All you need to go off-grid

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Go Gooshing

gooshing
Goosh till you swoosh

Don’t go shopping, go gooshing. The Ethical Company Organisation (ECO) has launched a new ethical products web site, listing products sold by ethical companies that care about animal rights, human rights and the environment. Look out for the sign on the right, to tell you that a company has joined the scheme. Buying their stuff sends a message to the companies that are not ethical as well as to ones which are.…

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March 15, 2005 No Comments
Land

Green, green grants of home

Alex Benady guides you through the maze of UK government payments to reduce your dependence on the grid.

Blair breaks eco-promise
Blair poses on solar roof , cancels policy

After promises from the Prime Minister to take climate change seriously, the UK government has ended its solar panel subsidy programme seven years early. The pot of 31m lasting until 2012 was intended to offer cheap electricity and green electricity with grants of up to 50% for building solar panels.

The decision to end the grant was intepreted by many as anti-environmental backsliding. No such thing claims the Department of Trade and Industry which administered the programme. There are still plenty of cheap loans and grants for saving energy in your home. It was a spot of much needed house-keeping designed to tidy up the higgeldy-piggledy system of grants and subsidies and that has sprung up around the areas of energy conservation and alternative energy.…

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March 9, 2005 No Comments
Courses, guides & tutorials

DARYL HANNAH ON BEING OFF-GRID

Daryl Hannah has a massive commitment to the environment, and unusually amongst the Hollywood A-list, she puts in real time and effort to forward her beliefs. In this exclusive interview she spoke to Off-Grid’s Steve Spence.  Off-Grid 2005

Daryl Hannah and Charris Ford
Daryl Hannah & Charris Ford – promoting biodiesel (Jason Hudepohl)

Actress Daryl Hannah is often referred to as the Blonde Goddess of Hollywood, but as far as we’re concerned she’s the Green Goddess of the Rocky Mountains. Hannah lives there, off the grid, and she spoke to us about her setup and why she got into that life. The details were fascinating, from the technology of her farm-tractor to the soft couch in her living room made of moss covered stone.

She was in New York with Charris Ford who has lived off-grid for the past 18 years. They are on a tour to promote use of bio-diesel fuel, one of the issues that most concerns her. She started learning about the environment as a pre-teen, and she found nature to be the thing that has centered her, where she can think about things.

Charris, who runs Grassolean Solutions , got Daryl into bio-diesel as a way of reducing energy consumption on the planet, and now, as is well known she drives a bio-El Camino as well as running a bio-truck, and a bio-tractor on her farm in the Rockies.

But Hannah is not a one-issue campaigner. Her whole way of being is all about the interconnectedness of things and her favourite saying is on that theme: …

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March 4, 2005 13 Comments
Courses, guides & tutorials

Geodesic Quonset: Inexpensive, Easy DIY Shelter

Geodesic Quonset
Geodesic Quonset

Many folks are familiar with the concept of a Geodesic Dome, and the great advantages of strength and minimal materials,

Geodesic Dome
Geodesic Dome

but most have not heard of a Geodesic Quonset, that also brings along many of the same advantages. It’s great for connecting domes, standalone as an emergency shelter, garage, or greenhouse. We built one recently, with a length of 60′, a width of 15′, and a pre-sidewall height of 7.5′. Less than 100 man hours to build, and a materials cost of less than $500 (plastic sheathing) , it’s extremely strong and functional. We built this structure using new 1″x6″ green lumber (1″x4″ was originally specified), but since all the pieces are less than 4′ in length, waste/scrap or recycled lumber would be ideal. All the pieces were screwed together using a power screwdriver and 3″ wood screws, 5 to a connection.…

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February 18, 2005 4 Comments

Battery Maintenance

PV panels only provide power when the sun is shining and wind generators only produce when there is sufficient wind, which can be less than 25% of the day. Typically we store power during times of generation in battery packs for use when no generation is possible. In order to keep those batteries at peak performance, and provide long service life, a regimen of maintenance must be observed.

