Could our small farm go all electric?

[ultrarunner]

I have a retired Telco engineer friend and he put in his own solar arrays, has an all electric house and has a Nissan leaf and electric mower.

He turned 80 last year and everyday he is out and about... generates all of his power needs with net metering.

I asked him if it was worth the cost... he did his own install with a helper.

He said he would do it again... just from the satisfaction it brings and the notoriety... lots of visitors coming to take a look...

 

[dickfoster]

Thanks Luke.

Sorry if I pissed in anyone's corn flakes.

Me too.

 

[Thall303]

Spare me please. Take away the gubberment subsidies (taxes on the rest of us) and all of this solar and wind stuff is pure nonsense, physics and economics say so. If you care to look and do the math even the so called environmentally friendly cars like Tesla's are running mostly on coal or other fossil fuels. That is unless the tooth fairy is putting the electricity in the sockets to charge the things up.

I love organic too, the gas and diesel in my fuel tanks are organic and so are most plastics.
Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or the product of decay, or is composed of organic compounds.
Organic chemistry, chemistry involving organic compounds or more simply, Organic compound, a compound that contains carbon.

Wanna make yourself a million in farming, then start with two million. Nothing is free and there are no free lunches, everything costs something for someone, somewhere. Try to get something for free and you're more likely end up paying double.

Amen, Brother

 

[otlski]

Just a thought. You are just starting out. The fact that you have doubts and are not sure if an EV is suitable, should suggest that you should go tried and true and get a diesel tractor. It sounds like you have a lot of experimental challenges coming up, why add yet another one? After you figure out what you got yourself into, perhaps you can sell it and go with the EV. Good luck, it sounds like an adventure.

 

[aczlan]

On snow and solar panels.
I work with one of the town councilmen who helped oversee the installation of a good sized solar array for the town. It saved them money as they have no money invested and they are locked into a really good price per kw for the next 5 years (or something like that).
He said that they initially worried about snow on the panels, but they have found that the panels are tilted enough that the snow starts to slide off and as long as there is an inch or two of panel exposed, it warms enough to let the snow slide off, even on a cloudy day.

Aaron Z

 

[redman135]

Hello JamesHW. You mention asparagas as a possible crop. Can you get the man or woman power to harvest the crop? It is hard on the back.

 

[stuckmotor]

I'll have to dig it up, but definitely wanting to generate power, not a homeowner setup like they tout at the hardware stores. It was a letter addressed to me.

If I remember correctly the one that went to my mother's house had a picture of utility poles that carry three phase power with a third line. This was so the land owners could look for them to know whether their property was in the running. It seemed to me that there would be a more economical way to screen out property that wasn't even in the running and avoid the cost of postage.

 

[stuckmotor]

Wanna make yourself a million in farming, then start with two million. Nothing is free and there are no free lunches, everything costs something for someone, somewhere. Try to get something for free and you're more likely end up paying double.

That first sentence has been my experience, just on a smaller scale.

 

[JamesHW]

Hello JamesHW. You mention asparagas as a possible crop. Can you get the man or woman power to harvest the crop? It is hard on the back.

Yes, that would be a concern if we go large with asparagus. We were thinking a couple of 100 foot rows initially and possibly stick with that.

I like the lay down carts that some use to pull pickers through the rows. Looks like a neat alternative to traditional stoop picking.

 

[JamesHW]

If I remember correctly the one that went to my mother's house had a picture of utility poles that carry three phase power with a third line. This was so the land owners could look for them to know whether their property was in the running. It seemed to me that there would be a more economical way to screen out property that wasn't even in the running and avoid the cost of postage.

I believe we do have three phase judging from the images on Google Street view. The boss said she would pull the letter out of the file for me to check.