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bobrok
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2007 11:05pm
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Greetings! I've been reading on this site for a couple of hours now and I'm impressed at the extent of information you have presented and the overall site design itself. I recently purchased a 400 sq ft cabin in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and I am doing a lot of reading about off-grid living with an eye towards making improvements in our existing setup. We have a PV system off a 39 watt panel with a 12 volt gel-type battery storage system which works well to power our CFL lighting and a few hours of TV per night. I am interested in making improvements, of course, and will look to this forum for ideas, such as extending the service hours of the battery storage system, off-season heating (like winter getaway visits) and what is the best way to supply hot water.
I'm looking forward to hearing from other forum members.
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CabinBuilder
Admin
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# Posted: 17 Dec 2007 10:36am - Edited by: CabinBuilder
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Welcome to the forum, bobrok.
Adding more batteries is an obvious way to extend service time. Also, batteries typically last several years - check the date when they where made and see if some need to be replaced.
You may or may not need to add solar panels, depending on your usage pattern (i.e. is there enough time to recharge).
As to hot water see this discussion on cabin hot water options.
Enjoy your cabin!
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bobrok
Member
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# Posted: 21 Dec 2007 05:07pm
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Hi CabinBuilder and thanks for the reply. I'm not really too sure about these batteries mostly because I haven't had time to talk to the previous owner/builder about the setup, other that him telling me that everything works great and call him if there is a problem. I haven't really had any problems. The batteries say AT&T all over them and must have been scrounged when they were replaced by the phone company. I don't know how old they are but the cabin is less than 10 years old. I know he is using the same setup in another cabin that he owns, so I'll just have to sit him down and ask questions.
Good reading on the hot water. I'm still not sure if I want to do a major setup like an RV hot water heater or just something simple like the portable. We just need enough for showers and washing dishes. Those small propane disposables are out of sight; I would probably couple the heater onto the existing copper line propane distribution system we now have. I also need to figure out whether to use the existing AC water pump or if would be beneficial to convert to a DC powered pump. The current setup is to pump water up and inside from storage barrels under the cabin. These are filled from the lake. We don't drink this water but another nearby cabin owner pumps his lake water through a 100 micron filter and has a formula for adding X amount of household bleach per X gallons of water and he actualy uses this water to wash dishes as well as shower.
We have a lot of decisions to make but don't want to hurry and make the wrong one.
Have a great weekend!
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Vince P
Member
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# Posted: 23 Dec 2007 09:58pm - Edited by: Vince P
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Quoting: bobrok We don't drink this water but another nearby cabin owner pumps his lake water through a 100 micron filter and has a formula for adding X amount of household bleach per X gallons of water and he actualy uses this water to wash dishes as well as shower.
Here is the formula that I keep at my cabin just in case I need to make my rain barrel into potable water with regular household bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite 5%). 50 gallon barrel (192L) add about 20ml bleach or about 0.4ml per gallon
An online reference can be found here.
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bobrok
Member
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# Posted: 26 Dec 2007 10:17pm
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Hi Vince P,
Thanks for the great link. That's a definite bookmark for future reference.
I've heard of using rainwater but, you know, it's just so easy to fill up a few of those 7 gal. camping containers from the town water supply on our way up. I'm thinking of having my lake water tested this spring just to see what kind of shape it is in. I'll be happy to be able to use it for showering so as to save on lugging up so many those town water jugs.
I've also considered going with a total fresh water system and trailering up a water tank from the town supply, but that seems like an awful lot of work.
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p0rtia
Member
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# Posted: 23 Mar 2008 08:05pm
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Greetings, all -- Great to find this site and read the stories of other people traveling down a similar (unpaved) path. I've found a lot of great suggestions here for my ongoing project. I'm off grid and currently camping (weekends and whenever I can) in a sixty year old 18 foot trailer, with plans to build small. Anybody have any experience with ram pumps?
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RnR
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2010 11:24am
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welcome Bobrok! Looking forward to updates and photos when available.
RnR
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MikeOnBike
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2010 01:03pm
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p0rtia,
We are going to try a RAM pump this next year. I have to lift water 160 ft. up the hill to my cabin site. We have a year-round spring and I'm going to try to build my own pump.
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pheasantplucker
Member
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2010 10:39pm
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Greetings from a fellow newbie. I will be watching this thread closely, as I too am interested in learning about this topic.
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cabingal3
Member
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# Posted: 12 Nov 2010 10:44pm
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Greetings from Oregon.glad to meet u.welcome!Me and hubby are in the process -of clearing off our land and building.Looking forward to seeing your postings.
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