by M E Skeel

Created on: November 09, 2008   Last Updated: May 23, 2009

Twenty years ago we got tired of waiting for someone else to do something about alternative energy and we went solar. We live a long way from the grid and in a climate that has lots of sunny days so it was an easy choice for us. The consequences of that choice have been many.

The first consequence was that we had to be aware of our energy inputs and outputs. Power was no longer just available at the toss of a switch. We had to put the panels up on the roof, connect them to batteries, charge the batteries, convert the 24 volt power into 240 volts with the help of an inverter and THEN we could flip the switches and get lights, tv and the other mod cons.

The second consequence was that we had to keep an eye on things and make sure the batteries had enough liquid in them so that we didn't wreck our batteries. We couldn't just take our power for granted. If the sun went away behind clouds for a few days, we had to have a back up generator for power. Yes, this uses petrol but overall most of our power was coming from the sun. The other alternative was to use less power during cloudy days. We learned to plan our activities around the sun. We wash clothes and vacuum when the sun is out, or if its cloudy and we have to run the generator anyway, then we boost the load by doing lots of energy-using chores while the batteries are being charged.

Our kids are much more energy aware than most kids and that is certainly a consequence of going alternative. Not only did they learn to always turn off lights, they also learned to turn off the tv or the microwave or the toaster at the wall. They even learned to check the light on the inverter at night to make sure that everything was off. If the inverter light was on, it meant something was drawing power somewhere.

Another consequence was that we learned to live without some kinds of appliances. We don't have a dryer for instance. We hang our clothes out in the sun and wind. It saves power. We don't iron clothes very often at all and try to buy clothing that will not need ironing in the first place. We built our house to be passively solar heated in winter and cooled in summer so that we could use less energy for heating and cooling. We sweep instead of vacuum as much as possible. Our clocks run on AA batteries. Our kitchen is mostly gas, including the fridge. And we don't buy an excess of electric gadgetry, so one of the consequences of using alternative energy is that we spend less money on that sort

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