Florida makes off the grid living illegal

Mark

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Nice find :)

"The only problem with off the grid living is that corporations lose their ability to control others." This sentence sums it all up for me...

Look, I do think a capitalist society is the way to go BUT we should NEVER turn utilities into money making profit driven machines for large corporations! Privatisation of our utilities in most cases (if not all) has opened the door for greedy corporations to screw poor vulnerable people in our society into the ground and it infuriates me. It seems governments around the world are protecting and slaves to these huge utility companies.

I have a friends who are very well off and they live in the inner city in a large 3 story home worth around 5 mil. Good on them, however, no so long ago at a BBQ they were whinging about the cost of electricity! Now, if the rises in electricity prices is starting to hurt the rich and upper middle class what hope do pensioners and lower wage earners have?

It doesn't surprise me people are revolting and there's a move to self-contained living and it doesn't surprise me at all how big business wants to stop it from happening.
 

Jenni

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Yeah I thought that sentence was right on the money....

I suppose it is all relative though. Rich or poor everyone seems to be maxed out. The word is that a lot of the wealthy are asset rich and cash poor at the moment and liquidating just to stay afloat... Unfortunately the poor are unable to so the same..

It is certainly a tug of war... Self-contained living crashes the economy while on the other side it makes for a better lifestyle... Its a tough one.
 

Mark

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The word is that a lot of the wealthy are asset rich and cash poor at the moment and liquidating just to stay afloat...
Is that right! Well there ya go it's probably true and why the economy seems to be treading water atm.

It costs a lot of money to keep a home these days...
 

Tim C

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I'm 47 and have never owned a house. I once took out a loan for a car. I had loss of income insurance, but when I got crook and push came to shove, the ANZ refused to pay up and I ended up losing the car and my credit rating. My great-grandma used to say -
"Never trust a bank, they will lend you an umbrella on a sunny day and take it away on a rainy one"- wise words.
Capitalism and political correctness are the 2 biggest scurges of humanity- far above civil war/unrest and on par with the crusades and the inquisition. Sinister and clandestine conniving, motivated by greed at the expense of the little folk. Religious and racial idealists are not even on par with the capitalist pigs.How many people have they murdered whilst profiting from tobacco? Tobacco is still the second biggest profit-maker for the guvment in this country. Murderers and theives. I would never begrudge anyone a cigarette, but a smoker on the dole will spend half their sit-down money on fags-90% of it tax. Through the mid-20th century capitalist goverments promoted tobacco and stealthily increased their take from it. Now they get more than ever and treat smokers as pariahs. Bloody hypocrasy. They blame smokers for clogging up the hospitals, when in fact it is increased longevity which does this. Line them all up against the wall, I say. De-centralise and do away with duplicate administration. Bludging bloody parasites pushing their idealistic propaganda.George Orwells 1984 was on the money. Knock-'em all on the head before they brainwash everyone into self-sacrifice "for the common good". Their common good.:mad::fighthey::mad::fighthey::mad::fighthey:
 

Mark

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"Never trust a bank, they will lend you an umbrella on a sunny day and take it away on a rainy one"- wise words.
That is so true!

But with the way solar technology is going they'd want to be careful because people will find ways to save and big electricity might just price themselves out of the domestic market. We have a huge surplus in electricity generation ATM in Australia and that's because people are using less due to high power costs and technology. They're frightened about the quarterly electricity bill! Now that revenue is dropping the big power companies have started blaming solar tariffs and poles and wires as an excuse to hike up the costs even more - just to maintain corporate profits so the boss of Origin can one day go up the chain and apply for running BHP cause he did such a "great job" making money.

I don't blame capitalism or think it's unfair (well it shouldn't be) it's greedy people and out of touch white collars/governments who are to blame. I put it back on individuals in our society who abuse their power not the system.
 

Tim C

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Society and groups working together is absolutely positive. The problem is when idealistic know-it-alls try to divert that energy for their personal or idealistic benefit. Sadly, that IS capitalism. The Aboriginal society was a well structured and universal goverment, before whitefellas ways- even tribes at war still traded via intermediaries! Common need and respect for Mother Nature saw universal law and lore always outweighed any personal greed, for the benefit of the group- the exact opposite now happens. Attrition and disparity of the many for the betterment of the few. Absolutely WRONG WRONG WRONG. The Westminster system was a good idea, but it has been bastardised beyond any good that was its original intention. Knock 'em all on the head and start again.
 

