Miomarmo

Simple Statement of the Day

The difference between animals and humans is that animals change themselves for the environment, but humans change the environment for themselves.
~ Ayn Rand

Simple Statement of the Day

We won't have a society if we destroy the environment.
~ Margaret Mead

Waaaay Better Than Expected

We moved into our off-grid house a month ago and have been taking baby steps fully integrating our lives into our new home (we still have the old house we're selling, so have access to "real" power, etc.).

We first began sleeping there and then coming to our old house to shower and eat (i.e., cook). Eventually, we began using the water, and plugged in the refrigerator, and are now bathing there regularly. Why were we so afraid to jump right in? We were worried about how much power we had, or didn't have. The controls for our Outback charge controller were overwhelming at first. The display shows things like the five stages of charging regulation, there is screen after screen of data and information, and even though we had read up on all of this, we were, to say the least, overwhelmed with information. We didn't know how much power we actually had, how much we were making, or when and/or if the power would go out any second!

But, we just kept reading and watching the numbers until we "got it." Listen, read, and watch and it all soon makes sense.

So, what's it like living in an off-grid house?

There are two of us in a two-story home in New England (i.e., cold winters). We opted for the big fireplace insert (which is basically a wood stove with windows set into your existing fireplace) and we have never been so warm. During the most recent snowstorm we were inside in our shorts, barefoot. We do have a furnace but so far, no need for that (we have it mainly so we can leave for more than 24 hours at a time during the winter).

Warm 

I had long ago imagined little to no water pressure. Spitting showers were in my future, and washing my car at home would be a big no no. But nooooooo, water pressure is the best I've had, and yes, instant hot water DOES work! We opted for the super-efficient water pump that cost extra, but definitely paying off.

Showers/Water Pressure

All or our lights use CFLs and we have more than the usual number of lights and light switches so you can control light where you are in the house (task lighting), rather than lighting up the whole thing unnecessarily. Since we've never run out of power (yet), this has worked great and we can breathe easier than we thought about this.

Lights

Our appliances are extremely efficient. Our average kwh (kilowatt hours) at our old house, with its old frig, washing machine, etc. uses about 20 kwh per day. And we used CFLs there too, we're very good about leaving lights off, we use cold water to wash our clothes, no dryer, etc. Our new house uses about 2-3 kwh a day (at most). Our refrigerator, alone, uses about 1 kwh per day and it's on 24/7. It's a normal sized refrigerator, brand new, but none of our appliances have extras on them: no cold water from the door, no ice-making machine, only one appliance has a clock on it! We also use Belkin power strips and turn off all our TV and associated electronics (stereo, DVD player, satellite TV box) when not in use. Rather than having to unplug them all (leaving them plugged in uses standby power that adds up over time), one switch turns them all off at once. (Note, the switch is on the wall, no climbing around behind furniture to unplug anything). I don't have a dishwasher, but I could, and will, someday.

Appliances/Luxuries of Life

Daily Life: When we wake up in the morning the first thing we do is check out the voltage readout. A reading 48 or above is plenty of power, anything below and we have to watch it and see if we'll need to run the generator to power up the batteries (we haven't had to do this yet!). If it's above 48 and it's also sunny and/or windy, we're even better as it's only going to increase during the day.

The reading is on the wall in the kitchen so it's easy to watch. You can also see at any time how many amps of power you're using at any given time. It's usually at 0 because it doesn't read anything below 1 and our house is so efficient. When we run a vacuum cleaner or a ceiling fan (and especially something with heat, like an iron) it jumps to anywhere between 6 and 32 amps. But it also fluctuates. When you first turn something with a motor on, it jumps up pretty high then settles down to a lower amperage. So, when I thought I'd only be able to vacuum the house on long sunny days in the summer, I was wrong. I can do this pretty much anytime I feel like it (did I say "I feel like vacuuming"?).

If the voltage is low, I may want to forgo vacuuming that day but we can also charge it up with the generator (a couple of hours of the generator running will supply us with plenty of power for a few days). We do try and not have to use the generator, however, as we're conscious of burning fossil fuels unnecessarily.

