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5 Mar ’12
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BTW here is an example of an electric load calculator. There are many of these out on the internet.
http://www.civicsola.....calculator
Also, I would recommend buying a Kill-a-watt meter for plugged in appliances. Gives you a good at-a-glance view of how much power something uses. For example, our microware uses 1200 watts when running and if you leave it plugged in it always consumes 3 watts of power. We have a switched outlet thing set up to turn it on-off so it doesn't create a "phantom load".
qid=1365266426&sr=8-1&keywords=kill+a+watt
I have not found a good way to measure how much power is being used by your breaker panel without relying on my solar equipment, which measures this for me.
20 Feb ’12
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Very nice setup, thanks for posing all the elements.
5 Mar ’12
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No worries Emu. If you have grid power close by or to your house a lot of this can be accomplished with a battery bank, a charger, and an inverter. You could just float charge the batteries and if power ever goes out then you can switch to the batteries. Alternatively, a $500 generator could keep a house running for weeks for stored fuel and it would cost much less than solar. Just an option if you only need back up power -- not constant power.
5 Mar ’12
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So, the wife convinced me to try to get a landline phone run out here. I got the run around with AT&T over 7 phone calls -- they couldn't find my address in their system. For some reason they list my township (think sub-county local gov) as my city. Oh well, they say the install will be "free". They have to run phone line underground for a 1/2 mile -- I doubt this free aspect. We will see.
I feel like I am giving back into "the man". She sold it to me as a security/safety aspect since cell reception isn't very good out here without power running to our cell extender. Boo-hiss.
15 Feb ’12
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any ideas to update the new place to solar?
5 Mar ’12
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If we had a lot of extra coin this place would be much better for solar. Geographically this location gets more days of sun and we have more wide open space. We just don't have the $$ to put into solar -- and if I did I would probably go grid-tied. Our electrical bill is only ~$100 a month so it won't be too bad.
5 Mar ’12
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I am waiting to live vicariously through you as you add solar to your place.
15 Feb ’12
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My wife has banned me from any more large purchases for a while 
We are at the point now where we need to sit down and really figure out what we want to do as far as the land and such. Daughter is graduating, doesn't make sense to keep developing the property here if we are going to build out on the land and she takes over the house. Need to leave her some things that she can decide on her own what she wants to do. Plus my dad has a new lady friend and it looks like he might be moving in with her which totally changes the dynamics of our home.
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