The report on Green Gaming (this goes here because this forum is my home)

[townparkradio]

Some of you folks may remember about 6 months ago I was talking about Intellivision games, how much I enjoyed them; asked for recommendations of what else to get. I then promised I'd be back to report on my venture... building a cabin for under $2000 and then living on solar power.

 

Well, firstly, the cabin cost us twice the initial presumed price and still isn't quite done (needs exterior trim), but the solar system? The solar system is done and in place.

 

What we have is 3 130-watt panels and 1 135 watt panel, 12 volt, hooked up in parallel in order to generate more wattage but keep the voltage consistent. We have 4 220 amp/hour golf cart batteries connected in series and parallel in order to provide 440 amp/hours at 12 volts. We get about 3 hours of sun directly on the panels, affording us, on average, 520 watt hours per hour into the batteries. Now you know what we have going into the system, time to talk about what's coming out, as well as boring details of day to day life.

 

Firstly let's list the most mundane thing: lights. Our lighting is in the form of a single 6.5 watt LED light bulb in an overhead, another identical bulb in a small end-table lamp upstairs, and two 1.5 watt LED desk lamps. We also have our broadband modem (10 watt hours per hour) and wireless router (another 15). We have these because while you cannot get running water or power up here... DSL is a go-go! We have a netbook and a laptop. The Laptop draws between 8 and 40 watts depending on the activity level, and the netbook draws a steady 22 for some odd reason.

 

As for water, we haul it, and we use a little camp stove with propane to feed ourselves in our lovely 12x16 foot two story... palace. Heat? Wood, baby. Whatever I chainsaw down and split for the stove. Bathroom? A small box constructed over a bucket which we empty every day. Bathing? We have a bathtub on the first floor udner the stairs with a caulked up stopper over the drain hole. we sit in it and use heated water poured over our heads to take mini-showers. Food? Well that's a bit different. We take bi-weekly trips into town in addition to whatever I can kill with the Ruger 10/22 or the Hi-Point .45 carbine (or it's little brother the Hi-Point .45 pistol). With my erratic and low-paying online work schedule we may have to either go on food stamps or I'll have to get WAY better at hunting. Our three cats have reduced themselves to two because one decided he'd try to catch an owl; but the other two aren't nearly so full of themselves.

 

Enough of that mundane crap, how about the GAMES? Firstly, for modern systems we have a 32 inch LCD TV. Unfortunately, it draws about 70 watts. We have a Nintendo Wii, which draws PEAK of 22 watts. We also have a Microsoft Xbox 360 (we used to make a decent amount of money), which draws a minimum of 190 watts and peak of dang near 400. Anyone care to guess which system is collecting dust? For our older systems we have a small TV/VCR combo unit which claims to use 56 watts, but in practice draws nearer to 25. We have an Atari 2600 and an Intellivision and their power draws are absolutely inconsequential. I can;t even get the 2600 to read on my power consumption meter, and the Intellivision only seems to occasionally spike above 7 watts. As you can tell, our house is now retrogaming paradise. Well, it would be if I could get a working Intellivision other than the INTV 2 model, anyway. I kept buying controllers and systems off eBay and never managed to get a fully working system. As it is now we use an INTV two for short periods of time... (the 2 doesn't seem to like the impure power generated by our inverter) or the Franken-Tandyvision with some intv caps and resistors, with Intellivision controllers; no bottom right button on any controllers plugged into the right side, and no controllers work at all on the left.

 

With the last of our fun money for the forseeable future we did research and welcomed a new member to our family; the Nintendo 3DS! At maximum draw, it's 10 watts. It averages unreadable it's so low. It was purchased primarily for it's ability to web-surf and listen to music; but the Resident Evil game it came with is rather fun as well.

 

All in all, it's a good life. We get up when we want, go to bed when we want, and nobody owns a piece of our time. Donations trickle into the radio station slowly but tend to nearly always cover the operating cost, and we still have residual monthly payments from selling our trailer for the next two years, so our only bill will be taken care of. Homesteading has been rough in spots but I think the song "Draggin' the Line" covers it nicely.

 

If anyone has any questions.. well.. I'll be around.

Edited October 17, 2011 by townparkradio

[townparkradio]

Err reverse that. no controllers work at all on the right. Curse you, lysdexia!

[AlvinKarpis]

Im sorry if I missed the original thread, but are you choosing to live this way? Or were you forced to live this way?

[townparkradio]

Much MUCH more choosing than forced. We were planning on doing this about 5 years down the road with a LOT more money saved up, but I lost my job and given the economy we decided to go ahead and do it. Next year the garden should be ready to roll and we should be able to self-sustain. It actually all feels more secure than scrambling for a job in Montana would have been. We've basically cut our living expenses to, not counting the Internet, about $70 a month.

 

There's more free time for gaming, to boot, especially as the winter comes in. The way I see it is this will be 9 months of really busting our butts farming, woodcutting, canning, and hunting and whatnot, then three months of screwing off while it snows outside.

Edited October 17, 2011 by townparkradio

[AlvinKarpis]

Im impressed as I would never choose to live that way, I mean I love camping and hunting and the outdoors, but I will take it a weekend at a time

 

Good luck on keeping it going, an I agree you better work on becoming the best hunter possible

[Rev]

Hey, what State are you in? You mentioned Montana, but is that where you are? .........just curious.

[cparsley]

Then this winter I expect to see your self-substaining kiester in the HSC (planning on doing a Winter - specific HSC this year), unlike my predecessor.

[townparkradio]

Then this winter I expect to see your self-substaining kiester in the HSC (planning on doing a Winter - specific HSC this year), unlike my predecessor.

 

Fine then, I shall! (Provided I have the games, natch)

[townparkradio]

Hey, what State are you in? You mentioned Montana, but is that where you are? .........just curious.

 

Oh yes, I am in Montana. The boondocks near Fortine. Up on a mountain!