> They are still dependant on the city for water (although a > well could remove that) and on waste cooking oil for > automobile fuel. I believe they heat with "natural" gas, but > they are working on adding a wood stove so that should end > soon. BTW, I now heat with wood and solar only. > PV is great: > http://techref.massmind.org/techref/other/solar/case1.htm Very important point I forgot to mention: pathtofreedom.com and I (and most PV users) are dependant on the grid for "storage" of the power we generate from the solar panels. Batteries are NOT cost effective and the sun has this bad habit of going behind the planet... Now, they use kerosene lanterns at night and don't have a TV (or many other electric appliances) so they might be able to get by with out the grid. They do have a refrigerator, but there are alternatives to that: http://techref.massmind.org/techref/other/solfrig.htm If I wanted to be totally off the grid, I would work very hard to eliminate any appliance that needed to be run at night. --- James Newton, massmind.org Knowledge Archiver james@massmind.org 1-619-652-0593 fax:1-208-279-8767 http://www.massmind.org Saving what YOU know. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist