Money

Confusion and Battery

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Laura

I have to get a battery (or two) for my new solar panel and fridge to operate.  It is a little bit embarrassing to admit this, but the books and internet information on the subject is about as interesting as the teacher is to the Peanuts characters.  I begin reading on the subject and before long the words all blend together and all I read is wawawawawawawa…  I find the subject nearly totally without interest for me.  The only parts that I find captivating are, produce your own power, so that you are not depending on the shady power companies.  It is the same with telecommunications companies – always ripping people off… so if I could talk my friends into operating HAM systems then I would try to dump those bastards too.

Back on topic… I have to get batteries and because basically all articles are BORING and user manual TECHNICAL… I really don’t know what to do.  I found one article which at least starts off interesting enough to read.  The thing is that I want to run the fridge and perhaps a few lights too since the pot-lights that I bought are VERY battery intensive.  For now I have access to free batteries but this may dry up and besides I don’t like to fill the land fill with a hundred batteries.

There is a battery store in Kingston which I think I will visit today.  Hopefully, I can talk to someone who speaks English… I don’t mean this in a racist sort of way at all.  What I mean is that I would like to go in and say, “I have a little 12 volt fridge and a 97 square foot house.  I need a battery that will make the fridge work and maybe two or three lights that are bright enough to read by”.

I would like an answer like this.  “Yes, this is what you need.  It is X dollars for this.  Would you like that today mam?”

What I am expecting is this.  “8 – 410Ah L16Ss in 2 banks is 20 RE500s wawawawawawawawa”.

Why is there not a simple solution to this task?

Categories: Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | 3 Comments

SPLURGE!

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Laura

All of you who are keeping track of the progress at Tiny House Ontario know that she is very much a project who is still underway.

Today I hoped to get the siding on but without the tools basically my husband and I had the day off to look around and while doing so we stopped at Canadian Tire because it was on our route.  It turns out that the off grid stuff was on sale, so we sort of borrowed from Peter to pay Paul and made a couple of big ticket purchases.

It seems to me that with a little 12 volt (18 litre) fridge and a few solar panels that Tiny House Ontario will not feel so off grid anymore.  The two items together cost $474. plus tax, with the sale it was as though the fridge got thrown in and so too did the tax.  Now we have another job to do because we have to figure out how the system works, and actually connect the fridge to power.  I also need to get a battery…

The great thing is that now that I have the little fridge I can actually start to plan in earnest what the end result kitchen will look like.

 

UPDATE: July 7 2012… I was informed by a couple of people in the know that these sort of solar panels are not great because they are encased in plastic.  I understand that it would have been the same cost to by aluminium and they last at least twice as long.

Categories: Environmentalism, Materialism, Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Sustainable living, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Weekend Plans

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Laura

Here is a hint as to what I will be doing this weekend.  Leo and Hj are helping.

This chestnut brown, colonial, steel siding, was purchased at Glen Supply in Kingston.  Nice young men brought this out to me.  Though this looks like a little pile is 15 feet long and is about $1450 worth of material.

Categories: Money, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario | Leave a comment

Clean & Tiny

Posted on June 9, 2012 by Laura

Doing laundry off grid when there is no nearby river or lake is something that has to be planned because all water has to be caught or brought.  I have a few techniques for dealing with this.

I do a little bit of wash on the old glass scrub board if, for example, there is something that might stain. Otherwise I put it in my Chicken Little backpack and drive to town to throw it in the wash at Lavergne’s on Montreal Street in Kingston.  I only want to do one load at a time because I bring it back to dry and have only so much fence to hang it on.  In wanting to allow only let one load get dirty, I have to decide what to wear by the week.   What I mean, is if I choose to wear red then I stick to red/pink/yellow all week, like wise, blue/purple/green and black/grey/brown… in order to keep my clothing from being dull and yucky from mixing them all in together in a load.  In other words, my laundry dictates my weekly wardrobe.  When it is time to wash the bedding, I remove my spare helmet put this under Baby’s seat, I don’t like to do this because one never knows if they will need to take an extra rider, but I also don’t want to have to take two trips to the city.   It makes it a bit squishy with two loads, because I only have so much fence to dry things on.  Maybe I will put in a clothes line?

To save money, I bring my soap with me and when the wash is done, I bring it home and hang it out to dry.  I like to be back with it by noon so that it can dry in the afternoon sun.

Categories: Forest, Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments

Tiny House Listings

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Laura

Recently, the good people at Tiny House Listings asked me to write a guest post for their on line magazine.  They wanted me to write about what it is like to live in a Tiny House.  I chose to write more about what it is like to live inside of the ongoing Tiny House Ontario project.

I feel really happy about this opportunity.  They are a very well known site in the Tiny House Community.  I would guess that they are among the top three or four of well known Tiny House websites.  It was exciting to be asked to write for them, so exciting in fact that I made a couple of grammar errors because I did not proof read well in my excitement!  Oops!

Tiny House Listings have a website that allows people who are seeking a Tiny House of their own to shop specifically for property under 400 square feet.  They also feature other Tiny Housers and Tiny House builders on their site.

They are also on Facebook and have a load of fans!

It was nice to be asked over!

Categories: Forest, Money, Off Grid, Ontario, Simple living, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, Writing | Leave a comment