So, I watch TV, I listen to the stereo, I take showers, wash dishes in hot water, there's plenty of light, and I can blow dry my hair on a cold day. What it took was preparation and new "stuff." It's a great testament to how efficient new appliances and electronics are getting these days. I could be double-y efficient at the old house as far as usage and still use 10 or 20 times the power I do now at our new house.

We tend to grin a lot and jump and dance a lot at the new house. It's so warm and solid and efficient and light-filled that we have to sometimes pinch ourselves that it's all ours.

Life

Replacing Electrical Appliances

We are moving into our off-grid house this month. We've been preparing for this for years now and one of the things I've had to do is find alternatives to the electrical appliances I use now as I'd like to keep these little luxuries. I have found a few alternatives:

Coffee Maker: I've used a regular Mr. Coffee for 15 years now—the same one (good review for a Mr. Coffee, right?). What I like about it is it keeps a pot of coffee hot for 2 hours and turns off by itself as a precaution. My replacement for this (and yes, I have a home for the old one with a friend who doesn't have a coffee maker) is the "Acid Reducing Flavor Enhancing Coffee Hourglass" from Hammacher Schlemmer. It brews the coffee slowly using gravity and a stainless steel filter (and no electricity). Once it's filtered it keeps for two weeks and you simply add hot water to it a cup at a time. Or, make a whole pot and store it in a thermos. The added bonus is no more paper coffee filters. And, this slow brewing process removes that acidity from the coffee, which is what can hurt your stomach.

Lighting: Often you'll find yourself turning on a light simply to get from point A to point B without tripping on anything or running into a wall. We designed our hallways and stairs to get as much natural light as we can, which includes a window in the stairwell. But, at night it's still dark so what we've done is add solar powered lights (can even be the same ones you use in your garden) just inside the window so it stores solar energy during the day and lights up our stairwell at night. We plan on adding a few in other rooms as well. We also have all solar outdoor lights.

Alarm Clock: You can get a battery powered clock, but you can cut out the power all together and get a wind-up clock. I've ordered a Westclox Big Ben retro clock (turns out Westclox has a fine reputation for wind ups). I will have to remember to wind it at night, but that's a very small price to pay.

Clothes Dryer: No dryer is needed. In fact, the United States is the only country in the world that thinks dryers are actually "necessary." Other countries rarely use or buy dryers, regardless of their ability ($) to buy one. This is the #2 energy sucker (#1 is your refrigerator) in your home, so this will make a huge difference for anyone looking to save energy.

We will keep our eyes out for other things we can use "free," which for us means hot coffee on a cloudy day! And, like the clothes dryer, I'm hoping there are some things I'll just decide I don't need at all: TV? Hair dryer?

Kids quote contest from Earthbound Farms

Organic growers Earthbound Farms are having a great contest for kids! Complete the sentence "Thank you for choosing organic. It matters to me because... " The winners will see their quote on a label of Earthbound Farm's organic salads, receive a $500 savings bond, and have $500 donated in their name to the nonprofit environmental organization of their choice (there are eight to choose from). Sounds like a great way to educate and capture the wonderful clear way children have of getting right to the heart of things.

If you and your family would like to enter the contest, click here to check it out!

And while you're on the site, test your knowledge of organic farming and you could win coupons good on Earthbound Farm's products. (Don't worry, they give you reading material!) We did this and the coupons arrived almost the next day - just in time for our trip to the store!

Go bento!

Sophie's very excited about having LUNCH at school. We are going bento to have as little waste as possible. No plastic baggies, no paper, and apart from this special lunch, she'll be eating leftovers from (planned ahead of time) dinner.

I'm excited too - it's a chance to get creative in the kitchen and make sure they're eating healthy at school. Plus it's fun!

Sophie's lunch, clockwise:
Watermelon balls
Purple cabbage salad
Little container of soy sauce
Veggie sushi rolls with carrots, cabbage, cucumber, and avocado
Annie's bunny grahams

Not pictured: Her water bottle and chopsticks (she wants to bring them!)

