The Time is Drawing Nigh.

Well the time for us to leave and head to Oklahoma is getting very close. So close in fact that I am no longer employed but am spending my days sorting, packing, and preparing things for the journey. I would say we will be on the road in 4-6 weeks and be starting the year out fresh.

The trailer has new tires, the solar equipment is complete (still need to buy batteries when we get there), the truck is ready and

Off-Grid Lighting Choices.

One of the main concerns where we're going is we're far enough away from grid power that it forces us to go "off-grid" which we don't see as a negative whatsoever. It does mean though that we have to look at conserving power wherever possible. One of those places of course is lighting. We have a number of choices ahead of us. In the trailer we'll be staying in while we build it already has 12v lighting but that doesn't mean it's as efficient as possible. 

26.9 watt 1156 bulb

The lights use 1156 bulbs that are basically tail lamps for cars. They are rated at 12.8 volts, 2.1 amps, and 26.9 watts each. With 11 light fixtures having 2 bulbs each that's 22 bulbs times 26.9 watts for a total of 591.8 watts for every hour that all the lights are on. 

Granted all 11 lights will never be on at the same time, and each fixture can turn on either one or two bulbs at a time. We try now when we're at my parents place to only use the lights we need when we really need them but we still find ourselves leaving them on at times in areas where we're not. It also doesn't help that Deb can't hardly reach them up on the ceiling to turn them off and on anyway. They are also a standard yellowish color rather than the natural white light you get from the sun. 

So what are our alternatives? LED lights or course. they make LED replacement lights that will plug right in to the socket and use are rated at just over half of the 1156 bulbs. Of course this means you still have a total of about 271 watts for all the bulbs. What else can we use? Well, I found an alternative while perusing the small cabin forums for a single surface mounted LED that was ready for 12 volts and the price point was right at $1.99 each.

The LD1-x series from www.superbrightleds.com are as you can see a very tiny led that is wired and ready to use in a 9v-15 v system and are amazingly bright for their size. They also have a 120 degree light angle so they do a pretty good job at spreading the light out. They are rated at 15mA each which at the same 12.8 volts used above puts them at .19 watts each. That is a savings of 26.7 watts per bulb! Now in fairness they are not close to being as bright as the non LED bulb so in our tests we've decided on using two lights in each side for a total of 4 per fixture. 

So what is our power draw using these led lights? 11 fixtures with 4 lights each equals 8.45 watts for each hour that all the lights are on. These lights could run 24 hours a day and would only use 203 watts of power or roughly one third of the power the original bulbs use in one hour! We figure a usage rate of about half the fixtures for maybe 6 hours a day so we need 25 watts of power for lighting. 

We also bought two of each light color, cool white, natural white, and warm white to test out and see which one we liked. A quick note on superbrightleds.com, we received them within a matter of days from across the country and they had packaged them in three separate anti-static bags, one for each type that we ordered. We were very pleased with the service and will be buying the rest of our led supplies from them as well. 

The cool white LED's seemed very bright but are a very harsh bluish light kind of like the blinding HID lamps you see on the new cars. I personally didn't like them although they were a better choice over the warm white leds that we tried next. They have more of a yellow colring to them like the original 1156 bulbs which is supposed to be better for reading but they just didn't light things up like we wanted. The natural white however was a perfect blend between the two. They seemed very much like normal daylight and we were able to read, use the laptop, and eat under them and it felt, well natural. 

So where does that leave us? We could power the lights in our trailer with a 10 watt solar panel and a battery a small as a 7.2Ah SLA battery and have two days in reserve keeping the battery above a 50% charge. Not bad for a $100.00 investment to replace all 22 bulbs. 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO-klahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

Yes folks, while I hope talking about it early doesn't jinx it, it looks like Oklahoma just might be where we end up homesteading. We found 10 acres of land between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. It is mainly wooded with some flat, some sloping terrain and part of that flat is at the top of a hill. (Can you say wind generator?) No water or power at the site and the last 1/4 mile is county maintained dirt road. Some would see these as negatives, but I see them as selling points.

My wife and daughter are willing to go pretty much wherever I want to take them and my wife in particular is more that ready to get away from the "American Dream ©" That is a home and mortgage that you spend your lifetime slaving away making others rich just so you can rent your home from the bank while they let you believe you actually own it. (deep breath) That is really a subject for The Tinfoil Fedora so I'll leave that one alone.

What we really want is somewhere that is away from most people, yet close enough to be able to find part time work to help get things setup and ready. This land would cost us only $100.00 per month for 20 years, but can be paid off anytime so the goal is to have the majority of it done by the end of the year. I have somewhat of a plan to have a job there before we move that involves Walmart stock work and a transfer to one of the seven stores in the general area. That way we're not limited to just what we can save when we head out, and frankly I think it'll be June or July of 2012 before we head there because I don't really relish the idea of setting up things and getting ourselves established in the middle of winter.

The real question would be is there enough timber on the land of sufficient size to build a log cabin from? Or maybe mill it into traditional lumber to build anything from. From the pictures it looks like there might be a small stream but we don't know if it's a seasonal thing from the snow. If not there is always trying for a well and or rain water capture. For heating and cooking we want to use wood and solar, supplemented by propane when needed. Power of course would be a combination of solar and wind supplemented by a generator. I'm a fan of the humanure method of sanitation, but the wife isn't convinced yet. There are always septic tanks as long as it doesn't contaminate the ground water. 

The only real caveat would be internet access. This of course is a must have and would need to be either satellite ($$$) cellular ($$$ and data caps) or figuring out a wireless system. I'm sure that at least for the initial setup we'll be using cellular and just have to watch how much time we spend on it. The best bet would be find a homeowner with high speed (preferably on a hill) and setup a couple of directional relay antennas and run it that way.

We should know by the end of the week if this is going to happen so keep your finger crossed.

Solar Clothes Dryer

We have another first. I just hung up my first load of laundry on a solar clothes dryer. We have a pretty good arangement worked out on the laundry. I wash and dry and she folds and puts away. It's worked pretty well for us and I don't see a reason to change it. But this post is about a change in the way we dry our clothes.

To dry your clothes you have three real choices. Electric Dryer, Gas Dryer, or Solar/Wind Dryer. Pop quiz: Which of these doesn't cost you every load? This is strictly a financial decision we've made about doing our laundry. Why spend the money to dry them when they will dry just as well hanging on a rope? Yes it takes longer but it's free. No it doesn't remove the dog hair like the dryer, but it also doesn't remove a part of the clothes with every load. (That lint has to come from somewhere).

We've already been mixing our own laundry soap and have found it goes further because you don't need to use near as much. The clothes don't seem to get dirty as fast (I think it's because there is no soap residue for the dirt to stick to). And the clothes get just as clean if not more so. No odors, no scents, no dirt, just clean clothes.

As for how these do without the dryer (will they need to be ironed?) we'll have to wait and see.

As for me, I just feel good that I saved a few more dollars towards our goals of getting the heck out of dodge.