Getting Off-Grid 1 - Cam Mather
Alex Smith | 10.06.2011 16:43 | Ecology | Energy Crisis | Sheffield
Living off grid 14 years with family, Cam Mather publishes how-to books, including The Renewable Energy Handbook. He loads up this interview with lessons-learned, tips for starting out, solar, all seasons solar hot water heater, geothermal, wood & wind.
From Radio Ecoshock Show 110608 29 min
From Radio Ecoshock Show 110608 29 min
As climate, peak oil, and economy crash into a perfect storm, get ready to keep going, get off fossil fuels, and get off the grid.
This week we are talking with off-grid specialists, about your future with renewable energy. Our first guest, Cam Mather was already a publisher when his family set off for an off-grid home in the wilderness.
It was a treat to talk with Cam - not just because it reminded me of my own 10 years without electricity in the back-country. Cam loaded up the interview with his own experience, and a ton of tips from his how-to book published by Aztext.com.
Just one example. Think of starting your renewable energy journal with a solar panel, hooked up to some batteries? But wait. If you are serious about getting off fossil fuels, one of your biggest energy requirements comes from heating water.
Cam suggests starting with a solar hot water heater - the type that will run year-round, even in freezing weather. His cost $6,000, but Cam claims it paid for itself in 5 years, and now provides a 20 percent return on his investment. Compare that to the one or two percent interest you get from the bank for savings lately. Solar is pays better than the stock market, and it's a sure thing.
If you are planning a new home, or a retrofit of an existing place, you may want to install a ground source heat pump, even before solar. That will heat your home in the cold months, and cool it off in the developing global heat storms. Again, the first cost is expensive, but the returns keep paying you back. If you run the heat pump with solar panels, the whole rig is carbon-free - except for the original energy used in manufacture, and the carbon burned to deliver it.
You won't have to worry about oil prices, or unstable nations abroad.
Living in Canada with plenty of trees, and no neighbours nearby, Cam uses wood heat in the winter. His friend engineer Bill Kemp has designed a simple device to heat water with a woodstove, and that should be in the upcoming revised edition of "The Renewable Energy Handbook", Mather says.
The whole interview is packed with the Mather family story. Choosing land for independence. How the women of the family handled the big change from the city. Making money over the Net, and selling produce. What worked and what didn't, over 14 years of living off-grid, aiming for the carbon free household.
Find Cam Mather homesteading and self-sufficiency books at
http://www.aztext.com
Radio Ecoshock:
http://www.ecoshock.org
This week we are talking with off-grid specialists, about your future with renewable energy. Our first guest, Cam Mather was already a publisher when his family set off for an off-grid home in the wilderness.
It was a treat to talk with Cam - not just because it reminded me of my own 10 years without electricity in the back-country. Cam loaded up the interview with his own experience, and a ton of tips from his how-to book published by Aztext.com.
Just one example. Think of starting your renewable energy journal with a solar panel, hooked up to some batteries? But wait. If you are serious about getting off fossil fuels, one of your biggest energy requirements comes from heating water.
Cam suggests starting with a solar hot water heater - the type that will run year-round, even in freezing weather. His cost $6,000, but Cam claims it paid for itself in 5 years, and now provides a 20 percent return on his investment. Compare that to the one or two percent interest you get from the bank for savings lately. Solar is pays better than the stock market, and it's a sure thing.
If you are planning a new home, or a retrofit of an existing place, you may want to install a ground source heat pump, even before solar. That will heat your home in the cold months, and cool it off in the developing global heat storms. Again, the first cost is expensive, but the returns keep paying you back. If you run the heat pump with solar panels, the whole rig is carbon-free - except for the original energy used in manufacture, and the carbon burned to deliver it.
You won't have to worry about oil prices, or unstable nations abroad.
Living in Canada with plenty of trees, and no neighbours nearby, Cam uses wood heat in the winter. His friend engineer Bill Kemp has designed a simple device to heat water with a woodstove, and that should be in the upcoming revised edition of "The Renewable Energy Handbook", Mather says.
The whole interview is packed with the Mather family story. Choosing land for independence. How the women of the family handled the big change from the city. Making money over the Net, and selling produce. What worked and what didn't, over 14 years of living off-grid, aiming for the carbon free household.
Find Cam Mather homesteading and self-sufficiency books at
http://www.aztext.com Radio Ecoshock:
http://www.ecoshock.org
Alex Smith
Homepage:
http://www.ecoshock.org
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