Off the Grid in a Florida Suburb, Fighting Municipal Code

Two 55-gallon cisterns collect all the Florida rainwater Speronis needs for drinking, bathing, and flushing waste. The city told her it was illegal to disconnect from municipal pipes

In Cape Coral, Fla., a city of snowbird retirees and strip malls off the Caloosahatchee River, there’s a part of town that never quite recovered from the real estate bust. Foreclosure notices spill from the mailboxes of homes lining the city’s shallow canals and gather in trash drifts by the front doors. Weeds run riot in the yards of properties built for no money down in the flush days and then abandoned when they went underwater.

Even amid the eerie detritus, the small ranch-style duplex that Robin Speronis moved into in January 2013 is a little unusual. For one thing, Speronis, an energetic 54-year-old widow with cropped blonde hair and stark blue eyes, never had the city turn on the power or water. She set two 55-gallon plastic cisterns on either side of the entranceway and attached gutter downspouts to collect rainwater. She perched a small solar charger on a windowsill with wires snaking inside to a battery that in turn powers a few lights and a laptop. Wireless Internet is siphoned from a nearby Tire Kingdom. Inside, a propane lantern hangs from an unused light fixture in the dining area. Speronis is living off the grid—no power from the city, rainwater her only source for bathing, drinking, and sewage—in the middle of her tumbledown subdivision. It has caused a national furor.

click link above for full article.

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Read the court opinion. She was ordered to connect because she had no way to dispose of the waste water without being connected to the sewer system. She was spraying the un-treated waste water into the air. Otherwise the court said she could disconnect from everything else.

There was an article about solar in my local paper yesterday:

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/tech/science/environment/2015/08/28/solar-campaign-fuels-interest-louisville/32417531/

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

One thing that the article brings to mind is that in many places the energy supply model is based on large central power supplies.
This model is based the average demand per building. This demand can be reduced by either reducing the actual amount of energy consumed by improvements in the energy consumption of the building, or by replacing the centrally sourced energy by locally produced energy such as PV generation, solar heating, wind generation. The local generation is attractive for the individual, but might become a bit of an issue for the central generator if the number of local generators becomes significant - it throws their model out of balance. It may, in the long term lead to a reduction in demand for the big steady state producers (coal/nuclear plants) and increase the demand for rapid reaction plant....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Read the court opinion. She was ordered to connect because she had no way to dispose of the waste water without being connected to the sewer system. She was spraying the un-treated waste water into the air. Otherwise the court said she could disconnect from everything else.

I can understand that. Only problem I see is that they usually base the wastewater bill on the water bill. If she's not using water, how do they know how much to bill her for waste?

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Read the court opinion. She was ordered to connect because she had no way to dispose of the waste water without being connected to the sewer system. She was spraying the un-treated waste water into the air. Otherwise the court said she could disconnect from everything else.

I can understand that. Only problem I see is that they usually base the wastewater bill on the water bill. If she's not using water, how do they know how much to bill her for waste?

I dont think she was charged for a fee of consumption.
AFAIK all urban houses are charged an annual fee to be connected to the electrical, water and sewer grids.

Read the court opinion. She was ordered to connect because she had no way to dispose of the waste water without being connected to the sewer system. She was spraying the un-treated waste water into the air. Otherwise the court said she could disconnect from everything else.

I can understand that. Only problem I see is that they usually base the wastewater bill on the water bill. If she's not using water, how do they know how much to bill her for waste?

I dont think she was charged for a fee of consumption.
AFAIK all urban houses are charged an annual fee to be connected to the electrical, water and sewer grids.

Maybe in Sweden they are, but in the USA? I've never seen that.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Read the court opinion. She was ordered to connect because she had no way to dispose of the waste water without being connected to the sewer system. She was spraying the un-treated waste water into the air. Otherwise the court said she could disconnect from everything else.

I can understand that. Only problem I see is that they usually base the wastewater bill on the water bill. If she's not using water, how do they know how much to bill her for waste?

I dont think she was charged for a fee of consumption.
AFAIK all urban houses are charged an annual fee to be connected to the electrical, water and sewer grids.

Maybe in Sweden they are, but in the USA? I've never seen that.

But do you buy a house without electricy and water in the US?
Maybe in Detroit right now but that is not the normal I think.

