While there are plenty of sources out there—you can watch endless sourdough-making videos on YouTube, take fermentation classes, and Google ‘elderberry recipes’ ‘til the cows come home—it’s the rare source that cuts through all the noise and delivers practical, time-tested techniques based on a real, honest-to-goodness life of homesteading. A Year in an Off-Grid Kitchen is that rare source.
I’ll give you one example of how not all homesteading tips are the same: The conventional wisdom on making jellies and jams is to use copious amounts of white sugar and pectin. Kate’s method, on the other hand, sidesteps both, harkening back to a time before we instituted those modern crutches—at the expense of our health.
Jane Mulberry wrote:This is such a complicated question! I would love to travel by train within Europe to reduce the environmental cost, but when train travel costs more than ten times a flight, the personal financial cost makes it not an option! Best is to travel as little as possible. I did recently fly a 3 hour flight, and chose the airline that had the lowest carbon burden for the trip.
But car (or other land transport) vs plane is an issue for sure, and sometimes our assumptions about what's best for the planet can be wrong!
Anne Miller wrote:I have only made a couple of trips by plane.
It is convenient for business.
For vacations to places in the US, you miss a lot of the scenery when traveling by plane:
https://permies.com/t/91967/Scenery-Ultimate-Souvenir-Share-Favorite
Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Dunno. The math seems a bit thin to apply across the board.
As I understand it, the holy grail of the permaculturistae mindset is to negate the need to travel as much as possible, across the board. That's the best case. That's the most efficient option.
But travel is sometimes necessary and worthwhile. I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation a while ago to figure out how much biochar I needed to produce to offset a 1.5 hour flight vs. a 12 hour drive. The flight actually needed less, in this case. It was quite a lot of char, measured by weight. (And I didn't believe that a $3.00 offset was anything other than bullshit.)
It's pretty hard to do a full accounting. Tire wear and road wear and supply chains and fuel consumption and the embodied energy of all the hardware and infrastructure involved -- gracious heavens, I throw myself upon the mercy of the court.
John C Daley wrote:I am surprised that you bought so much 'take away' food.
I would always carry food and or make sandwiches etc. Which I am guessing would be moere permi like.
Carrie Graham wrote:
I sense you are somewhat intimidated. The intro system at Harbor Freight, though overpriced per watt, is still a complete basic system. Even my fancy internet-monitored system is basically exactly the same thing at its core. I suggest you might purchase or at least study one of those to see how easy it really is to familiarize yourself with a solar electric system installation. Play around with it. Add some stuff, use it as a generator, try to envision the possibilities.
How about option 2.5?
Do the panel part yourself (or oversee a handyman or teenager) and hire an electrician to do the final connection to the house for you. The actual connectors are very low voltage, small wires and look similar to plugging in a phone or computer. For several reasons, even though I have a roof system, I do not suggest that as a first choice. Panels that are easy to get to are easier to clean every so often. Start with a design like that.
An optimal system in my opinion would be a south-facing carport system that eventually charges an electric car. The car can serve as a generator for the house, the expensive part of the generator is already in the car. Backup batteries would need to be stored and charged inside the house, as batteries don't do as well in extreme cold or heat. More panels could be added for the house or built into the south facing part of the house, but I really think they need to be designed in so they are accessible for easy cleaning from the start. Not so you have to pay a company or suffer decreased output. Or maybe inexpensive cleaning drones will be marketed soon.
I am also not sure why more people don't get together and purchase solar panels in bulk for projects. That would save them a great deal.
I have had no breakdown cost so far in 6 years nor do I see any. I did replace one warrantied controller on a panel.
C
Trace Oswald wrote:Solar heat definitely seems to be the way to go in my mind. Morris Dovey has effectively solved the heating issue for people to a very large degree with his plans to build solar heaters. They have no moving parts, can be built DIY, and are not expensive. Other people have created similar units, but not as elegantly, and not completely passively with no moving parts whatsoever. It took him 8 years to perfect. A fascinating story.
His article can be found The Zen of Passive Solar Heating . Warning upfront - there is a lot of information about heat, and the details are somewhat complex.
Steve Marquis wrote:There's a brilliant how-to on solar in Lonny Grafman's (free to download) book To Catch the Sun – full of inspiring stories of communities coming together to harvest their own sunshine, and how you can do it too to create your own renewable resource.
https://www.tocatchthesun.com/
He has another on water systems (to catch the rain.com)