Last year I discovered a great blog about simple living in small dwellings. The Tiny House Blog is designed, written and lovingly maintained by Kent Griswold.
If you are arriving from my most recent post on the Tiny House Blog, WELCOME!! Stay awhile and see what float cabin living is all about. Some sections that you might find interesting include:
The most recent article, just posted yesterday, is Float Cabin Moving Day. It chronicles a rare event in float cabin living - the relocation of a cabin from one site to another. Come along for the ride. Head on over to TinyHouseBlog.com for the rest of the story.
You can read more about our off the grid cabin life in Up the Lake and Farther Up the Lake by my husband, Wayne J. Lutz. More information about the books and ordering is available at our website www. PowellRiverBooks.com. - Margy
Earlier this week I wrote about capturing the power of wind with our AirX wind generator. It's good to be able to use wind create extra electrical power at our float cabin. But the wind doesn't always bring good. Sometimes it's bad.
We get gale force (and a few times hurricane force) winds as storms move in and out. We've learned the hard way to keep our deck clear to prevent precious items from diving overboard to a watery grave. Even so, we lost an empty propane tank (fortunately our friend John found it floating in the Hole), a large heavy sawhorse, numerous plastic barrels and buckets, and the top to our BBQ.
Recently, I woke to the sound of wind roaring in like a train from the north. When it hit, a picnic tabletop Wayne salvaged tore loose and became a giant Frisbee. The loss would have been bad enough, but during it's brief flight it took out both antenna on our boat moored nearby. Not a good thing for sure. Whether good or bad, the wind sure is powerful. - Margy
Our float cabin in Hole in the Wall is off the grid. We use solar, but from October through March the amount of sunlight available for power generation is limited because our cabin is in a water filled valley. On the shortest day, "sunrise" over Goat Island is at 10:00 and "sunset" behind the trees on the other side of Hole is at 1:00. So, as you can see, even on a sunny day we can't store up much electricity in our batteries.
One day while walking through Canadian Tire we spotted an AirX wind generator. We thought it was worth a try. The AirX is a 400 watt wind generator manufactured by Southwest Windpower. The blades start turning at 8 mph, but power generation doesn't start until about 10 mph. To reach the 400 watt capacity, there needs to be a steady breeze of 28 mph. Two special features include a charge controller that stops power generation when the batteries reach full charge, and overspeed protection to prevent damage during high wind conditions.
We only get winds in the Hole during storms, but now that we use the wind for power generation you won't hear us complain too much. Now you'll hear us chant, "We're making power, we're making power!" We'll, at least until something is swept off the deck. Here's our AirX in action during a recent storm.
Do you generate your own power? I would be interested to hear about your experiences. - Margy
If you are arriving from my most recent post on the Tiny House Blog, WELCOME!! Stay awhile and see what float cabin living is all about. Some sections that you might find interesting include:
The most recent article, just posted yesterday, is Float Cabin Moving Day. It chronicles a rare event in float cabin living - the relocation of a cabin from one site to another. Come along for the ride. Head on over to TinyHouseBlog.com for the rest of the story.
You can read more about our off the grid cabin life in Up the Lake and Farther Up the Lake by my husband, Wayne J. Lutz. More information about the books and ordering is available at our website www. PowellRiverBooks.com. - Margy
