Comment on Daily discussion thread: šØāš¬ 8 January, 2025
Salvo@aussie.zone āØ2ā© āØweeksā© agoThere are plenty of people who love to help with Off-Grid, but the key thing to remember is that anything you currently get piped in and out to your house (gas, electric, fibre, water, sewerage) will need to be carted in, or you will have to do without.
You will need to do the maths on how much power you typically use, how much solar/wind/hydro your new house can be configured to generate and how much storage you will need. No hair dryers, curling irons or hair straighteners.
You will also need to store enough electricity to see you through.
You will need to find a Fixed Wireless Internet Service Provider in your area with line-of-sight to where your antenna will be.
There are other alternatives to a septic tank like composting toilet or incinerating toilet, but you will need to determine if they are right for you.
My advice is to watch as much Off-Grid YouTube as possible; keep in mind that different markets will have different products and solutions. Off-Grid service providers do realise that they may be the only option available and will charge appropriately. There is a reason why we live in societies.
PeelerSheila@aussie.zone āØ2ā© āØweeksā© ago
Thanks for your response! Iām at the pipe dreams stage at the moment, but itās a worthy dream I think. I worked at CERES many moons ago when the ATA was there, and we had things like composting toilets, which were ok but not perhaps set up for the volume of traffic they were dealing with! Iād rather go without gas completely, even though in an urban setting itās my favourite way to cook (something about cooking with a flame).
Itās interesting looking at the kinds of off-grid properties already established and for sale. They range from the very basic and self sufficient to what looks like people trying to have all the mod cons with super glamorous houses and very complex systems in place. At heart, Iām the kind of person whoās happy cooking on a fire lol, so the former type suit me best. But I will definitely start watching more off-grid YouTube videos, thankyou.
Salvo@aussie.zone āØ1ā© āØweekā© ago
We planned our current suburban house to be Zero Energy (8 years before it was just a Marketting term).
There were some roadblocks, especially with the Site Supervisor not understanding what we were trying to do. (He just couldnāt comprehend, and decided to make unauthorised changes because he āknew betterā.
We planned no gas to site, white (heat reflective) roof, lots of insulation, AC condensers on the south (leeward) side of the house, etc. The builder had a promo on a free PowerWall and the maximum legal amount of solar for a residential property.
We even had SECCCA liaise with us to do a case study on everything we were doing and the effects on energy usage.
They tried to steal defeat from the jaws of victory at every turn. The wrong colour roof was installed, they ran gas to site and tried to bait and switch us with āElectric Assistedā hot water rather than an Electric boiler, incorrectly wired PowerWall circuits so we couldnāt take advantage of the extra power and the AC technician insisting that the Condensers had to be installed in full sun, because installing them in the shade was too much hard work for him.
There were structural issues too, but they were not related to Zero Energy.
We persevered and after they fixed all the issues, we ended up with a 10 star house.
Nowadays (or recently, before the building industry crash), Zero Energy and a rating above 7 stars are table stakes for a builder and most are happy if the customer pays a bit more to boost it to 8 or 9 stars.
PeelerSheila@aussie.zone āØ1ā© āØweekā© ago
Wow, lucky you built when you did, Iād hate to be building a house from scratch now. Just going by the way the building industry is at the moment and the kind of shoddy cookie cutter places getting whipped up around my way, styrofoam in the foundations and particle board in the frames. Itād take a bit to find a good builder around here I think, and then youād be praying they didnāt go bust and leave you with a half finished house. Glad you stuck to your guns with your place, sounds like you had a fight on your hands but worth it in the end.
Salvo@aussie.zone āØ1ā© āØweekā© ago
There was a house behind us where the builder did a runner.
Styrofoam is always used in the slab, but never in structural areas such as foundational footings to structural areas of the slab.
Particle Board is actually used as a component in Engineered beams because it has better torsional strength than plain wooden beams. You can get timber beams that are stronger than an engineered beam, but only from old-growth forest like Mountain Ash and Huon Pine. Steel beams are another option, but then you have more thermal issues.