The main things to remember when keeping your batteries in trim is cleanliness of the terminals, proper water levels, and not discharging below the recommended minimums, which in our case is 50%. Proper charging is also important. The best “manual” I have found describing the technologies and methods of care is Bill Darden’s Battery FAQ. There is a section on sulfation, a common battery killer in improperly maintained batteries. A recently purported cure for sulfation can be found at https://www.batterylifesaver.com/. The inventor claims that by dissolving sulfate crystals, he can increase battery life and perfomance.…

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February 16, 2005 No Comments
Communities

LOW PRICE SOLAR PANEL

Exponent Flex 5
Exponent Flex 5

Coleman’s Exponent Flex 5 solar energy pack recharge your mobile phone and other small items on the move – at a better price than you will find anywhere else.

We have done a deal to get our readers the best possible price on a great little power-pack that will convert solar energy into trickle charge electricity.

The Exponent Flex 5 is a foldable solar charger, the size of a paperback book. It’ll charge your MP3 player, digital camera or GPS in a few hours, wherever you are. Ideal for outdoor lovers, campers and backpackers, it is practical, resistant and waterproof.

Normally retailing for 80, we are offering the Exponent Flex 5 for 65.75 INC post and packing within the UK. Please add 3.50 outside the UK.









…

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February 15, 2005 No Comments

A FUNDING body in the Lake District which helps businesses go off-grid, has 250,000 of grants to hand out before the summer.

The Energy for Enterprise grants scheme in the North-East is drawing to a close within the next few months, and any left-over money is returned to Brussels. Energy for Enterprise is aimed at installing renewable energy for rural and market town businesses .…

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February 12, 2005 No Comments
Energy

Beanz meanz Biofuels

Alcohol Still
Alcohol Still

Ethanol is produced from starch-based grains, including corn, barley, grass straw and fast growing poplar trees, and is a replacement or additive for gasoline. Ethanol is made using a process called fermentation.

Biodiesel Powered Bus
Biodiesel Powered Bus

Bio-diesel, a clean burning, renewable diesel fuel substitute or additive, can be made from oil-seed crops, animal fat or vegetable oil. In the US, farmers grow mostly soybeans for bio-diesel, but canola or mustard seed are also viable feed stocks. Used fryer oil can replace about 5% of the diesel fuel used in transportation. Bio-diesel is made by chemically reacting lye and methanol with the animal or vegetable based oils and fats.

More info:

Planting the biofuel seed

Bio-fuel Tutorials …

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February 8, 2005 No Comments
Energy

Geothermal Heating, Cooling & Hot Water

From https://www.hydrodelta.com/:

Horizontal Loop GSHP
Horizontal Loop GSHP

Anyone who has a refrigerator

or air conditioner is already familiar with the operation of a geothermal heat pump. Contrary to common belief, cold is not something that is produced, but is a condition that results when heat has been removed. If you remember your high school physics class, you know that heat is produced by a molecular motion. All substances are made up of tiny molecules that are in a state of rapid motion. As the temperature of a substance is increased, the molecular motion increases, and as the temperature decreases, the molecular motion decreases. Molecules move faster on a warm surface than on a cool surface. Heat will flow from a warm substance to a cool substance. Reminder: Second Law of Thermodynamics.…

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February 7, 2005 No Comments
Land

Back to the Land by Charris Ford

Charris Ford (aka the Granola Ayatollah of Canola)
Charris Ford (aka the Granola Ayatollah of Canola)

My passion for all things Eco started when I was 18 in the hills of Tennessee, where I spent ten years running the family’s Organic farm, living with solar power home, harvesting rainwater, chopping wood and hauling spring water. I have lived off-grid for nearly 20 years.

I was a student of Permaculture and apprenticed with members of a nearby Amish community. The Amish taught me how to work my team of Belgian horses and they reinforced my love for doing things by hand. My fondest memories of Tennessee are of driving the horse drawn wagon, mowing with a scythe and foraging for wild food & alternative medicine.…

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February 6, 2005 No Comments
Land

Daryl Hannah’s Tipi

Hannah and her tipi
Daryl Hannah outside her Tipi (Jeff Lipsky)

Actress Daryl Hannah gave us an in-depth interview about her Rocky Mountain hideaway and why she likes to go off-grid. We will publish the whole interview next week, and meanwhile here is one of Daryl’s favorite photos of herself. I have a nice picture of me in front of my Tipi, she told us. You can’t really see my face that well, but I like it.

The shot was taken by ace portrait photographer Jeff Lipsky, and we think its totally stylish. Although if Daryl likes it, that’s good enough for us.

Keep coming back to the site to read the interview with Daryl in a few days, plus another exclusive photo.…

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February 6, 2005 No Comments