frugal living 20

FRUGAL LIVING 20

UTILITIES

ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES

CONTINUED

I know that the ongoing doctrinal brainwashing these days is that you should never ever, EVER watch television but instead go down to Bobby-Lee’s Super Ninja Training School and learn some rockem sockem martial arts to balance your center ( wash on, wash off ) or learn some old timey skills to save money or garden to be healthier or whatever.  And none of that is necessarily a bad thing ( although some believe American martial arts are close to worthless and not much more than guys ballet, or at least in the beginning years ), but I can learn that crap AND watch an hour of TV at night.  Not because there is a whole lot of good stuff on-it is usually a fight to avoid a reality show or singing-but because after four to seven hours of reading and an hour of writing, my damn brain needs to relax.  I rarely read fiction, so while I’m being entertained because I only read what interests me, it is still learning.  I need to turn my brain to mush to counter that.  Moderation in all things, from work to play.  So, from the start I wanted a travel or camping TV.  But the decently priced $30 black and white five inch TV I had in storage was the old analog signal.  The only good it ever did me was to use as a base I strapped my new digital flat screen TV to ( I did find a trash picked WatchMan with a two inch screen but it got one channel, poorly, and this was about the time the switchover to digital became mandatory and the analog signals were retired so that didn’t last long and was no big loss ). 

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And of course, I would never dream of paying $30 a month for a satellite dish.  For one thing, it’s a two year contract and ever since the Internet got started up and I got roped into one of those ( at the time, the only way to get an unlimited minutes package ) I refuse to ever do so again ( don’t even get me started on cell phone contracts, were you keep picking and choosing between companies for the privilege of getting screwed a tiny bit less ).  And more importantly, it uses friggin 50 watts an hour pulling down the signal.  Then, after I’ve humped myself with a contract, had to buy more solar panels, then I still have to watch just as many commercials as I do on broadcast stations?  Who the hell ever thought cable or satellite was a good idea?  A nation of morons, I’d imagine ( who love those sports packages- sports who you subsidize through taxes ).  I’ll take my $50 rooftop antenna  any old day of the week.  I still get 20 channels, no sports but one Latin and one country music so almost as bad ( the one great part about digital signal is the extra channels, but you have got to love 70’s shows or there won’t be a lot to pick from ).  And the antenna doesn’t draw any juice.  The TV, 12 watts. 

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Like we saw with the 12v refrigerator, just because something says travel, 12v or the like doesn’t mean you can indiscriminately use them.  Some draw a lot of power.  You still need to know the watts you draw compared to the watts your panels produce.  Never ever take the stated watts from a panel seriously.  Subtract 10% for Real World Application.  AND a few percent for the cost of charging the battery.  If you have a AC power appliance, like a DVD player or a pair of hair clippers or even your computer, when you turn on that inverter, expect it to use up 10% extra of what you are drawing.  So a 30 watt panel is delivering 22 watts while your 30 watt appliance is using 33.  That’s what the battery is for, right?  To draw more juice than what the panels produce, which you replace later ( how else do you get light at night? ).  Just beware the true electrical cost.  And in the winter, the sun delivers even less to the panel- my best guess is about half that in summer.  So your 30 watt panel is really only a 12 or so in winter, less any battery performance degradation and inverter use.  But even with all that, remember that you are getting free electricity from the sun.  Okay, $3 a year per 30 watt panel and about $3 a month per battery.  The bigger price is you must relearn how to use the stuff, from just thoughtlessly flipping a switch to always calculating how much you are going to get the next day.  My feelings are that I’m not bound to a corrupt utility company, nor am I bound to a greedy municipality which basically thrives by enslaving all those who “need” to be hooked up to utilities, so the price of using less appliances is easily the correct decision.  I look at city living like it was living in a trailer park.

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Before I moved to my own land, $125 a month for four years ( plus a lot of my tax returns ), I lived five years in a trailer park which was about $325 a month.  Fifteen grand for five years, over twice the price of my land ( true, a five minute walk commute from the park, but that was still a stiff price ).  Why?  Because I was on city utilities.  There was almost no ground devoted to our parking space-you could actually hit your neighbor if you spit out the window.  Fifteen grand to have a hookup to AC electric, city water and a sewer connection.  So now, I have 12v electricity with limited appliances, a composting toilet and I haul water in jugs on my bike.  And I save $3k a year.  Half of my pay, saved, by foregoing extra appliances.  True, an hour and a half commute daily, but that is exercise to keep me healthy.  I’m fifty, I need to stay fit or I’ll decline faster than Rome after 400 AD.  So the commute is just a side benefit, not a cost. 

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Get plenty of extra panels to stay in lighting regardless of what the weather does, first and foremost.  Bright overhead lighting is one of the best things you can do to feel you are living rather than camping.  After that, any electrical appliance is just gravy, a luxury.  Trust me, going from camping/squatting when you first go off grid where you live primitive until you recover from a traditional debt serf existence, any extra appliance will be a treat and appreciated. 

You won’t feel you are depriving yourself, but pampering yourself.  I know, now, you are thinking of giving up your wall size TV to move to the boonies, your big fridge, your Fry Daddy, your thumping stereo, all will be too sorely missed.  Go camping for a month, and the most pathetic comparable appliances will be manna from heaven afterwards.

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