Summary of Prioritising
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Prioritising
When Moving Off the Grid into a self reliant, self sufficient lifestyle, you need to prioritise otherwise you won't make it work as well as you would like it to. You need to not just think about, but actually put in place the infrastructure and utilities that make day to day life, not just survivable but enjoyable when everything is working right. |
Our experience in the begining as far as ... |
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Published by admin on 24-Jan-2017 20:51 (1327 )
Going totally Off Grid is a really great thing to decide to do for yourself , if you do a little research first and think a few thing through very carefully before listing your existing home and selling the BMW for a Landrover!
.. lolol ...
NOTE :- ) please keep in mind that this is about our very first time Off Grid over seven years ago on our first property.
I am going to tell a little more of our story here now , regarding this big jump when we first took the plunge into the darkness :- )
This will be a serious yet quite amusing tale of woe and joy that I will keep adding to over the next week or so ...
Btw , Kerri told me to make it clear that she did not write this article , it is one of my efforts ( Steve ) the lesser half lol....
In the beginning : - We rolled up to our new ( actually very second hand and run down :- ) Solar powered property, after actually making the big jump . Within 5 minutes of pulling into the drive of our 35 acre wonderland , I said to Kerri , as I went to the shed to turn on the Power ! ... Let there be light I though to myself and there was light, but the light was ordinary ? lol very ordinary! and did not last very long either ! ...
Yes , our first few hours at the property were , lets say , interesting , if not NON en lighting ! lol
We had been up to the property a couple of times before we jumped or bought it , but with a limited understanding of Off Grid realities, meaning how good is 640W Solar? , how good were the batteries? how much the 1 kw inverter could handle? ect ect ect , we , after what we thought was a well spent few months checking out this subject before we sold the BMW LOLOLOL ( NOT, ! never had one : -) were at that time having a near bloody fatal ! head on with the reality of Solar power without grid connect !!
I already had the feeling that this leaning curve was going to be like a frightening free fall out from a plane without a parachute !!!
The fun was just beginning though after the lights went out that evening as I quickly found out . The next thing to discover was hey , how the flop do we start this back up generator ?
I knew that we had a really sweet looking 13 hp Honda 7kw generator hiding in its shed out the back , all ready to go , more or less I thought, as it turned out it was " less ! " :- (
The Scenario , me , its dark by now , torch in hand , I open the little shed , gen just sitting there looking good ! . First issue , how do I start this dam thing ? Its quite big , looks like it will handle anything, the fuel tank is empty ( bugger! :- ( so I fill it up , and hey , I think this is ok , all ready to go !!! ..... yer right ! lolol
( on a side note ) Now in regard to "Prioritizing" you might ask why I left it till dark to hit this issue of the generator head on without looking at the it much closer before dark?
Well the problem was that this was our first day ( late afternoon actually ) and all our stuff
( mostly chit that was useless here lol ) was delivered by house mover friends of Kerri's and there HUGE TRUCK was up to its axles in a bog out the back after unloading , so we and I will admit a few neighbors from close by properties , with there machinery , were all here trying to get these poor buggers out of the property so they could go home after a long day long drive and a treacherous bogging !!! We were a tad bogged down ourselves at the time to bother worry about checking little things like power? or the generator? lol
So,as for prioritizing, when making the jump to totally off grid, prioritizing what you do and when you do it is of paramount importance !
Going and buying that block or property is the easy part, it's knowing what to do and when to do it once you have bought it that is far more important!.
A property without drinking water is one dry place and not much work is going to get done if you are thirsty, or needing to race down to what might not be so close?, your local shop for a dam drink 3 times a day ?!.
Think about the things you are going to do on your property on a need to have basis!
You need water for drinking and washing ,so you will need a tank perhaps ? and that will need a small at the least, catchment area to catch the rain or hold the water you bring in to start with .
You might have a dam like us here , but it will more than likely be unsuitable to drink? A small activated carbon water filtration system may be just the thing if your dam is relativity clean ? They do not cost a fortune and will be valuable immediately and in the future. !
You will more than likely need a little power to get the basics happening? . Maybe a small 200W panel, very low cost charge controller and a used truck battery to start with? if you are on a tight budget?
In any case , what ever you think through hopefully, in some sort of order, based on your priorities list, may aid you in saving money to get going to start with .
You see and hear stories of some new off grider's, that go and shell out for lets say power systems that are way to large, costly and cant really be taken advantage of because the buildings to use this new bought power are not up or finished.
