alternative energy alive and well in oklahoma

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not a question lol

i meant to write this a few days ago, but have been busy. last sunday i had the boobtube on and one of the local tv stations had a news story about a local family who is homesteading here in the OKC metro area.

the reporter was absolutely amazed that they did not have any utility bills. in this day of rising natural gas and electric prices, these folks have solar cells, passive solar home, gas lights, wood heat and cooking, etc etc etc. the reporter was slack-jawed that they even had a composting toilet. their homestead was paid for and their bills are virtually non-existent.

later that morning as i perused the morning newspaper, there was a big front page article complete with photo about a man just outside of town who was not on the electric grid. he had 4 windmills each generating 3,000 watts of power. the article went to tell that he was born in europe of a poor family in approximately 1920. they were too poor to afford land, or even much food to live well. he came to america years ago, got some land and farmed. with no formal education, just the common sense knowledge he had learned from farming over a lifetime, he learned to repair all sorts of farm equipment, including windmills. this led to his own windmill electric generators. these 4 windmills provide more than enough energy to completely power his homestead, including central air conditioning, refrigerators and freezers and all that other stuff.

everyone have a nice day and take care

gene

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), February 17, 2001

Answers

That's cool, Gene. Looks like with the energy problems some other states have been having, the media is starting to take notice of the people who can do just fine without the power companies. Yay, for Oklahoma! We live on a hill and get a steady breeze up here and sometimes a "better hold on to a tree" strong winds. I would love to have some windmills and would love to have that old man you talked of, for a neighbor. That way I could get some first hand knowledge on how to set one up right, from someone who really knew what he was doing. Enjoyed reading the article. Thanks.

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), February 18, 2001.

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I live in the part of OK that got hit with that bad ice storm Christmas Day. I was without power for 13 days and thought I would die. Well anyway, whenever I at a gathering I mention how did you survive the ice storm. It amazes me how many people didn't even notice it much. Oh well, "I was warm and we could eat off our wood burning cook stove". "Just carried water from the well", Plenty of canned Meat". They actually live the homestead life I dream and read about all the time. We do alot of homesteady things but the older people in OK seem to still live it as a way of life and haven't the foggest idea that some of us dream of it.

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), February 21, 2001.

-- (animalwaitress@excite.com), June 23, 2001

Answers

I live in Kansas, on a small tract of land, not OK. However I can relate to those who think "homesteading" is cool. My home is in the ground, facing South, and uses passive solar heat in the winter to aid our small wall furnace. I also have an earth home wood stove that we use consistently during the winter. For the year 2000, my energy bills averaged $100/month. Here are some of the drawbacks of homesteading.

1. Work - I spend about 12 hours each weekend in winter cutting firewood. I spend about 120 hours each summer ensuring the house stays tight, mowing the acreage, building and maintaining fence. This doen't leave a large amount of time for leasure activities.

2. Scheduling - We live far enough away from the city that we try to do things in batches, e.g. shopping is combined with movie going, or buying parts to fix a vehicle is combined with getting a flat tire fixed.

3. Fire - Of course our insurance is much higher because it takes about 20 minutes for the closest fire truck to reach our house. We limit the cost by making sure we have working fire detection, and fire extinguishers.

4. Ambulance - The fastest way to get to an emergency room is by personal vehicle if an accident occurs. The closest ambulance is located at the fire station in town, so it takes them about 20 minutes to get here also.

5. Gasoline - There is no way of getting around price increases at the pump. This is why we schedule our trips to town.

6. Storms - During stormy weather the lights will go out. We handle this using inexpensive parlor lamps, and heating canned goods on the wood stove.

Here are some tips to lower your energy bills in town.

1. Make use of styrofoam, because of its insulating properties (and its cheap). 1/4" of styrofoam is equal to 1' of cellulite insulation. We have panels made of styrofoam that we just insert into the window boxes at night. I also have added styrofoam panels around the exposed areas of the house (outside), and then covered the foam with native rock.

2. Use a sheperds hook to attach a garden hose nozzle, and aim the nozzle at the condensing coils of your air conditioner. Set the nozzle for wide mist. Some of the mist will be blown away by the ac units fan, but enough water will contact the condenser coil and cool it. When the condenser is cooled, the air conditioner compressor does less work. Less work translates to less energy consumption, and a lower monthly bill.

3. Use flourescent lighting instead of incadecent lights. We have three sets of incadecent lights, over the stove, a small tiffany style lamp, and one dining room lamp. Everywhere else we use flourescents. The ones I like the most are the twisted ones in a round bulb as they last 5 to 7 years (and I hate changing lightbulbs). We started using these in 1988, well before the energy star push from the government, because on REC our rates are higher than those in the city. These lights have saved us about $1500 in energy costs over the last decade.

Respectfully yours, Mark

-- Mark Youngblood (youngblood @carrollsweb.com), August 05, 2001.