Carlson: "public is wrong"

Only the rich will be able to afford heating/cooling when the Smart Grid goes nationwide. At least, that is the logical conclusion to be drawn from an early example of the Smart Grid – in Colorado, where the budget has tripled in two years.

Xcel Energy has begun charging customers across the state to recoup some of the skyrocketing costs the company has incurred building its smart grid project in Boulder,according to local media.

Don't mess with our forum moderator

Off-Grid forum has a new moderator – meet Elnav, and listen to his wise words – he has walked the talk for many years.

“To most people going off-grid conveys the impression of independence but in reality they are in many cases simply exchanging dependence on one thing with dependence on another.
I live in the central interior of BC in the Canadian north where the forestry industry has for a long time been the main economy. Recently an initiative to build a cellulose digester was begun. The idea being, scrap wood leftovers such as leaves, bark and even gardening debris such as grass cuttings is converted into methanol fuel. Wonderful ! It captures something that was previously unused waste and produces something useful.

Ready for anything If, like us, you wonder what you would do in a real Emergency, you’ll appreciate this handy list of Bug-out Bags – each one packed with everything you need in a sudden survival crisis.

Bugging out is survivalist slang for leaving your home to go somewhere safe. To do so, you’ll want a bug-out bag (or BOB) full of survival supplies for the road; a bug-out vehicle (or BOV), to get you out of the impact zone and through traffic as quickly as possible; and a bug-out location (or BOL) stocked with provisions to get through whatever crisis is occurring.

So, in short, WTSHTF (When The Sh** Hits The Fan), you’re going to want a BOB to put in your BOV to go to your BOL, where you’ll pray it isn’t the EOTWAWKI – The End Of The World As We Know It.  Here’s the list:

free furniture for "skipaholic"

27-year-old Katharine Hibbert is a nice middle class girl. She writes book reviews for the Times Literary Supplement, and volunteers for the Food not Bombs group which finds food in dumpsters and turns it into free meals in London.
For the last two years she has freed herself by living for free,and writtten a book about it (we hope she got an advance from Ebury Press). Free: Adventures on the Margins of a Wasteful Society (click to buy) describes how she walked away from all her possessions (books, music and other treasures stored in mum’s garage), found a squat, and lived on food discarded by cafes and supermarkets.

A walking room with a view

The world’s first walking home set off on vacation early this morning. The box-like dwelling which uses six hydraulic legs powered by solar panels left the Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge UK where it has lived for the last 18 months, bound for an arts festival in Essen, Germany.

Meanwhile in the virtual world, a British design company in cahoots with industrial giant Samsung unveiled a film of a “revolutionary transport system’” it calls ‘Aircruise’ –a solar-powered air-born luxury hotel.

Winser - UK's biggest energy waster

At  last – the UK energy regulators have woken up to what everyone else has been saying for months – Britain’s energy infrastructure is crumbling – and massive price rises, plus probable power outages, face the British consumer for the next five years.
The electricity industry is delighted at the announcement – they expect the result will be more subsidies to build a bigger and more wasteful energy infrastructure.  They are already demanding cash for the so-called smart grid.  Now companies like EDF, the French nuclear giant, want an increase in subsidies for “clean“ energy such as nuclear, so it can get increased payments for more nuclear reactors
According to Dow Jones ”U.K. utilities welcomed proposals from gas and electricity regulator Ofgem  for a radical shakeup in regulations

Joan Ruddock and friend

The grant money, awarded through the Government’s Low Carbon Community Challenge, will be spent on a range of green measures which will cut carbon, save money on energy bills, and could even see some communities make cash from generating their own energy – thanks to the Government’s new clean energy scheme.

Bellerive: we must decentralise

Now an off-grid approach is the best hope for the long-term reconstruction of the stricken country say politicians and development experts.

The effects of the earthquake that struck on Jan 13 were so debilitating, at least in part because power, water, government, fuel, transport and distribution were all centered on the capital Port Au Prince. Once that was destroyed it was difficult to provide even basic amenities to the population of 7m.

Speaking this week Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said; “We have to decentralize. It’s the only way to be efficient. It’s also the only way to avoid the same problems happening in Haiti again.”

Ryker - off the grid pioneer

Lori Ryker, architecture professor and author of two books about Off The Grid living, will speak at Louisiana state University college of art & design, Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 4:30 p.m. in Room 103 of the Art & Design Building.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Ryker is researching the relationship between communities and the larger environment relative to design and building practices.

Barnett & Hearne: ground source

It’s hard to live off-grid, disconnected from mains electricity, gas and water, in a small, densely populated country like the UK. That’s why off-grid living in this country has hitherto been limited to travellers, hippies, dedicated greens, and unsociable eccentrics.
But finally it seems that the appeal of the life off-grid is going mainstream as increasing numbers of perfectly conventional people choose to live sustainable lives unfettered by connected amenities.