Start slow, think allot, spend carefully if you are low on capital and you will be fine . Stick to your well thought out plan !
I use a saying near every week here and it just goes like this ...
" I am going to stick to the plan man " no matter what happens and that way things get done and finished at what ever pace you set for yourself ...
To be continued ..........
.. lolol ...
NOTE :- ) please keep in mind that this is about our very first time Off Grid over seven years ago on our first property.
I am going to tell a little more of our story here now , regarding this big jump when we first took the plunge into the darkness :- )
This will be a serious yet quite amusing tale of woe and joy that I will keep adding to over the next week or so ...
Btw , Kerri told me to make it clear that she did not write this article , it is one of my efforts ( Steve ) the lesser half lol....
In the beginning : - We rolled up to our new ( actually very second hand and run down :- ) Solar powered property, after actually making the big jump . Within 5 minutes of pulling into the drive of our 35 acre wonderland , I said to Kerri , as I went to the shed to turn on the Power ! ... Let there be light I though to myself and there was light, but the light was ordinary ? lol very ordinary! and did not last very long either ! ...
Yes , our first few hours at the property were , lets say , interesting , if not NON en lighting ! lol
We had been up to the property a couple of times before we jumped or bought it , but with a limited understanding of Off Grid realities, meaning how good is 640W Solar? , how good were the batteries? how much the 1 kw inverter could handle? ect ect ect , we , after what we thought was a well spent few months checking out this subject before we sold the BMW LOLOLOL ( NOT, ! never had one : -) were at that time having a near bloody fatal ! head on with the reality of Solar power without grid connect !!
I already had the feeling that this leaning curve was going to be like a frightening free fall out from a plane without a parachute !!!
The fun was just beginning though after the lights went out that evening as I quickly found out . The next thing to discover was hey , how the flop do we start this back up generator ?
I knew that we had a really sweet looking 13 hp Honda 7kw generator hiding in its shed out the back , all ready to go , more or less I thought, as it turned out it was " less ! " :- (
The Scenario , me , its dark by now , torch in hand , I open the little shed , gen just sitting there looking good ! . First issue , how do I start this dam thing ? Its quite big , looks like it will handle anything, the fuel tank is empty ( bugger! :- ( so I fill it up , and hey , I think this is ok , all ready to go !!! ..... yer right ! lolol
( on a side note ) Now in regard to "Prioritizing" you might ask why I left it till dark to hit this issue of the generator head on without looking at the it much closer before dark?
Well the problem was that this was our first day ( late afternoon actually ) and all our stuff
( mostly chit that was useless here lol ) was delivered by house mover friends of Kerri's and there HUGE TRUCK was up to its axles in a bog out the back after unloading , so we and I will admit a few neighbors from close by properties , with there machinery , were all here trying to get these poor buggers out of the property so they could go home after a long day long drive and a treacherous bogging !!! We were a tad bogged down ourselves at the time to bother worry about checking little things like power? or the generator? lol
So,as for prioritizing, when making the jump to totally off grid, prioritizing what you do and when you do it is of paramount importance !
Going and buying that block or property is the easy part, it's knowing what to do and when to do it once you have bought it that is far more important!.
A property without drinking water is one dry place and not much work is going to get done if you are thirsty, or needing to race down to what might not be so close?, your local shop for a dam drink 3 times a day ?!.
Think about the things you are going to do on your property on a need to have basis!
You need water for drinking and washing ,so you will need a tank perhaps ? and that will need a small at the least, catchment area to catch the rain or hold the water you bring in to start with .
You might have a dam like us here , but it will more than likely be unsuitable to drink? A small activated carbon water filtration system may be just the thing if your dam is relativity clean ? They do not cost a fortune and will be valuable immediately and in the future. !
You will more than likely need a little power to get the basics happening? . Maybe a small 200W panel, very low cost charge controller and a used truck battery to start with? if you are on a tight budget?
In any case , what ever you think through hopefully, in some sort of order, based on your priorities list, may aid you in saving money to get going to start with .
You see and hear stories of some new off grider's, that go and shell out for lets say power systems that are way to large, costly and cant really be taken advantage of because the buildings to use this new bought power are not up or finished.
Start slow, think allot, spend carefully if you are low on capital and you will be fine . Stick to your well thought out plan !
I use a saying near every week here and it just goes like this ...
" I am going to stick to the plan man " no matter what happens and that way things get done and finished at what ever pace you set for yourself ...
To be continued ..........