The Edmonton home and garden show is on for the next 4 days, I heard they will have 3 or 4 of those "tiny homes" "tumbleweed homes" whatever they are called. I will check them out tomorrow, anyone else going??
Looks like there will be a few solar companies there as well.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Unfortunately, we will be unable to go.
To bad, there was a good bit to see, I found the tiny homes most interesting, and there were two small ones made out of shipping containers, due to space limitation not full 40 footers but A 25 footer, maybe 30 at most, and then a small bunk house type shipping container one that was maybe 20 feet at most. One tiny house on a triple axle, fully self contained, and well built, another on a double axle. Warning... I am suffering from sticker shock regarding pricing of the event.... I used to go there for the gun shows and such its been maybe 10 years since I have been there and the Parking now cost 16 canucastainian dollars, and its not valet parking!! then something like 64 dollars for the four of us.....I am becoming a grouchy old man...
I would not want to go on the weekend, many of the exhibitors were out of business cards... I suspect it will be a nut house come the weekend.
I did talk with one solar installer who was at least honest with me and agreed that those home owners who are going off grid should do their own systems if staying at 12, 24 and 48 volts....he admits they really only like doing the grid tied systems and that's what they push for....and what industry wants. Its just that its better standardized, cheaper (he said though I can argue the point but didn't) and he doesn't have the call backs from joe blow consumer who doesn't understand battery charging, or who splashes acid on himself, or who cant figure out how to add water even after he has been shown how, or doesn't understand what distilled water is even after being told, or who decides to change bulk, float or equalize setting based on what his brother inlaw who once replaced batteries in a flash light says etc, etc.....I kind of understand his point. Life is short who needs the grief.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
We haven't been going to the home show the last number of years. Between the cost of parking and admission and fighting crowds it is just too much of an expensive circus. There is a company in Edmonton that is going to be involved with garden suites from shipping containers and it will be interesting to see how many people get on board.
We have solar on our rv but have not jumped onto the bandwagon here in the city. I believe that the City is now dropping the development permit cash grab to encourage more people to participate, but I wonder if it will apply to off-grid or only the grid tie systems.
Time will tell.
"It's better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret"
We haven't been going to the home show the last number of years. Between the cost of parking and admission and fighting crowds it is just too much of an expensive circus. There is a company in Edmonton that is going to be involved with garden suites from shipping containers and it will be interesting to see how many people get on board.
We have solar on our rv but have not jumped onto the bandwagon here in the city. I believe that the City is now dropping the development permit cash grab to encourage more people to participate, but I wonder if it will apply to off-grid or only the grid tie systems.
Time will tell.
I was interested in the container cabin things, I friend of mine is going to be dropping a container out at my place this year and turning it into a home, then once done taking it out to a property he has, so I was kind of scoping out how some things were done, but I agree the cost is getting nutty to me, by the time I factor in gas, its 100 bucks, then 3 dollars for a pop if your thirsty...its nuts now.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I went to the Expo in St Albert this weekend. Admission was $3 for adults, free for kids and they were giving out tickets everywhere - practically at the front door - so we got in for free; free parking too. Sure it wasn't as big as Edmonton's but not bad. No tiny home, but then again, I wouldn't remain sane living in 150 sqft year rounds, so I'm not interested anyway. Fair amount of RV trailers and discounted price. I also had a good chat with solar guys. The solar industry in AB is in a holding pattern now as there is an expectation the government will announce considerable rebates later this year, so everybody is waiting. His guess was that the pay off point for grid-tied will be around 12 years, giving someone around 13-18 years of direct revenues.
I'm wondering though about how hard it would be to turn a grid-tied into an off-grid system if it was ever necessary to do this (battery bank purchase aside)
