learn?

So, you are sitting in your climate controlled home, with lights, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, heaters, fans, TVs, computers, home theater systems, running water, sanitary systems and all the other things that go along with modern life. Now, go into your garage, or whatever room where your power panel resides and shut off the main switch. Now walk through your home, look around at all the electronic appliances and gadgets that are now nothing more than lumps of worthless metal and electronics. Now imagine how you would live if none of these things came back on? What if this was not just your home but your neighborhood? City? Country? World? Sounds drastic doesn’t it? Could you live, could you survive without all of these electronics being powered from the grid?…

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November 11, 2012 8 Comments

Nearly two million still without power in US

With under 48 hours till the start of polling, President Barack Obama’s reputation for effectiveness will be shredded unless he can get many more Americans back on the grid.
Reuters reports 1.9 million homes and businesses in the U.S. Northeast were still without power on Sunday, barely changed from earlier in the day, nearly a week after Hurricane Sandy hit, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability said in a report.…

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November 4, 2012 1 Comment
Energy

Unplugged

As millions live without power or sanitation, or even gasoline, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it seems the North-East of America is getting its first big lesson in living without the access to the power grid and fresh water supplies that are taken for granted the rest of the time. While the big banks and financial institutions were largely up and running within 24 hours, millions of ordinary homes are last in the queue, giving way rightly to hospitals and schools, and wrongly to offices and factories. Shame also that it took a catastrophe to get America talking about Global Warming (see our story from last year about “Global Storming”)

It will be uncomfortable at times and relatively short-lived –up to several weeks in many cases. Although, look on the bright side, it may encourage folks to realise they can survive without the grid and save money doing it. It was only the well prepared who will have had the simple solar panel, charge controller and battery to manage their own power station

You could call them the “off-grid ready.”…

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November 2, 2012 No Comments

Ausgrid rip-off

SYDNEY, 29 Oct – POWER USERS IN AUSTRALIA paid for a $40 million substation as part of $1 billion spent on gold-plating electricity infrastructure — and it’s not even hooked up to the grid.

State-owned energy company Ausgrid spent the cash in breach of national electricity guidelines, with the costs passed on to consumers as higher network charges on their quarterly power bills.

The company is planning to spend another $1 billion on pointless upgrades to poles and wires over the next two years, potentially adding a further $502 to the annual family power bill, according to the national regulator.…

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October 28, 2012 No Comments
Energy

Manage your own power station

Useful article on producer.com which explains the math of power consumption – what is a kilowatt hour exactly? And goes through a checklist of energy-consumption behavior you will want to change when you begin to live off-grid.

Electrical consumption must be reduced by transferring major heating loads to other sources of energy. Electrical clothes dryers and water heaters can be replaced by gas-powered units. Hot water heating can also be done with solar thermal systems or be fired by gas or wood. Your building’s energy efficiency, passive solar collection and natural indoor lighting become much more important when trying to get off the grid.
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October 12, 2012 1 Comment
Community

Freezer to fridge conversion

Living off-grid, I get questions from time to time, mainly about how we live, some even think we must live in a cave and eat dirt and wear skins…  I said I live off-grid, but we don’t live that primitively! :) I do enjoy some of the modern conveniences of life, including having a place to keep perishable foods, aka a refrigerator.

When we first moved off-grid, in Dec ’07, we brought with us a small, dorm sized fridge, but honestly we didn’t use it much, only plugging it up on the occasions when I brought home a gallon of milk or a pound of ground beef, once the perishable food was gone, we unplugged the fridge. What I quickly found out was the standard type of fridge used up a LOT of power and they tend to be very inefficient.…

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October 3, 2012 30 Comments
Energy

China prioritises off-grid power

China may be the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases but it’s also the biggest green economy.

Now Beijing has asked local governments across the nation to submit proposals for “non-grid-connected” (ie off-grid) solar power generation projects, whose total scale exceeds targets set under the current 5 year plan by 50%.
The development comes at a time when international demand for solar panels is weak and industry overcapacity and corporate losses are severe, said state-owned media. It would help domestic solar panels and parts makers, but analysts said implementation would bypass the powerful power distribution monopoly State Grid Corp.
The National Energy Administration this week,demanded all the provinces and municipalities to submit implementation proposals, the China Securities Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.…

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September 25, 2012 No Comments
Energy

Super-efficient generator

Watch out for Shannon Miller and her company EtaGen. Her generators may soon be providing a power solution in places with little sun or wind.

It’s hard to radically improve the internal-combustion engine. But Shannon Miller may have done it, by getting it to work at extremely high compression and expansion ratios. Miller’s engines use 33 percent less fuel than conventional gas-powered generators.…

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September 25, 2012 2 Comments
Energy

Eco-tricity on a still and cloudy day

BioLite stove products are making camping and cooking with wood more eco-friendly, and providing an off-grid power source for charging phones, lights, and other electronics where there is no sun or wind.

There has been a flurry of new products offering an off-grid power supply. Bio-Lite is one of the most innovative.
A brainchild of New York-based, Smart Design, BioLite is a wood-burning stove that utilizes its own thermal energy to burn wood as cleanly as gas. Amazingly, it also converts waste heat into electricity, powering not only a combustion-improving fan, but also electricity to charge phones, lights, and other electronics off the grid.
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September 13, 2012 2 Comments
Energy

Horse Power

Here is an idea that ought to be included in Revolution, the new JJ Webber series, on NBC.

When I was writing my book OFF THE GRID I travelled all over visiting people – this picture was taken in an Amish community in Kentucky where electricity was banned – only motive power is allowed.

What you see here is true green energy:- the horse eats grass and produces energy. Several homes in this community have adopted horse-power. As the horse turns the treads, motive power is generated via the red tube to power an icebox, washing machine, or any other motor. …

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September 12, 2012 2 Comments
Energy

World Economic Forum launches energy propaganda unit

Be Warned.

The World Economic Forum has launched their Energy for Society initiative, “which seeks to engage citizens in a discussion about the future of the energy industry.”

The initiative is supported by a new online platform with 24 case studies that “demonstrate corporate best practices for meeting the world’s growing energy needs while improving living standards for those with limited access to energy.”

Twenty global energy companies signed on to the initiative. Leaders of the companies agreed on five principles – supplying secure and affordable access to energy, having efficient energy systems, upholding responsible citizenship in communities, contributing to economic development and promoting energy literacy.…

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September 12, 2012 1 Comment