Angela is bringing her own container of sushi rolls for a snack (again, she wants chopsticks too, but she's actually pretty expert with them)

Peter wants pretzels and goldfish crackers today. Tomorrow they've all requested roasted chickpeas for snacks.

Anyone want recipes? :)

Crafting on the cheap

As a mom of three small artists-in-the-making, I am always on the lookout for good craft ideas. I just discovered Dollar Store Crafts, a website that shows crafts you can make with, well, stuff from the dollar store, as well as loads of recycled and free projects from things you probably have around the house. They show how you can take something simple and/or cheap and turn it into something absolutely lovely. The categories make for interesting searching as well. Some of my favorites, which all can be made from recycled stuff and even trash:

• How to make beautiful Kanzashi flowers using leftover fabric scraps and a button.
• Fork curtain tiebacks.
• Make a Trashcycled Hermes Birkin Bag - I think the homemade one is so much better looking than the real one!
• Create a field of paper bag mushrooms (and then make friends to live underneath them).
• Make a bracelet out of an old cassette tape. I so totally want to make this!
• Create your own beads from plastic soda bottles. Colorful and fun!
• An adorable peg doll necklace from clothespins - we make fairies with ours, but these look fun too.
• And for the incredibly ambitious: The Alien Abduction Lamp!

Resetting to Zero

I recently made a purchase at Gaiam.com (like I need more yoga DVDs!) and noticed in the checkout that I had the option of offsetting the environmental impact of my order. What a great idea!

I live pretty remotely so do a lot of online shopping when I can't find what I need locally. I've often worried about the impact this has as far as the materials used for shipping, transporting the merchandise, etc. so the offer to offset my impact was answered with my resounding "YES!". The button I pushed said "goZero my Order." I love it.

Gaiam is offering this through a program called Go Zero which is part of The Conservation Fund:

"The Conservation Fund is dedicated to advancing America's land and water legacy. With our partners, we conserve land, train leaders and invest in conservation at home. From our headquarters in Arlington, Virginia and our field offices across the country, we've saved land in all 50 states—over 6 million acres of wild havens, working lands, vibrant communities and more."

The Go Zero program makes it simple and economical for individuals, corporations, or even entire communities to first measure their carbon dioxide emissions, learn helpful ways to reduce those emissions, and then offset the remainder by planting trees.

The Philadelphia Eagles worked with the fund to calculate and then "zero out" the carbon emissions associated with team travel on Delta Airlines for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. As a result, The fund has planted thousands of trees in two locations: the Eagles Forest, located at Pennsylvania’s Neshaminy State Park and Red River National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana.

The Go Zero site also has a calculator where you can determine your estimated annual carbon dioxide footprint, which is the sum of the carbon dioxide that is produced by your home energy use, auto transportation, and air travel.

My Gaiam order (one DVD plus one "gift" for me) cost me $2 to offset it. A small price to pay, I say.

Life-Cycle Assessment and How to Apply it to Your Buying Habits

Life-Cycle Assessment, or LCA, as defined by the the EPA is "a technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by: compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases; and interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision."

Sounds confusing, but you might be reading between the lines already. It's difficult to know, as a consumer, what impact a product you buy has on the environment, humans, and other animals. Most of the products we buy and use today were invented a long time ago, the process used to make each of these products were determined by how much it cost the manufacturer and not how much impact it had on the environment. That's because we were in the dark about the potential dangers of manufacturing, and today we need to basically reinvent pretty much everything.

New industrial ecology is using LCA to take a product and tear it down into it's various components. What it's made of, what process is used to make each of those components, how it's transported, how it's used, how we dispose of it, and how the company treats its employees and its community ... every thing we buy has a hidden price tag on our lives and environment. Making decisions on what to buy, or if to buy at all, can be daunting for those of us determined to make a difference. By remaining uneducated on what we buy, we're creating potential dangers for our futures.

