[MENTION=6723]phobik[/MENTION] sooo fucking gorgeous.
While I was at harbor freight I was checking out the solar panels there... Sometimes they have the open-box packages of them, and the big 45 watt panels are only like $121.. With a couple batteries, in Texas, that really could power a whole tiny house! It'd be pretty easy, and if the panels didn't even last very long.. for the price of an electricity bill I could replace a component. A couple of those on sale + a couple batteries would power a fridge. Plus a little wind turbine for stormy weather?
!
We're thinking we'll start small and hook up a solar panel + a makeshift rechargeable battery pack to our gazebo out here to let it light up at night on its own without running wires to it across the yard. Just to experiment with it all. We could potentially convert part of our house into solar though--maybe get the panel and a battery to run a space heater in the house while we're not there to keep the place from being damp and cold in the winter months.. Then we can shut it off when we get home and run the wood stove and it won't be quite so cold in here all winter long.
And if we could get the dryer to go solar instead of propane we'd be saving a ton of money.. the propane is the majority of our budget right now.
I had the idea of just building one of those fan-solar-powered-black boxes that steam-dry the clothes, but I dunno if I'll realistically use that enough for it to be of use.. there's a lot of shade where I'm at and I'm not going onto a roof top to get my clothes.
We do hang clothes to dry when it's nice weather, but we create too much laundry for even that sometimes.