Living Off the Grid on Long Island

[SimpleMan]

I drove past a residential home which had free standing wind turbines (around 45’ tall) and solar panels on the roof. I imagine the house also had a wood/pellet stove.

Has anyone calculated what would be required to live off the grid on Long Island?

I guess a good start would be propane tanks (for the stove, clothes dryer, hot water heater), a wood/pellet stove, solar panels, and a wind turbine(?)

There are some websites with info about residential wind energy. However, I question how effective it is if you do not live close to the shore, or on the plains. Also, I think you will have zoning issues in most neighborhoods.

http://windenergyfoundation.org/wind-at-work/wind-consumers/wind-power-your-home/

http://bergey.com/wind-school/reside...energy-systems

[Idiocracy]

get ready to pay the monthly fee to LIPA to be disconnected from the grid. Let that statement simmer for a minute.

[Barnslayer]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to not pay your bill and let them disconnect you for free?

[SimpleMan]

I forgot about food. I guess a "patriot garden", and chickens and rabbits for protein. Goats for milk?

[wdeister08]

get ready to pay the monthly fee to LIPA to be disconnected from the grid. Let that statement simmer for a minute.

You dont need to be disconnected, if the solar and wind generate enough power, theyll pay you for what you dont use. Lot of green and star initiatives in NY. I know the panels are crazy expensive, most people who get em get a free install and then just buy from the company that installs at a reduced rate. Or they dont care about the upfront cost because they want to go green.

[GettingFedUp]

You need a house with a cesspool and all that Mangano crap. Also need well water to be truly off grid.

[LazyLab]

How would the hookers know where to go?

[Barnslayer]

Squirrel. Fresh and affordable.

[SimpleMan]

You need a house with a cesspool and all that Mangano crap. Also need well water to be truly off grid.

My cesspool is long gone, and I also forgot about water. Roof/garden water collectors are popular, but I don't think we get enough rain in this part of the country to get by.

Plus, I don't think I want to drink anything which trickled down from my roof shingles.

picture-06-32.jpg

[LazyLab]

Yea the bird crap and mosquito larvae adds a little after taste

[Destro]

I forgot about food. I guess a "patriot garden", and chickens and rabbits for protein. Goats for milk?

Depends on where.

I live in a secluded wooded neighborhood on the N. Shore backed into State Parks and the largest river on LI. Several horse properties, my neighbor (whose house I can't see) has chickens.

As you've probably seen in my trailcam threads I have many deer including trophy sized bucks on my property (which I can bow hunt), rabbits, wild turkey. We have a large garden. Tons of firewood that I cut myself. It's like a slice of upstate on LI. Several sheds, storage houses, wood sheds (cords of wood constantly). A home gym, workshop, etc. A gate will be going up eventually and I have barb wire and logs if I need to roll that out.

The house was on a well and solar is an option (a wood burning stove is getting put in). There is also fishing and duckhunting on the river. Tons of wild black and raspberries grow in the woods. For bugging in on LI it is perhaps an ideal situation, which is why I chose to live here after a house hunt of well over 100 properties (and for the privacy and nature).

and btw many of the fancier N. Shore gated estates are great off the grid/bug in compounds by design or can be easily converted to that if money is not an issue. And of course farms out East.

[class3]

Pessimistically the number of refugees streaming east from Queens and Brooklyn (and Nassau) in a SHTF/TEOTWAWKI will overwhelm every square inch of Long Island out to Orient - Montauk - Plum - Gardiners.

[Destro]

Yes and no. At that level there will be greatest internal conflict within their neighborhoods and the populated areas along the way (think of the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds early scenes). Plus the travel out East will not be quite that simple on that level (I mean heck the gridlock on a Hamptons weekend is apocalyptic and there are less main highways and more capillary roads to the properties out East).

Also if we approached that level many of the properties out East are more secluded and easily defensible. There would be a lot of levels of escalation before that spillover would get East, and it wouldn't be in one simple wave either, lot of variables and attrition along the way (I would even imagine many of the highways would be shut down and physically blocked off at that level, and on a normal day it takes hours of travel, plus many accidents and altercations along the way).

But if reached that point I'd still rather be where I am were most locals don't even know there's a neighborhood on a defensible secluded property, where there are no main highways close by, than say stuck in Levittown on Hempstead Turnpike with 10,000 panicking cars bumper to bumper and people freaking out.

[Idiocracy]

if you don't disconnect, you aren't "off the grid". For me, its more about the principle of the matter. Again, I was fortunate enough to escape NY but I was positioning myself to unplug and NOT pay the rediculous monthly fee to stay disconnected. they are insane!

[SteveT]

You dont need to be disconnected, if the solar and wind generate enough power, theyll pay you for what you dont use.

... But you wouldn't be disconnected from the grid, you be feeding it - and still drawing from it.

[SteveT]

I need a rain barrel. If anyone knows a good place to buy a plastic barrel and lid, let us know,