- Joined
- Dec 9, 2017
- Messages
- 4,097
In providing some info for DrJenner I realized I have a bit of good advice to offer. I don't think we already have a thread on this.
My wife and I purchased a 14 acre property in Oregon in 2014. We had a well put in during the purchase but it was just a hole in the ground. We had the septic system put in first in order to secure our conditional use permit to build in the future. We had planned on retiring here in about 10 years. Well after visiting several times we decided why wait so at 54 we moved and started our adventure. I guess now is a good time to mention I really recommend doing a journal. It isn't often people do this sort of thing anymore. We wish we had written down the ups and downs for our grandkids to read about some day. We lived off grid about 5 years until we got power put in and the well going. Another year after that we finished our current home.
Power- you need to reduce use as much as is possible. A good first step is replacing all bulbs with LED. They are brighter and use 30% of what a conventional bulb uses.
Some products that were also helpful.
Making coffee is a thing. You can either use a perculator on the stove - heat water and use a coffee press. We used one of these. It required starting the generator but it doesn't have or need power to keep the coffee hot since it is double insulated.
I saw mention that mister heaters were hard to come by. We used one with the 20lb bottle outside the Rv with the hose adapter. This was handy because it used less propane than the Rv furnace and did not require power to run the fan. The fan on the furnace is a huge drain on the batteries. We used one of these only when we were awake for safety reasons. More about staying warm later.
My wife and I purchased a 14 acre property in Oregon in 2014. We had a well put in during the purchase but it was just a hole in the ground. We had the septic system put in first in order to secure our conditional use permit to build in the future. We had planned on retiring here in about 10 years. Well after visiting several times we decided why wait so at 54 we moved and started our adventure. I guess now is a good time to mention I really recommend doing a journal. It isn't often people do this sort of thing anymore. We wish we had written down the ups and downs for our grandkids to read about some day. We lived off grid about 5 years until we got power put in and the well going. Another year after that we finished our current home.
Power- you need to reduce use as much as is possible. A good first step is replacing all bulbs with LED. They are brighter and use 30% of what a conventional bulb uses.
Some products that were also helpful.
Making coffee is a thing. You can either use a perculator on the stove - heat water and use a coffee press. We used one of these. It required starting the generator but it doesn't have or need power to keep the coffee hot since it is double insulated.
I saw mention that mister heaters were hard to come by. We used one with the 20lb bottle outside the Rv with the hose adapter. This was handy because it used less propane than the Rv furnace and did not require power to run the fan. The fan on the furnace is a huge drain on the batteries. We used one of these only when we were awake for safety reasons. More about staying warm later.
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