New member intro

[Bryan Couch]

Hi Everyone!
I've only been lurking on here for two days and decided to join! There seems to be a bunch of good info and some really knowledgable members very willing to share what they've learned on this forum. I really don't have ANYTHING to contribute here as I just recently started thinking about renewable energy and poking around the internet to learn more. I am as new as they come! Lol

Here's my "renewable energy" story...
A few years ago I was approached by a company up here in Northern Ontario about the possibility of installing a rooftop solar system. I knew absolutely nothing about them or solar power but listened to what they had to say. It turns out they were talking about the MicroFIT program, I did some online reading and it sounded good but I didn't have the money to get into it and didn't want to take on any more debt at the time (I was 35 with 6 kids and enough to pay for). I forgot about it and went on with life. Fast forward 4 years, and I'm now faced with the possibility of having to move so a great big hole can be dug where my house is to take 3 or 4 million ounces of gold out of the ground.:eek:

This got me thinking about solar power, then wind power and now I'm realizing that there is a huge RE world out there that I didn't know anything about! I've been reading on this forum and in whatever links I can follow to try to learn more about this foreign world and boy is my head spinning! I suppose that's mostly because of my personality (I NEED to know how and why "it" works and have a strong desire to know as much as possible about EVERYTHING that interests me). This is going to be a much bigger learning curve than I anticipated! Lol Its only been a few days but I've learned a lot and I'm starting to put together a list of ideas to look into before the likely event of having to build a home for my family.

Thanks to Rob and the members here for their contributions! And, thanks in advance for the help in learning about all things Green! :)
Bryan

[Joe Blake]

Hi Bryan,

Welcome to the forum. We all have something to share, though it isn't always immediately obvious.

Sorry to hear you are being turned out because of gold. Sad you didn't find a nugget of a kilogram or so before you left.:D

Joe
Perth Western Australia

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Bryan,

Welcome to the forum!
Moving house may be a good reason to go off-grid... :cool:
Hopefully they are paying you a good price for the property.

Don't be shy. When you have questions or comments please post.

-RoB-

[Andy Rhody]

Hi Byran.

Rob Said:

Moving House

Well Rob, I'm not sure if Byran meant that he actually needed to move his entire house but if he did, I did that once and would be happy to walk him through it.

House on wheels.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e295/andy47bottles/scan0002.jpg (http://s41.photobucket.com/user/andy47bottles/media/scan0002.jpg.html)

After Move.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e295/andy47bottles/scan0003.jpg (http://s41.photobucket.com/user/andy47bottles/media/scan0003.jpg.html)

[Bryan Couch]

Hey guys, thanks for the greetings.

I still don't know for sure what may or my not happen with my house (and almost 40 others) but my gut says there will be a great big hole in the ground and it would be directly under our house. I'm not the kind to rush into decisions or purchases so I'm being a little proactive. IF I'm told I'm moving I don't want to be rushed in any decisions.

The idea of off grid sounds GREAT! However I'm not sure that it would be doable. Here's why.

1. We have a family of 8. Yes we have 6 kids at home. The oldest won't be off to university for another 3 years and the youngest is 2. We also have 2 dogs and 2 full time careers. All this really means in terms of off grid (as far as I know so far) is lots of laundry and lots of food=lots of energy.

2. We live in Northwestern Ontario, summers are short and winters are long. Mid winter we see 6 hours of sun and in January the temp gets down to -30 as a high quite regularly. It takes a lot to stay warm and we need lights to see morning and evening.

3. Wind energy... From what I can tell $50,000 for a turbine wouldn't do much for us with an average 5 m/s wind speed. If all of our wind was in the winter when we have no sun then maybe it could make us a ton of power through the winter but from what I've learnt so far wind is a tough go...and we do have wind through the summer too. Lol

I've been wondering about actually moving the house. It's a two story, a lot like the one in your pic. We have one half of the foundation from the original house and the other half from the remodel before we bought it. There are a few sections of original wall and half the main floor left from the original house. The rest is new. It's a mix of 2x4 and 2x6 walls and engineered and old floor joists. Long story short it's a re ok mix match of construction nd I wonder how well it would move!

Anyway... We'll see what happens and hopefully in the next few months we'll have a better idea of what's in our future. In the mean time the questions are coming! :)

[Rob Beckers]

Andy, those two pictures are the same house?!
I like the second one a lot more!

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Bryan, you have SIX kids? Sounds like an underutilised resource here.

What are the child labour laws like where you live?:D

How about a pedal generator with the promise that they can watch as much TV or play computer games as they like as long as THEY provide the energy.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/gen02.jpg (http://s82.photobucket.com/user/saxeharp/media/gen02.jpg.html)

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/gen01.jpg (http://s82.photobucket.com/user/saxeharp/media/gen01.jpg.html)

Generator courtesy of Windstream

http://windstreampower.com/products-page/human-power-generator/human-power-generator-and-12v-dc-educational-light-box-system/

Just add a 12 volt battery and inverter.

Joe

[Andy Rhody]

Andy, those two pictures are the same house?!
I like the second one a lot more!

-RoB-

Thanks Rob. Yes it's the same house. My friend Felix who recently helped us with the solar helped us with the house.

Bryan, I know that you probably won't need to go this route, but if our house could be moved, just about any house can be moved.

The house was bulit around 1850 and had log floor joists. One side of the house was rotted and sagged about 6 inches. Doors would never shut right. When the house mover was lifting the house, he would sight the length and have a helper put "shims" on the steel beams where the house was sagging. In very little time he straightened out the whole house and made it flat and level again. 150 year old door latches went back into their same original alianment within a 32nd of an inch. The guy was good. He movrd about a house a week for 30 years. We replaced the log floor joists with an engineered lumber floor and while the house was "up on the rack", we updated the plumbing, wiring, and heating system. Everying new like a new house plus we now have a livable basement without a "dirt floor".

[Marvin jordan]

Hello am also new here am from Malaysia. :)

[Joe Blake]

Hi Marvin,

Welcome to the board. I live in PErth Western Australia, so we are nearly neighbours. :D

Joe

[Bryan Couch]

I can't believe I lost this thread and didn't reply!

Joe that bike is actually a great idea. "Sure you can play xbox... Is your battery charged? No? Well I guess you'll have to pedal first!". It solves the problem of power usage AND kids exercise all at once!

We finally have a little more information from the mining company but nothing too specific. They are looking to be in production mid 2017 and our neighbourhood will no longer be. We're hoping that after a few meetings this week we'll have some information on where we might be living and what we might be living in.

In the meantime I'm still trying to learn as much as I can about solar PV, water heating, passive house design and anything else I find in my online clicking. :)

I'm sure once we actually start moving forward il have questions and comments galore!


Andy, the house looks great!

[Joe Blake]

Bryan, have you considered, just as an interim measure, or back-up perhaps, a Biolite stove?

http://www.biolitestove.com/

Not only does the stove generate enough power to drive an internal fan to enable it to burn things like pine cones and gum nuts (plenty were I live) but also it generates power to recharge mobile devices like phones etc via USB plug.

http://www.biolitestove.com/Media/BioLite/Home/Main%20Slider/biolite_bundle-941x474.jpg

Joe

[Jerry Smith]

Hey i'm Jerry from CA glad to be here :)

[Rebecca Barnfield]

Hi there! Welcome to the forum. I'm also a newbie here. I feel sorry for what had happened but you can recover. Everything happens for a reason and it made you stronger.