Sticking it to the man again!!!!

There is nothing I love more than breaking free from the stranglehold of modern dependency. Two of those the things that I invested in right away were a rain water collection system and solar panels. The rainwater allows me to take care of all my plants and trees without paying a cent to the city. The plants prefer rainwater instead of the treated junk we drink everyday. If you water two plants with rainwater and treated city water, you will see the difference in just a few months. We plan on buying a small 250 gallon tank just for drinking water so we can stop poisoning ourselves. Did you know that treated drinking water is one of the major causes of cancer? That isnt even controversial. The water companies and government know it and dont hide the fact either.

The rainwater system is a 2000 gallon metal cistern. I purchased it from Texas Metal Cisterns for about 1000.00 delivered. I built a stand out of old 6x6 wood that I had left over from another project to give it greater elevation and water pressure. I ran the pvc from the gutters to under the house. It was much more expensive than I thought it would be simply because of the length I had to run from 4 different sections of the house. It is a good idea to have the gutters drain as close to the cistern as possible. The pipe runs under our house since it is a pier and beam foundation. I will get about 700 gallons of rainwater for every inch it rains. I use this to irrigate the yard.

At one point, I wanted to hook the toilets up to the rainwater but the city shut that down. They did not want untreated rainwater contaminating the sewage water. SERIOUSLY!!!

Anyway, I use it to water my trees and plants and there is a huge difference. Plants really dont like treated water.

The solar panels were purchased about six years ago. The city blocked me from doing a grid-tie system so I could feed my extra solar back to the city. We installed a smaller system instead that runs my office and is independent from the grid. It is less effective than a grid-tie because you have to use batteries and once your batteries are full, you waste whatever energy you are not using.

The panels were the cheapest on the market at the time which was about 4.5 dollars per watt. Now, you can buy for 1.25 a watt. Since the city is no longer being jerks about it, I plan on buying a large system to power the entire house in the next few years. The price is so low now that solar is extremely cost effective. There are three large solar power plants opening up within 50 miles of my house. I believe all of them are foreign companies. HA! So much for American innovation.

Check out this site for cheap solar prices. They log all the prices of different companies on the web and update it on a regular basis.

http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm

They are on top of my sunroom.