Looking for land in the Southeast

[Amanda Pope]

Oh well I guess she can do without me a little longer.How ya say it back to square 1.

[glenn-k]

Hey Amanda Pope, as Chuckca says, CA is pretty high- there are some fairly reasonable places around here but it's all relative.  I know of one - I think it was 189000 for 10 acres with a hippie shack, compost toilet or outhouse and a well that needs a pump installed.  I'm not positive on the price but if it's in your range let me know and I can check into it further.  No electricity there but is nearby or you could go solar.

[memathews]

We have a 1KW Bergey wind generator and 1320 watts of solar panels now.  4KW Trace sine wave inverter so can use normal appliances - 8 L16 storage batteries and a small diesel generator for backup.

Glenn --
Do you know by chance how much of your total power generation is contributed by your wind generator? I'm seriously considering one for myself, augmented by small solar array, but am curious about how much power you can actually get out of the wind setup.

Appreciation,
Mike

[glenn-k]

It can vary greatly with size, wind and location.  I am not in a real great area but better than a lot around here.  I estimate that I get about 1/3 of my power from the wind generator.  Ideally I'd add another one.

Bergey has wind maps on their site.

A hybrid system is great because the wind generator works at night and during storms when the solar doesn't do much if anything.

[Steph(Guest)]

You know, N. Georgia is a great place!! Come to think of it, hubby and I have a few acres and a mobile home we are trying to sell so we can build this spring!!! Even has a stream as property line on one side!! Really though, N. Georgia is great, and fairly cheap to live if you find the right place. Where we are Banks County, (about 60-80 miles N. of Atlanta) is kinda out there. We have neighbors, but mostly here is farms. Land here is 7-12K /acre. Can be less if you buy more. We will be selling our mobile home on 1-2 acres for around 90K. Probably list it a little high. My Dad just bout 8 acres in I think Pickens County for 80K. Anyway, food for thought, you might want to consider GA, great mountain views too.

[Amanda_931]

80 miles from Nashville would put you within long commuting distance of the office parks in the next county south.  Probably true of Atlanta--maybe even more so, as it's a bigger city.

Farther from there, if there's nothing else (Chattanooga?) "nearby" I think prices would head down a bit.  

The difference is still there but less dramatic with smaller cities.  Distance to 4-lane limited access roads (e.g., interstate highways, but others as well) counts too.

[speedfunk]

It's funny that 7 - 12 k is cheap lol...     I felt that 3 G an acre for 15 acres was alot....

[Amanda_931]

Well, it was, even in the Nashville area, in the seventies.

Speaking of which, I haven't been hearing much about real estate bubbles lately.

[John_C]

I'm new here, so I hope this isn't out of line.  With the talk about water why do so few people consider cisterns?  I built a house in the Florida keys 20+ years ago and our only source of water was rainwater that we gathered off he roof and stored in a 14,000 gal concrete tank behind the house.  It's a common enough solution in the Bahamas and other place that get less annual rainfall than many parts of the U.S.

If I'm not mistaken cisterns are common as well in Australia.  Anybody have any input.

[glenn-k]

Welcome and good point, John C.

Some here use rainwater - I think Amanda does.  I just bought solar panels from a neigbor on the next mountain - nice new big house with a tin roof - no well.   He collected 10000 gallons last year  - wants to expand soon.  Uses a water tanker part of the year.  A cistern can be built cheaply with ferrocrete - even into the ground then a ferrocrete cover made to keep the critters out.  Like stucco with multiple layers of chicken wire.  The Navy had sea going ships out of a strong form of it in WWII.  

I think PEG was stationed on one.

[Amanda_931]

I have a triple water system.  In other words not exactly all the comforts of home.

a spring for drinking water sited so that one gets to tote jugs up the hill..

a tiny (120 gallon) tank catching roof water and a couple of smaller rain tubs for washing dishes occasionally me or my clothes/dog water/giving the tomatoes some water--not enough to call it irrigation.  there's a second tank that needs to be hooked up--properly.  

but I'm still taking showers elsewhere.

Including most of the clothes washing and a few baths as well as showers, and some garden irrigation, I probably need fewer than the 4 or 5 2000 gallon tanks, in two if not three places.  But since there is one barn, a small cottage would be nice, and then maybe a second barn, duplication seems like a decent idea.

and I gather that it's very nice to have a setup so that there is water still available when you clean out your tank (s).