Alternative Energy

Are Electric Vehicles a Disaster?

I continually hear all the reasons freeing us up from using petroleum is a disaster. Last night (in coast-to-coast-am) I heard another "electric vehicles are [...]

Vocho — Update 1

This story started when we got the car, a 1972 VW SuperBeetle. The plan is to restore it and then covert it to electric. Note that all future posts will be [...]

My New Car Project

I just bought a "new" car. That is, it is only 45 years old. A 1972 Super Beetle or, as we say here, Vocho. The first question you will ask is, why? I have [...]

Electric Car Conversions

Back in the late 1990s I converted a VW Rabbit to electric. A totally low-tech conversion with a DC motor and lead-acid batteries but it became my primary [...]

Off-Grid Systems Design

Designing an off-grid system doesn't need to be complicated but it needs to be done. Not doing it can be expensive. Things continue to change (mostly, things [...]

Living Off Grid Thoughts

In 2011 I wrote a series of posts about living off-grid. I am going to re-post them here with some updates and then add to the series. While this post wasn't [...]