Off-grid/sustainable/self-sufficient living?

[soursmoker]

Hey guys not really sure where is the appropriate sub-forum to post this...

Anyway, I was thinking a lot of us here seem to like the sound of living off-grid and growing all of our own food and medicine and not being governed by anyone or their laws...

But how many of us really do it? Or atleast are making efforts to do it?

I am not necessarily talking Doomsday Prepper type shit just living off the land in peace...

Any who has done it/ currently doing it have any tips and/or pictures they would like to show off?

Any good sites for info?

Let's face it, indoor growers are not the most "environmentally friendly" group... as much as we would like to be... burning HID lamps is not efficient at all....

I am sure most living off-grid are using LED's or even CFL's like Dr. bud used to...

I remember him talking about his battery bank setup and everything... many doubted him but I don't think he was bullshitting...

Technology has definitely advanced since he set up his cabin though so what new renewable energy technology do we have available to us now?

Anyone?

 

[greenpinky]

Loved dr buds set up.. but I love technology too much.. but it would be nice to not have neighbors or worry about the fuzz

 

[BasementGrower]

been thinking about this for a while . looking into making a huge Magnetic Motor Generator. I would say the most expensive part is the BATTERYS used to store electric..!! honestly. I would love to live off the land and shit. but the gov puts out all this technology to get us addicted to it.. so that living off the land would become boring.. honestly. everything they come out with in this world is just a distraction .. to distract us from whats really going on ..

 

[Mr.Fastcast]

When I think of living off the grid,I think of a life in the great state of Alaska,in the bush.You wouldn't believe how many animals you can harvest with just a $57.00 tag.

There was this show I watched a few years ago about a guy who just left it all behind and lived in the bush by himself.He was carving everything by hand and made his cabin and all things an his own,no help from no one.This guy was amazing in the skill he had to build and use everything around him,now that's living.

They do grow some large things there too.

 

[Morcheeba*]

member BigSky has a thread stickeyd documenting his build out of solar grow using hid / led.

i know many are interested but lacking real experience to convert but i will be off grid before i die, just not now while renting.


peace

 

[Mr.Fastcast]

The initial cost of this solar stuff,is way to high still to be a choice for me.They need to make solar more affordable,so everyone can get in on it.

 

[hush]

Great thread idea, sour! I will tag along and hopefully learn something here. I have already considered, and looked into the price of, running solar panels and wind turbines. It's very expensive, but I almost think to myself, what BETTER is there to spend money on, at all? I mean, I really need to do this so I can stop *renting* electricity from the coal plant. If you think about it, it's really not all that expensive if you and friends/family can actually do all the mounting, wiring, and terminating yourselves. Solar panels are certainly expensive, but the truth is, they'll probably last a long, long time.

Wind power is actually pretty damn cheap, so if you live in an area with lots of wind THIS should seriously be considered. In my dream setup, I will primarily rely on solar with supplementation from wind turbines whenever windy storms come through.

I talk to the wife a lot about moving out to the PNW, finding some land in the Columbia River Gorge, where there is lots of never-ending wind, and implementing a 100% wind-powered setup. You folks in highly windy areas should REALLY be taking advantage of that, IMHO.

 

[k-s-p]

I'm interested in running a lister and generator combo on (homebrewed) biodiesel. Small wind using something like a Bergey is interesting too. Technology and living off-grid are not mutually exclusive.

 

[bentom187]

Hempcrete FTW.i always wanted one of these.

Hemp House-Asheville, NC revisited-Video explaining hempcrete’s use

This video from 2009 is an interesting reminder of the simplicity and yet the brilliance of the hempcrete technology. It is also great for learning about the construction techniques that were used when building the hemp house. Remember the video is about building a house out of hemp. The sustainability will come when people like Obama legalize hemp for industrial use and we can grow it here in the USA.
I digress.
Enjoy the video and learn more about the properties hemp-technologies’s hempcrete below it. We have posted all the good stuff there!!!

Hemp House - Asheville, NC
[YOUTUBEIF]il7yw0JFs5c[/YOUTUBEIF]

Hemp Video description: Constructing the first permitted home in America built primarily of hemp materials, Hemp Technologies’ crew forms 12″ walls in a monolithic pour. No Blocks were used on this house.

