[wvns] Oregon Couple Escapes the Grid
Oregon Couple Throws Out Lifeboat of Ideas to Save Energy, Resources
By Kara Hansen
The Daily Astorian
Monday 08 October 2007
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101107EC.shtml
After spending two years working to convert a 1970s Tudor-style
Astoria home into a low-impact, energy-independent household, Caren
Black and Christopher Paddon are finally going off the grid - or
coming as close as possible to being entirely self-sufficient.
That means making no purchases, producing no garbage, cutting off
all outside utilities and fueling their Honda hybrid with just one
tank of gas over the entire month of October.
And they'd like their North Coast neighbors to do the same.
"We cannot continue to use and waste power. People are going to
have to learn to conserve," said Black, a longtime teacher and school
administrator from California. "That's one of the reasons for this
challenge: Learn while you can, while you're still on the grid. It's
easier to learn now, when if you make a mistake there's still backup."
For Black and Paddon, their October Green Fest is a "test" of the
homestead they've developed, "a time to check and see how we're
doing," according to the couple, who began the nonprofit Titanic
Lifeboat Academy in 2005 for education and research on issues related
to peak oil - the uppermost point before global oil production
descends into terminal decline. They also hoped their home could
become a sort of demonstration center for sustainable lifestyles,
systems and technologies.
"The whole point of coming here was to found a homestead that was
self-sufficient and erase the footprint," said Black, who is also
involved with the county's Community Emergency Response Team. "If we
can take this house off the grid, if we can erase the footprint of
this house, anyone can do it."
Paddon, a volunteer firefighter for the Lewis and Clark fire
district who has worked in industrial design, as a solar-panel
installer and once managed a 40-acre ranch in California, added
insulation to the home and installed thermal windows. Two goats
provide the couple with milk; chickens supply eggs and fertilizer.
They also recycle rainwater, using much of it to irrigate a garden and
the property's scattered fruit and nut trees.
However, while they can generate about half of their monthly
electricity with solar panels on the roof (about 10 kilowatt-hours per
day) and a wind turbine (about 6 kWh) in their front yard, unplugging
from outside utilities is nearly impossible.
"Both of those systems are grid-tied so any excess (energy) we
produce is fed back into the grid system," said Paddon. "If we just
disconnected from the grid completely, we would lose the advantage of
being able to bank any surplus energy we produce and then use it later."
And while Earth-friendly technologies will help in the struggle to
save oil and slow climate change, they won't solve the overall
problem, the couple explained.
"What will replace this energy is not some new alternative or some
new technology," said Black.
"Technology will not save us," said Paddon. "But if we use and
conserve the amount of oil that's left - a scarce amount of oil - we
can make that transition easier and the fall a little bit softer."
Efforts to cut back on energy use can be fairly simple, they said,
such as changing out standard lights for energy-saving compact
fluorescent bulbs; eliminating purchasing for a week; or starting a
carpool. They also recommended eating foods in-season and buying only
local, organic products, which reduces the need to fuel trucks for
shipping it across the country.
Despite growing awareness of resource depletion and global climate
change, they said more needs to be done.
"We have a heightened sense of urgency," Paddon said.
"People who insist on living in yesterday are making tomorrow way
more difficult than it needs to be," said Black. "People aren't
willing to stop to really look at how we're consuming and what the
patterns are and what needs to change. There's going to be no easy way
down off the cliff, other than straight down."
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