We only pay one bill up on our mountain and that's for electric. We pay a truck to haul up water for us and go ourselves to get our propane cylinders filled for cooking so for the most part, this house is fairly off grid. The power bills here in Mexico are done on a scale, with those who use the most to pay the most and subsidize everyone else. But every so often someone like us gets put in that pay scale, even though we use less electricity than most people we know.
We aren't using more power but our bill was more than doubled what we've ever paid for it. That's inspired John to get active on getting us off grid, and hopefully with some financial help from friends we will do so within the next two months or so. These photos are of the beginnings. Those cylinders are 18650 lithium cells which we've been collecting and recycling to reuse to make our own at home power wall. We'll have solar panels to power it all and our current needs will be covered at the least, only needing upgrades for extra things like more kiln time and the like.
By collecting broken laptop batteries and breaking them open, you can get a lot of free cells just by testing them. When laptop batteries fail, it's generally only a few cells in the pack which can contain up to 9 cells that has gone bad. So we save the rest and plan to build battery packs with them, for the house and the electric car we're still planning on converting.
So stay tuned, as we're going to share all of our adventures with this process on here. Considering the high bills and spotty service lately (power outages as a whole aren't normal here in the city, save for small barrios like mine) having an off grid alternative seems more and more appealing every day. It'll be cool to say we're off grid again, although we'll still have all the nice things like plumbing and a nice stove.
Check out some of our other recent posts!
Living in the Clouds: Many Shades of Gray Today
Adventures Around Acapulco: Senor Frog and Other City Sights
Farm Update: Crazy Hollowed Chicken Mystery Solved!
Very cool ! Im also going to try and make my home on a/small piece of country property I own as sustainable as possible ! We just put up the power pole ans are in the process of building our power shack ! There's already water to the property , so once we have money to build , hopefully from steeming on steemit , we will try to do like you for the rest as best as we can ,!! And of course growing our own vegetables , a garden is a must !! ✔🆗🆒💙
If you get a chance you should try to enter my Power Of Postivity P.O.P Contest !! Heres the link , I love positive people !! Upped and resteemed !!
https://steemit.com/popcontest/@karenmckersie/steemit-power-of-positivity-p-o-p-link-contest
SeLL your Place and buy bitcoin LoL ; I bought bitcoin in December @ US$ 750, yesterday it topped 4,100+ dollars :)
Who needs a house if they do not have money for food . . .
Just sayin :)
/ Hugz ;)
Haha ! Food and shelter the main things required in life !! Its just going to be a very small house type cabin LOL , but yes Bitcoin would certainly help !!😂😂😂💰💲💰💲💰💲💰
I am actually LeGaLLy an ALieN; I exist primarily in CyberSpace , thus i have almost no BiLLs :)
/ Hugz ;)
ThuS = No recurring expenses means no requirement 2 have a j-o-b ! ! !
Haha ! That's great !!👍👍👍
it is very annoying being tied to a computer though :)
/ Hugz ;)
Haha !! 😂😂😂
*I can teach you 2 fish bitcoin if you want ; I will even lease you my bitcoin to try to learn to fish yourself . . .
After All , what R friends 4 :)
/ Hugz ;)
I made over 16 % on my bitcoin today in ? 11 hours [ one bet ] ...
Have a Good One ! ! !
See if you can get some second hand car batteries I would imagine they would hold a bigger charge and for longer and perhaps some led lights they draw very little current. It's a good thing that you are doing good luck. Cheers
Waow - that's some pretty impressive DIY!
Who u runnin from ; & is there a reward ? ? ?
:)
/ hugz ;)
@greenman also doing the same. Many of the american citizens are linking more off grid life. this is so great idea, I like it.
This is one impressive project.
I assume the first thing you did after CFE put you in DAC was to make sure no-one was stealing electricity from you? You shouldn't be using more than 800kwh per bimestre on your own.
Your voting will force your voice to give me strength. thanks.
So exciting! Respect! I read once aboutthe Tesla battery, would this be an idea for you guys ....?
Your local wireless internet guy is a good resource when it comes to solar :)
It's fun stuff, LEGOs for adults!
home made power wall.