Why We Like Hempcrete

The goal of environmentally conscious building design is to create buildings that create a healthy indoor environment while supporting a healthy outdoor environment. The best way to accomplish this goal is through combining cutting edge building science with what are commonly called “natural building” practices. High performance building science allows us to create buildings that use almostno energy to run, therefore reducing the size and price of the renewable energysystem required to bag of shiv that is used in making hempcreteproduce on site all the energy required to run the building.The natural building perspective helps us utilize natural, local, and site-harvestedmaterials that have a very low embodied energy, therefore lowering the carbonand pollution footprint of the building during construction. Together, these twostrategies allow us to reach the threshold of carbon neutrality, a building thatdoes not contribute to our current climate change problems.On the natural building side, we feel that earthen mixes don’t have adequatethermal performance while the vulnerability of straw bales to water damageconcerns us. On the high-performance commercial side, we are skeptical of thelong-term durability of SIPS walls and feel that double stick frame systems aretoo complex and prone to air infiltration weaknesses. These and other problemshave been solved by what to us is a new material: Hempcrete.Hempcrete is a mixture of industrial hemp shiv and lime-based binder. Whenused in walls, it is either spray applied or placed in forms in or around a skeletalstructure, such as a timber or steel frame. The resulting wall system has many ofthe benefits of common natural building applications, such as straw bale or clayslipstraw, with the quality control of mass-production and the durabilityprovided by coating cellulose with lime. Some of the benefits of Hempcrete forour application are:

1. High thermal resistance.
The normal Hempcrete mix has an R-valueof 2.4 per inch. This is superior to straw bale construction and any earthand straw mix. Due to reduced thermal bridging, it is also most likelysuperior on a per inch basis to conventional stick frame systems withcellulose or fiberglass insulation.

hempcrete block-example of how hempcrete is used2. Adjustable thickness.
Though Hempcrete is presently not considered astructural material it is strong enough to constitute the interior andexterior substrate for finishing materials. This means that the thickness ofa Hempcrete wall is adjustable independent of the thickness of structuralwall members. Therefore, a Hempcrete wall can be adjusted to meet thethermal requirements of any given climate.

3. Low air infiltration.
Hempcrete is a relatively dense material thateither surrounds or sits in front of or behind the structural system of awall. This means that a Hempcrete wall will be inherently quite air-tight.Low air infiltration is a pivotal component of our performance strategy.

4. Hygroscopic characteristics.
In building, a “hygroscopic material” issomething that can absorb water. Lime and Cellulose, in this case HempShiv, work together to create a wall that can take on and give off water inresponse to changing humidity levels in the air. This is called a “breathablewall” system and is a great boon to indoor air quality and wall durability.Plastered straw bale walls are “breathable” in this way. The lime inHempcrete will protect the hemp from molding, therefore creating abreathable wall that can be part of a healthy indoor air strategy in a humidclimate.

5. Substrate for lime and earth plasters.

Hempcrete is a great substratefor earth and lime plasters. No manufactured laths or synthetic vaporbarriers are required. This greatly simplifies construction, reducing laborand material costs for plastering.

6. Accommodates different structural systems.
Our preference is tobuild structures that will last many hundreds of years. Our approach fordoing this is to create a post and beam structure using masonry columnsand wooden beams. This system requires an insulation material thatwraps the exterior of the structural members and therefore must be able tostand up on its own. Hempcrete can do this. At the same time, thisstructural system is more expensive, so for smaller budgets we need to beable to use a simpler structure. Hempcrete also works well with thesimplest structural system around: the wooden stick-frame.

7. Durable and Recyclable.
Hempcrete will create a very durable wall.However, when the building lifecycle has finally come to an end,Hempcrete can be re-used, either as a building material or perhaps a soilamendment. Regardless, there will be no reason to take it to a land fill;something that can’t be said for most modern materials.

8. Beauty, of course!
People respond very positively to thick walls and rough plastered finishes. It seems to us that this combination is an aestheticarchetype. Hempcrete delivers this aesthetic not as an add-on orafterthought, but as an inherent part of its form.

Don’t forget to check out the awesome crew and additional information over at Hemp-technologies.com. And YES you can buy hempcrete!

 

[Mr.Fastcast]

Also,thay have co's that put up all the materials and labor for a turn key usage,but the problem with this system is that it never is owned by you and you are paying them a monthly fee also.That is not my idea of self sufficient,off the grid. They have you transfer the contract to the next owner of the dwelling,if you don't transfer,you don't get to buy.

In my mind,this is real backwards.

 

[Johnny Redthumb]

solar power is down to about $1 per watt, not including batteries. so $4k to setup 4kW grow on solar power.

also, check out a guy who calls himself Surefire Woodsman on youtube, he makes most preppers and survivalists look like day hikers!

 

[bentom187]

........

 

[Mr.Fastcast]

I just need to through out the fact that I live in a place that averages 316 days of sunshine,I ask you,what better place to have solar then here?

 

[Mr.Fastcast]

You also have the mindset that,if you where to buy a turnkey system,you put out so much initial money that you think to yourself that it will take forever to recoup my initial investment,and that can be a barrier for some.

 

[Growcephus]

Right there with ya brutha...

IMO, current solar technology is not a viable option unless you have a metric shit-ton of ca$h to throw into the system, and I, unfortunately, have but an imperial gram of said ca$h to work with...

I'm currently researching the feasibility of using a combination of solar and wind generated electricity as a source of power to convert water into oxygen and hydrogen gas, which is then collected and burned to power an electric generator. This approach would allow ANY form of H2O to serve as a clean burning fuel, including sea water....urine....etc...

