That system looks really good for water collection!
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Cool system you have.
What is the thing on the drain on the left and to where does that black hose lead?
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The flexi-hose leads to the water collection system. The regular black hose leads out from the pump to a shut off valve and a long length of hose for watering. There’s also a pvc pipe that leads out to the orchard for overflow release.
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Yes they are still around in this area. Windmills are less common than they used to be but they are still used to water cattle. Once in awhile someone uses them for their own water but its less common now. Hope you had a good time while you were in the area.
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The rains have been frequent enough in my area and we are very thankful for that. Im not saying i didnt pump water we did pump rain water this year. If every year was like this we would not worry as much about water. We have barely pumped 2300 gallons from the 2500 gallon tank for the year. Today more rain is falling
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We are starting to enter dry times again it seems but for now there is still plenty of water.
Hi Paul, I’ve been off grid for 10 years and the first fridge we had (came with the house) was a Consul that used propane. It was a bit temperamental and wasn’t really super cold in hot summers. We now have small electric fridge made by LG and it’s been great. We have a 24 volt solar system and inverter and the LG is very efficient. I won’t turn this into a forum on alternative energy. I will say that I woke up late one night barely able to breath because the ammonia from the propane fridge cooling system was leaking and we had to move the thing out to the porch in the middle of the night. No one knew how to fix it. Just go electric and save a lot of trouble for yourself. Be sure to look for a fridge that’s OK with being in a freezing place, then you can unplug it and keep it where it stays cold in the winter when there’s less sun to run it.
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I have a friend whose property came with a small dam. He adapted it to hydropower for his own use and heated his house with it. Another friend upriver repaired a historic dam on his property and was working on installing a bigger hydro set up. He wanted to sell power. He even applied to FERC , since Federal approval is required for even a small operation if it’s entering the grid. That was 20 years ago. He’s still waiting.
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I’m not needing more power since i have 10kw of solar but i do need to bring up wind turbines and solar get cheaper every day. It’s my opinion your right on an electric refrigerator by todays standards. Propane is still valuable in some cases for some things.
The thing we learned, is that instead of applying for the traditional permit, you have to apply for an exemption. The most common route for smaller projects, as we found, is a 5 megawatt exemption.
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Yeah, there are reasons to keep some available for sure.
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I wonder if he came upon that, or if he gave up years ago. Next time I see him…
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I once lived in a house with one that size in the basement. It surprises me that freezing hasn’t hurt yours. Looks perfect for aquaculture.
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Ok that makes sense. Thanks for your feedback.
I think I will do that, go with electric freezer and a good size solar system to support it and a few things like a blender etc.
I am going with used cheap nice panels and the Growatt off grid stackable inverters 5000 ES, my friend went with those, at Signature Solar, along with the 48v 100a/h LifePower4 batteries and a growatt 5k midpoint transformer.
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Everyone may know this but rainwater can be pretty dirty after a dry period depending on how dirty your roof is. Today is 1/20/23 and this rain water im gathering to water my future plants is very dirty. This lets us know how much tthis water needs filtered before it could be used for things other than garden water.
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Clark, would a simple sand/gravel filter be appropriate for your uses? Pinterest has some pretty cool ideas for this kind of stuff.
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An inline filter would be very good. The type of filter you describe works great in a pinch.
Here is a video if anyone is interested
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