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To: Tell It Right

What I meant was exactly the opposite of what you are striving to do. You will find that it will be a full time job just to try and keep up with this lifestyle you want from a self sustainable system. The more money you throw at it, the bigger it gets, the more maintenance it will need. Been there... It ends up being like trying to maintain six cars instead of just two when your true needs are satisfied just fine with only two.

To be practical and sustainable it first takes a lifestyle adjustment in the mind. Beginning with impractical ideology and expectations from the system. Beginning with size of dwelling you need to heat and cool and luxury toys. I am approaching the concept from a general perspective that not everyone has a half million dollars to set up a system just to try and satisfy an impractical and exuberant lifestyle.

I mean really... Is a 4000 square foot home for one person or even a couple actually practical? Or is it just a status symbol to show off wealth? How many rooms can one occupy at one time? Same with luxury toys... Are they really a hill to die on that one cannot live without? Or just status symbols that put an unnecessary demand on the system? Or just conveniences to satisfy laziness?

Anyone can become self sustainable and do it affordably if they adopt and practice a little minimalism, effort, and practicality rather than try to maintain status symbols and laziness.


29 posted on 04/29/2024 8:17:34 AM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: Openurmind
I believe you and I are saying the same thing, while each of us is making a case for the difference between being totally off-grid (at least as far as energy goes) or being about 80% energy self-reliant.

And as a reminder, my "only" 80% energy self-reliance includes our driving (charging the EV for 1,300 miles of local driving per month with homemade power). Most people who talk about being off-grid solar still buy gas for all of their local driving, even if it's a lot less than 1,300 miles per month.

To your point, if our political class puts us in a mark-of-the-beast style situation for energy I could go 100% with a change in lifestyle (i.e. closing off the downstairs of the house, getting in the hot tub only on good solar days, less joy riding in the EV and less getting my mother out of the nursing home for 100-mile round trips visiting family and such, just getting out for necessities, etc.).

35 posted on 04/29/2024 9:00:26 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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