Shamelessly Unplugged

Facing a potentially financially ruinous reconfiguration of our solar bases electrical system, we cried uncle about two years ago, downsized our battery bank,and got re-connected to the grid. We still have all of our appliances on power strips that can be turned off so that vampire LEDs don’t drain the grid. We heat or hot water with the sun in the summer and our house exclusively with our woodstove in the winter.This week, the biggest part of our energy saving infrastructure—our mostly earth sheltered house — has been keeping our house cool sans air conditioning. We’ve been keeping the windows in exposed front portion of the house closed with the curtains drawn, and the front rooms are usually dark. It’s only when I go back to my office and one of the back rooms and I remember one of my other favorite little energy savers — our insulated sun tubes on the north face of the roof. Once it was a way to have daylight without flipping a switch. This week it’s way to have light without heat.Even if we had to compromise and return to using the electric company for some things, it’s nice having a reminder we don’t have to completely throw in the towel.