So what can you do?

I've been doing my best to research what I buy. As some of you know, we're building a house and one example, recently, is our search for a sealer for our wood floors. We did some research and found some soy-based products that were looking good. We ordered samples and tried them out and were ready to purchase the product. Then, we found a newer one recently that uses a by-product of cheese making: whey. We liked this, not only were the ingredients all natural, they were using something that was being thrown away. And, it's made locally (in our state). We love supporting Vermont-made products whenever possible.  Bonus: It actually works better than anything we tried! This took a lot more time than walking into Home Depot and asking for a floor sealer ...

Another example, when we put in our plumbing, we decided to go with PVC pipes. Copper is a nonrenewable resource, and other products were less durable so using them meant having to replace them over and over rather than buying PVC once. It's a tough choice when none of the choices are perfect.

The research is time-consuming, but worth it. It's hard to know what information to trust. The manufacturers are using all kinds of phrases to get us to think they're green such as "all natural" and "wholesome" but what is really behind the product and the company that makes it?

In researching about LCA I came across an amazing resource: GoodGuide (now in beta). Rather than rating on how well something may work, they're rated based on an LCA for that product.

So, I went to GoodGuide and looked up a common product: Cheerios. Its GoodGuide rating is 8.5. They based this on:

• Health/Nutrition Performance: 10 "This product has a good nutrition score."
• Environmental Performance: 8.1 "This company has minimal or no community-related controversies."
• Social Performance: 7.4 "This company that makes this product has an above-average score in use of resources."

But it also gives a lot of deeper information and not just an overview. I looked into the Environmental Performance and found that it rated very well in Energy Management, but not as well for Compliance and Toxic Waste. For Social Performance, Cheerios rated "Best in Category" in Working Conditions & Benefits and Philanthropy, but less well (though still not part of the "Worst in Category") in Quality & Safety, Workplace Diversity, and Labor & Human Rights.

Check out GoodGuide's information on their Ratings and Methodology. And their blog.

And please check out what you're buying and maybe you'll find something better? I know I'll be spending a lot of time on this and from my initial look-through, will be replacing a lot of what I buy with something better.

We Can Now (Will) Make Our Own Independent Power!

After years and years of knowing that someday we'd have our own independent power at our new house (which is still not done), we picked up everything we need to make it happen. Last Saturday, we drove to New England Solar in Massachusetts to pick up our system and solar panels. With this, we'll be able to add wind and micrhydro power as simply as plugging it in!

In case you're one of the many (which included me) that doesn't know what's entailed to get off-grid power working, for just over $16,000 we got all this (and yes, we still need to add more power via wind/water/solar, as needed):

• Wall mount racks for the solar panels
• MC connector cables
• Outback Array combiner box
• Outback Array circuit breakers 10A
• Watertight connectors
• MidNite Solar MNE175STM-240-L AC/DC disconnect (pre-wired)
• Magnum MERC-50 remote control (needed for inverter settings)
• Set of 10' 2/0 inverter cables.
• FlexMax60 60A MPPT Charge Controller
• Delta LA303DC lightning arrestor
• 60A circuit breakers
• Trojan T105 batteries (24)
• 2 Ga. battery cables.
• Battery anticorrossion rings
• 12V battery vent fan
• Lightning arrestor (for AC)
• 8 Sharp 170W solar panels
• Magnum MS4448AE 240/120 VAC inverter

Yes, this is a daunting list, what the heck is all this? Now, if you were to add solar or wind to your current grid-tied system, this list would be much shorter. Before all this, we had an electrician in who wired our house just like he would anyone else's house, except that it doesn't connect to a city-supplied electric source.

We first will need to mount the solar panels. Then mount the pre-wired inverter (the last item in the list above) that they so nicely put together for us, and build a wooden box to house the batteries, including the vent fan. And then we'll get our electrician in again and he'll hook it up! I can't wait to plug something in and see it turn on!

The picture you see is all that I've listed above, it all fits in one 6' truck bed. I'll definitely post pictures of the finished product.