Good Morning

[Killerbunny]

Yikes 35K? Wouldn't be worth it for us. We are an all electric house and pay around $150 per month. We just finished the last round of draughtproofing the walls and insulating our 1981 house. We don't have natural gas or propane either.

[Shnookie]

I have a few concerns with moving most things to electicity. It has already been shown that hackers can interfere with all kinds of necessary systems, and worsening storms can cause more electrical outages, some for long periods of time. Saskatchewan still has a lot of unpopulated areas so an electric vehicle would have to run a long way on one charge in order to be useful here. I assume that wind could shorten the amount of time your charge would last, and we usually have wind here. I also think more than one option is needed in almost everything needed for survival.

[Shnookie]

On another note, I trapped the stray cat yesterday. We are heading into another really cold, windy and snow week. An Alberta Clipper. I put the cat in an empty pen in my steel building. It looks thin but is heavier than I expected. I wonder if it is a pregnant female. The Regina Humane Society isn't taking cats from "rural areas". I Funny, they don't mind when people from outside the city adopt their animals though. There are 2 other cat rescue groups I can try. The cat isn't really wild, but hides from me. It stopped hissing at me a few days ago. Since it is so comfortable crawling around my old truck I wonder if it came here under someone's vehicle. The mailbox for the area is across the road from my place. It could have come with someone going there. It has been here since February 20. I haven't heard of anyone looking for it. I have told several people in the area that it is here.

[Killerbunny]

SHe looks very nice .We had the same thing with a young female cat that was clearly drop-off. Had to pay to take it to the Shelter after around a month wait and they were really unpleasant about us "not being bothere" with a cat. Then it was almost "hand over the commodity" andthen they wanted an extra donation! Er no! It never appered on the Adoption site which didn't surprise me since it was a very sweet calico just not for us!

[KimChick]

Good morning. We just had fun watching a flock of turkeys, all 28, in our backyard cleaning up birdseed off the ground. Then 9 more flew over the fence from behind the garage and are calling out to the ones that have already moved on. No jake in sight.

[TomK]

It is approx. 1 dollar per watt. The min. size battery is 9 kW which would cost approx 9k and after that you can add smaller batteries depending on what you need to carry you over until the sun comes up again. For our new house I will have enough for the fridge, the water pump, the sump pump, WIFI, 3 outlets for lighting, incubator in the event of a power failure. There will be around twenty 3 foot by 5 foot solar panels and the system including the battery will cost around 35k (rough estimate by me). We are waiting for the quote. The solar power will first charge the battery if the batttery is full then be used for the house if there is no need for the house then go back to the grid and we will get a credit for the energy. My rough guess is we will save $150 per month in electricity and it will take 15 years to pay off the system. This is based on electricity costs never going up. So the system may be paid off sooner. I'll tell you the exact price and savings once I get the quote. Note that since it is a backup system we are currently just making sure we have the electrician and the Generac installer talking to each other, Randy Youngberg installs for Generac. He was friendly and knowledgeable, https://intellectric.ca/emergency-generators/ I think he said a natural gas or diesel Generac costs $5,000. We don't have natural gas and I don't want to maintain, hear, or smell a diesel generator. My dad taught me all the practical and theoretical electrical I'll ever need before I started grade school. FYI I calculated the cost of the three 60 watt light bulbs along our driveway being on every night (light sensor) and I don't remember what it was but I know I turned them off and they stayed off. I'm fine with using moonlight or a flashlight when needed We will have a wood stove so the house can be heated and we can cook with wood if we lose power. Our house is very energy efficient so very little energy is needed to heat it.

@lolotsung ...we are totally off the grid here...you are mentioning the battery, so I am guessing its a lithium one. One of the rules that changed was not allowing lead acid batteries in the basement of the house. I don't understand the true rational of that other than a push by the powers that be to lithium...but we live a totally modern life with a 6k system with lead acids. Generac doesn't build the EcoGen line anymore presumably because its not a money maker. The Generac you get now are all emergency types, meant for intermittent use. I have tried over the years to get people to go net metered much as you intend but without the batteries. The question I have is why not just forego the batteries, and merely use power from the grid and generate power back as you can and then merely offset the cost of power. The battery is a huge part of the system cost and would then take that much longer to amortize out. Just curious.

[lolotsung]

@TomK the battery is attached to the outside of the house and there is an inverter beside it. I guess the main reason I want the battery is so there is no interruption of power but with the exception of an incubator which I may never use because I'm hoping one of our ladies will go broody this Spring and even then only a small battery would be needed...I will ask the Generac person if this is an option and who knows maybe 5-10 years from now, batteries will be made from some molten metal mix that will last forever...

[Ontario Chick]

With spring around the corner, mind turns to hydro outages and sump pump / freezer , the basics at this place come to mind,
finally seriously considering installing a "Generator transfer switch" to connect the generator outside the house directly in to the house circuit.
Before we take the plunge and call the electrician, anybody has any experience with that system?
Until now we have just run a cord from the generator to whatever appliance was in the most dire need, but starting to think there has got to be an easier way ?

[Killerbunny]

DH will Email with questions!

[Happy]

Well hubby tested positive for Covid yesterday. Yes he really does have a man cold. I'm off work for the week as a close contact. Since we both work with the public we probably did pretty well lasting until now. I spent 5 days at home earlier this year with symptoms but never did test positive. I don't have any symptoms so far. My only worry is that I had supper with my mom for her birthday the day before hubby got sick. Hopefully she doesn't get it.