We're planning to build a house on a few acres of raw, vacant land in Southern Oregon.
I'm curious if I've considered all the basic improvements and services necessary for a full-time residence. Please review my list and add items I missed and challenge me on ones you don't think we should need. Here's the list:
1) Electricity lines - we want to generate our own power, but will still need grid power sometimes.
2) Septic
3) Well
4) Driveway - thinking a graded gravel driveway, nothing fancy
5) Telephone
6) No need for cable television as we're going to go with satellite
7) Internet will come from satellite as well
I'll challenge two things...
1. Grid tie. can be done without; just needs planning. And enough batteries. Big thing is, does it cost a prohibitive amount to connect? (like my mtn place.) Proper sizing of the solar PV capacity, plus batteries, plus generator = freedom from the utility company. It can be done, see Glenn's Underground cabin. The alternate is to get enough panels to cover most daily use but be connected to the grid as well. Daytime you feed the grid, nighttime you feed off the grid. (My suburban home). And you can always have a few batteries for backup when the grid goes down. (ditto me)
2. Telephone, if you're going satellite for TV and internet you can go cell instead of land line; but landlines may be more cost effective depending on initial connection costs.
Water, not necessarily well.
Note that some of the Earthshiptm people seem to be getting by with collecting rainwater when there are only about 7" of rain a year. And they have flush toilets and septic tanks. (Ah, yes, but their walls are so thick that they've added a lot to their square footage under roof)
and there may be at least semi-safe ways around septic tanks. A combination of composting toilets, grease traps, then all the grey water to mulch basins/irrigation, would be only one way to do it. Too lazy to look it up right now, but there have been a couple of threads around on this.
Klamath Falls?
Hear, hear Amanda!
I'm glad you suggested the rainwater harvesting option, that's what I'm looking to implement for my house. Some buried or above ground tanks (5,000 gallons?) with composting toilets and this beuaty http://www.harmsco.com/HMSC-POE-BROCHURE.pdf and you're off to the races. It's easier than most people think to setup this system but I think codes and regulations and just plain lack or local examples keep more people from doing it. I've been thinking about this for at least two years and I'm just now feeling confident that I could make it work up here in Eastern Ontario. It's very popular Down Under but they don't get -40 C winter storms along with +40 summer heat waves :D
Kodakjello
P.S. If I owned a house or condo I would install a Harmsco whole-house filter anyway. They appear to be very rugged, well built and they are used quite a bit by commercial water companies.
You can bury a cistern. (Has to be designed for it, may need to be filled before burying). If I had to deal with more than a day or two--ever--of -10 F, I'd almost certainly do it. Might anyway, since the water has to flow down from the roof. You might also end up having to store more than enough water to last the winter--more water would be less likely to freeze.
Harmsco filters look pretty nice. The tanks--probably not the UV system--might take freezing. Of course I haven't gotten to the price or how often (and for how much) you get to change the filters. Which they're not going to tell you unless you register.