MidwestSolarpunk

That’s awesome! I’ll have to look and see if there are any varieties that will grow where I live, I’d love to get into home brewing at some point.

RE: greenhouse. I put down a couple layers of cardboard, then a snap-together floor. I figured it was better than nothing in terms of insulation, and I intend to mainly keep plant containers elevated so there’s a cushion of air between them and the ground. So the ultimate test will be if the air temperature can stay above freezing with only the sparse sunlight and the thermal mass of the plants themselves.

I’ve also been meaning to set up some sort of indoor operation like what you’re describing, I imagine it could be helpful for starting seeds in the spring before last frost! In terms of yard space, if you’re not moving anytime soon, have you tried doing anything with vertical setups? I’ve seem some cool designs online with trellises, shelf-style containers, etc.

We did our solar panels first, to help address our home’s energy use (our electricity company is a monopoly and keeps charging more year after year). Plus we liked the idea of being green and energy independent, the vehicle is a newer addition to the setup.

Not sure where you are, but even if you can’t do solar now, you might be able to do plug-in solar soon! Super popular in some countries already, and coming quickly (hopefully) to the States. And even if you can’t do a four wheel passenger EV, e-bikes are a great choice for traveling on the power of the sun.

That’s awesome, you’ve got a lot of variety! Do you plan to make beer with the hops, or is there another use I’m not aware of?

We got a good deal on a small (6x8’) greenhouse, I’m hoping to try to grow something things over winter too. Winters in the Midwest have become much milder, with isolated deep freeze/snow events. Interested to see if it can keep its temperature above freezing, worried about the nights though.

I forget the name of our variety but we got a bit of a late start this year so I chose a fast growing option. We have space to do more but it feels difficult to go from 0 to 100% garden with no experience. Hoping to keep ramping up year over year until we basically have no lawn and a full food forest.

San Marzano are great! Are you growing anything besides tomatoes? We have handful of peppers. Hoped to do watermelons but they didn’t take off for some reason.

100%, though I’m thankful to have net metering at all, as I know it’s not available in some areas! Building up some credit to use in the less sunny months is nice, helps offset potential days when production doesn’t exceed consumption.

Congrats on going solar!

I’m not commenting to dogpile on you, I think the others have explained why the grid is less of a concern than you might think.

Just wanted to add that we charge ours primarily using excess solar from our home panels, which is an option through our system management tool. It takes longer, but it means even less grid dependency (and virtually “free” vs paying for electricity, which you’re right, will go up in price… though largely due to data centers now, not EVs).

I won’t be surprised if this becomes the norm for EV drivers in the future, as a kWh in the “tank” is worth more than one backfed into the grid. More responsible use for extra power not immediately used.

Not necessarily. My PHEV (a RAV4) reserves a portion of its battery to use in the same way that a non-plugin hybrid does. The vehicle maintains a charge in that portion through regenerative braking and the motion of the engine, so the battery can never truly go dead.

Even if I never charged mine, I could still drive it as if it were a standard hybrid and continue to get ~39MPG highway. But in reality I do charge it and most of my miles per month are all electric (most PHEVs also have pressurized fuel tanks to keep gas from going stale when it’s unused for lengths of time).

It’s like if someone asked AI to make the least desirable movie.

Range anxiety is partially what pushed us to go PHEV. We really only use gas if we leave our immediate area, and on longer trips it’s the same as a full ICE car (just with much better efficiency).

I too hope for better batteries and cheaper EVs before my next purchase! Would love to see Chinese cars in the American market to humble these MSRPs.

Also our tomato plants are popping off, new to gardening (first year getting anything usable out of it) and I’m DELIGHTED. Had some on a grilled egg and cheese sandwich with mayo for lunch today, it was edible art.

I’ll have to check it out!

Anyone taking any solarpunk actions this month?

We’re excited to be getting a battery for our solar system installed, and just today I’ve made new connections through my community time bank (I’m going to be officiating a non-traditional wedding, and possibly getting a much-needed haircut).

Bought a PHEV earlier this year and my “old fashioned” family quickly moved from “that boy ain’t right” to “you get HOW MANY miles per gallon??” And they still can’t compute that I can drive 50 miles on less than $2 of electricity and not a drop of gas.

The numbers make sense, people just need to be shown. It’s where the market is headed, no one should really be considering anything less than hybrid. When my wife’s old Civic dies, it’ll be replaced by a full EV.

Wow! If only I could get LibreOffice for free without ChatGPT.

Is it FOSS?

I didn’t know this about the servers, makes me even more glad to have joined just this weekend!