Water management
We can live just peachy on about 400 gallons a month of water up here. Amazing, isn’t it? When you hear the average PER CAPITA consumption of water in this Country is nearly 400 gallons PER DAY, according to Wikipedia. That means with two of us, we would be using about 24,000 gallons a month in an average urban environment. Wow, some quick math says that we are using less than 2% of what the average US household with two people? Can this be right? I do remember water bills with usage exceeding 30,000 gallons when 4 kids were living with me and I had quite a bit of outside watering which had to be done with the domestic water source.
Just so you don’t think we have made great sacrifices with this, we both take wonderful, luxurious hot showers daily, wash dishes and do laundry. We probably use another 60 gallons or so a month of just drinking water. Granted, we don’t use a dishwasher or a regular washer and dryer, we don’t run the water while brushing our teeth, etc., but the bottom line is we do NOT feel deprived. Remember we are not constantly flushing a toilet here, which provides an enormous savings.
I know when we return to the southern domicile, we will likely use a lot more water after we go “normal” but hopefully we can transfer some of the ways of saving water there and use a lot less than the average family.
Solar
The sun is definitely our friend. Entering Fall, the clouds have been rolling in more often and we realize just how much we need the sun for this lifestyle. Honestly, if we had wanted to sacrifice some on our power usage, we would never have had to fire up our generator, but it was somehow comforting to know we didn’t need to worry about it since the generator was available, if necessary. Yesterday morning the percentage on our batteries was around 80%, which is certainly nothing to worry about, but the generator needed exercise, anyway, so I went down and started it up and activated our battery charger on our 5th wheel, which is a 3-way charger and will deliver in excess of 60 amps charge initially, but level out nicely, as needed. With this system, we can put a lot of charge into our battery bank, quickly. Our generator is a 4000W Champion C46540. I researched generators quite a bit before purchasing this one. I believe this is the best on the market for the money. The pluses are you can buy one at Sam’s Club for under $300, it will run an air conditioner, if necessary, it has great technical support available and has started on no more than two pulls 99% of the time. One time I had to pull about 5 times, but that could have been operator error. It also has a special 30A RV plug. It is very fuel efficient, and runs great, even at 8400 feet. On the negative side it is not the quietest unit out there. The best and quietest generators are made by Honda and Yamaha, but you will lay out many American Samolians to own one. If you are going to be using a generator in a public place, our 46540 would not be the quietest, but there are many for sale that are much noisier. We have it located about 50 feet away from our 5th wheel and the noise doesn’t bother us at all, and since our nearest neighbor cannot hear it, it is great for us. On the negative side, it is made in China, and is pretty heavy. (about 100 pounds) I can lift it into my truck, but many people my age or younger would not lift it into a truck without assistance. Champion does make a smaller, lighter, quieter unit to compete with Honda and Yamaha, which I have seen at Sam’s Club, too, for about half the price of the Honda/Yamaha comparables. I don’t know anything about that model, but I bet it is pretty good, if you want to go light and quiet. If I were doing it all over again, since we primarily use ours to charge the batteries, occasionally, I might buy the smaller unit or, perhaps, invest in a wind generator.
At any rate, we have been very blessed to have been here this summer, with mostly sunny days for solar power, warmth, solar drying, and solar cooking. That’s all about the Sun, son. One last thing, if you decide you want to go solar, be sure to read Handy Bob’s Blog mentioned in my first post. And be sure to get a Trimetric Meter! It makes having solar oh-so-simple to manage.
Also, the solar oven has been great. Fun, better results, and did I say free? You really should have one of these.
Technology
We love modern technology. We were just discussing yesterday how we could not have imagined some time ago that we could watch a TV show one night and like the singer, get on our personal phone and download his album, and the next day play that music through an old stereo “boom box” outside using power from the sun. Sometimes when I see three young girls walking down the street with their heads down texting each other with no conversation, I think technology could be causing a lot of people to miss a lot of life, but we love our iPhones, flat screen TV’s, movies on DVD and/or streaming, etc. Also, we can stay in close touch with family since we are fortunate to have great AT&T signal for data and voice. We tether our laptops to my phone, since I have the tethering plan from AT&T. We pay an additional $15 monthly to our normal phone plans to have very decent internet service.
The Lifestyle
We now know that we can spend 3-4 months here in relative isolation and not tire of it. My wife and I were discussing this morning that we just absolutely love the peace and quiet, the comfortable temperatures, the cool mornings under the awning. Yes, we do enjoy the comforts that technology provides in keeping close touch with family and friends, but there is so much to be said for this lifestyle and we highly recommend it for anyone who does not require the hooting of horns, the hustling bustling crowd, the absolute need to be seen.
Let me know if you are interested and have any questions.