With "free" electricity, you could establish an ideal growing environment pretty much anywhere on the planet.

That's my goal.

 

[Mr.Fastcast]

Right there with ya brutha...

IMO, current solar technology is not a viable option unless you have a metric shit-ton of ca$h to throw into the system, and I, unfortunately, have but an imperial gram of said ca$h to work with...

I'm currently researching the feasibility of using a combination of solar and wind generated electricity as a source of power to convert water into oxygen and hydrogen gas, which is then collected and burned to power an electric generator. This approach would allow ANY form of H2O to serve as a clean burning fuel, including sea water....urine....etc...

With "free" electricity, you could establish an ideal growing environment pretty much anywhere on the planet.

That's my goal.

WOW!!!!! That is really interesting to say the least.Impressive and thank you for sharing that. I forgot about that side of things.

 

[bentom187]

OtherpowerMake Your Electricity From Scratch!

the only problem I see with this is that its dangerous for children or animals to be around. but I think a fence could help.

Otherpower.com: Steam Powered Generator
[YOUTUBEIF]fykeQNVadYk[/YOUTUBEIF]

 

[Mr.Fastcast]

^^^Thank you kind sir>>>>>>It looks like I got some reading to do.

 

[bentom187]

no problem brother but be careful. simple farming ,will get ya raided.
welcome to the u-SS-a .

Texas Police Hit Organic Farm With Massive SWAT Raid


Posted: 08/15/2013 10:42 pm EDT | Updated: 08/16/2013 12:22 pm EDT

A small organic farm in Arlington, Texas, was the target of a massive police action last week that included aerial surveillance, a SWAT raid and a 10-hour search.

Members of the local police raiding party had a search warrant for marijuana plants, which they failed to find at the Garden of Eden farm. But farm owners and residents who live on the property told a Dallas-Ft. Worth NBC station that the real reason for the law enforcement exercise appears to have been code enforcement. The police seized "17 blackberry bushes, 15 okra plants, 14 tomatillo plants ... native grasses and sunflowers," after holding residents inside at gunpoint for at least a half-hour, property owner Shellie Smith said in a statement. The raid lasted about 10 hours, she said.

Local authorities had cited the Garden of Eden in recent weeks for code violations, including "grass that was too tall, bushes growing too close to the street, a couch and piano in the yard, chopped wood that was not properly stacked, a piece of siding that was missing from the side of the house, and generally unclean premises," Smith's statement said. She said the police didn't produce a warrant until two hours after the raid began, and officers shielded their name tags so they couldn't be identified. According to ABC affiliate WFAA, resident Quinn Eaker was the only person arrested -- for outstanding traffic violations.

The city of Arlington said in a statement that the code citations were issued to the farm following complaints by neighbors, who were "concerned that the conditions" at the farm "interfere with the useful enjoyment of their properties and are detrimental to property values and community appearance." The police SWAT raid came after "the Arlington Police Department received a number of complaints that the same property owner was cultivating marijuana plants on the premises," the city's statement said. "No cultivated marijuana plants were located on the premises," the statement acknowledged.

The raid on the Garden of Eden farm appears to be the latest example of police departments using SWAT teams and paramilitary tactics to enforce less serious crimes. A Fox television affiliate reported this week, for example, that police in St. Louis County, Mo., brought out the SWAT team to serve an administrative warrant. The report went on to explain that all felony warrants are served with a SWAT team, regardless whether the crime being alleged involves violence.

In recent years, SWAT teams have been called out to perform regulatory alcohol inspections at a bar in Manassas Park, Va.; to raid bars for suspected underage drinking in New Haven, Conn.; to perform license inspections at barbershops in Orlando, Fla.; and to raid a gay bar in Atlanta where police suspected customers and employees were having public sex. A federal investigation later found that Atlanta police had made up the allegations of public sex.

Other raids have been conducted on food co-ops and Amish farms suspected of selling unpasteurized milk products. The federal government has for years been conducting raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in states that have legalized them, even though the businesses operate openly and are unlikely to pose any threat to the safety of federal enforcers.

 

[hush]

OtherpowerMake Your Electricity From Scratch!

Wow, man, that is a really cool resource there. Thanks for the link!

On a related note, I clicked on the above link, was digging what I was seeing, and as I scrolled down I saw an article titled "Solar Panel Syndrome - A New Scourge?" which piqued my interest, so I clicked on it.

As I continued reading, I was thinking to myself, "This can't be real, right? What is this website's agenda? Why did bentom187 link to this page? WTF?!"

Then I get to the end of the article, all fired up mad, and I read the closing sentence:

...we at Otherpower are very alarmed about this new data, and we sincerely wish you........APRIL FOOLS, 2013

I kicked my own ass afterward, lol. What a cool website!