Tim C

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Once I have 3x 200w panels ($225 each) plus a big bank of batteries I will disconnect. So many 12v batteries are thrown out when they are still good. The local scrappy pays $8 each for them. I am going to take the multi-meter next trip and offer him $10 a piece for any still holding 12.5 volts. I already have 1x200w panel and a 3000/6000w pure sinewave inverter, 2x wind generators and a 800w 4 stroke genny. Can get a 3.8 kva off my uncle for $200 for running an hour a day for the HWS , even if I don't go solar hot water. Hell will freeze over before I pay for a service I don't use! (e.g. Florida) That's capitalist idealism for ya! George Orwells 1984.
 

Tim C

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Jenni. Texas law has a long history of persecuting alternative lifestyles. Remember the Waco massacre? It is no wonder when them good ol' boys are up against them god-damn hippie-types. Collective-evolution is part of the problem. Mung-bean munging ignorami who think they are the first ones to discover the benefits of some of the practices that pre-dated their 20-something years of existence. They totally ignore the fact or reasons that these practices were around for the last 20-40,00 years, in a similar manner to their capitalist parents, just using the difference to justify their "alternative"lifestyle. They are just as guilty of propaganda as the capitalists they despise. Nothing. I say NOTHING, will ever replace first-hand experience. You can read the books, or watch your 'lations. But unless you can do it yourself, it is procrastination. Learn it and do it. Simple as that. It is all well and good to sit back and binge and witch, but until we ALL bypass both of these wrongful idealisms (i.e. capitalism and alternative-ism), we live in a complacent limbo, whilst the extremists do as they please. I have no time for either. They are both cotton wool fuzzy-wuzzy idealists who cannot make their way in a confronting reality. They will both buckle at the knees under the slightest pressure. And my absolute independance is what they both despise. Our independence. That is what they both fear. As I recently informed Julian Burnside,QC, I have no need of the distorted justice of this society, nor its enforcers. And that as a refugee advocate and hard-hitting legal voice, he should concentrate in his own backyard, rather than on global injustices in general. Needless to say, it went straight over his head. THAT is the mentality which guarantees the furthering of the simple problems, to the point that the whole thing blows up in their faces. Can't see the forest for the trees....
I wonder if it will be Bananabenderland or Croweaterland that will be the first to make it illegal to not be "connected" ?? Orwellian is the only fitting description.
 
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Tim C

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Remember the old song Big Yellow Taxi ?-
The day paradise put up a parking lot......
They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum, then charged all the people a dollar and a half to see 'em........
That's capitalism for Ya!
 

AndresBardsls

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Once I have 3x 200w panels ($225 each) plus a big bank of batteries I will disconnect. So many 12v batteries are thrown out when they are still good. The local scrappy pays $8 each for them. I am going to take the multi-meter next trip and offer him $10 a piece for any still holding 12.5 volts. I already have 1x200w panel and a 3000/6000w pure sinewave inverter, 2x wind generators and a 800w 4 stroke genny. Can get a 3.8 kva off my uncle for $200 for running an hour a day for the HWS , even if I don't go solar hot water. Hell will freeze over before I pay for a service I don't use! (e.g. Florida) That's capitalist idealism for ya! George Orwells 1984.
Can you tell entire expense of the system? I think it will turn out to be good water heating system..
 

Tim C

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Hi Andre. Welcome. You can get the panels from Lowenergydevelopments for $228 or Ozplazaliving for $224 (both ebay) and the 20 amp (will do 240 watts at 12 volt, or 480 at 24 volts) controllers for $11.94 each from gorgeousonline2012 (ebay) . The exact same ones they sell for $50-$70 in Oz !! All prices are free postage. Just search and list price+postage lowest first. You may even be able to do better. Also you can put a lower wattage element in your HWS if you were to run it directly, but you need more input than your output. E.g. 600w element with 4x200w panels (=800w). That would be $900 for panels, $48 for controllers + your 600watt/12 volt element. You would need to hook up a diversion load for once the water was up to temperature. That could be a load dump or a 12 volt heater. Otherwise you can go 240v/600-2000 watt, through an appropriate sized inverter. My pure sine wave inverter is 3000w constant and 6000w peak/surge. It runs on 12 volts. Not sure if this one runs on 24 as well, but some do. It cost me $238 at auction on ebay (agr machinery). The prices in the mainstream solar shops are all inflated up to 400%. They will baffle you with BS to make you buy their most profitable items, so you need to do a bit of homework.
If you are only running a HWS and not appliances, you can get a non-sinewave or modified sinewave inverter CHEAPER.
Personally, I think a small gas instant HWS is very efficient for the daily shower and a few dishes.
 
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