Read the court opinion. She was ordered to connect because she had no way to dispose of the waste water without being connected to the sewer system. She was spraying the un-treated waste water into the air. Otherwise the court said she could disconnect from everything else.

I can understand that. Only problem I see is that they usually base the wastewater bill on the water bill. If she's not using water, how do they know how much to bill her for waste?

I dont think she was charged for a fee of consumption.
AFAIK all urban houses are charged an annual fee to be connected to the electrical, water and sewer grids.

Maybe in Sweden they are, but in the USA? I've never seen that.

But do you buy a house without electricity and water in the US?
Maybe in Detroit right now but that is not the normal I think.

Electric utilities only charge for electricity, there is a cost for hookup, if one is a new customer or a deposit for service to start, but that's it, water is much the same here, there are no fees here.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

But do you buy a house without electricity and water in the US?
Maybe in Detroit right now but that is not the normal I think.

Electric utilities only charge for electricity, there is a cost for hookup, if one is a new customer or a deposit for service to start, but that's it, water is much the same here, there are no fees here.

Strange.
The cost of the infrastructur to distribute electricity and water is quite big.
Every house is connected to that structur.
Somehow one have to pay for it.
We have fees and taxes to pay for it.

I found these two Wind Turbines owned by Cemex near the fwy in Victorville CA yesterday, this is also a title change to cover wind, just in case.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

To sell a house one has to have a "White Slip" Most properties oweners will never have heard the term but it's usally disclosed during the escrow or sale. The white slip is an acknoldgement that the house is on a legal lot, and has water, wastewater, and electricity. The wastewater can be a septic system and the water can be a well. I don't think the law has changed to allow the electricty to be self produced. That's still up in the air.
The way that infrastructure is paid for varries significally from state to state, and even from company to company. We do not have stated owned utilities.
As for waste water, I have seen 2 models. One is a fixed fee to be connected the other is a variable fee based on water use. Most utlities try to base the waste water charge based on a indoor water use. They base the charge on water use during the rainy season.
Electricity can charge for infrastructe directly or as a percent of usage. I have seen bills both ways.

There are wind turbines sprouting out of corn and soybean fields all over Illinois. Driving at night, you can see the red warning lights on top of them for miles around. It's amazing to see all these little red dots of light, all blinking in slow unison. Only once did I see one that was out of sync with the rest. And every one of them has been assigned a street address.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

I sort of live in the middle of them right now.



And that is not all of them in this area.

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I sort of live in the middle of them right now.



And that is not all of them in this area.

We don't have hills like that here.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

I sort of live in the middle of them right now.



And that is not all of them in this area.

We don't have hills like that here.

California has lots of hills, first time I saw those turbines I was awestruck, quite a sight alrighty.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Tell me about it. I thought those eggbeaters where neat, then I found out about the cost to wildlife.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Tell me about it. I thought those eggbeaters where neat, then I found out about the cost to wildlife.

I should think that some of the attrition of birds due to wind power generation would be somewhat offset by the benefits of reducing the coal powered electricity generation that they replace. Better air quality has to be better for birds too.

And as usual, those who are making an issue of it do not take into account the benefit side of the equation.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

It seems from what I've read, that Wind Turbines and Eagle Nests have something in common with Real Estate, Location, Location, Location, as this Washington Post article explains.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

In my case, the city owns the water, sewer and electrical utilities.

Water used to come from city-owned wells, but now it comes from Lake Michigan. The city of Chicago pumps and filters it, and charged an arm and a leg for it. It is transported through a pipeline owned by the county, which also charges an arm and a leg to pay for the construction bonds. And it is distributed by the city, which claims it's charging the absolute minimum it can without losing money on maintenance. The charges are based on metered usage.

Sewer is also charged based on the water used.

Electricity is also charged on usage. The city buys it wholesale (some towns have their own generating stations in addition to buying wholesale; in others, customers are served directly by the commercial utility company). They used to get it directly from the local utility, Commonwealth Edison, but now they shop around.

My gas utility, Nicor, tells you on each month's bill the wholesale price they pay for the gas you used and charges you for it at cost. They also have a delivery fee based on your usage, from which they pay for maintenance and make their profit.

Chicago used to supply water to its residents for a flat annual fee, based on the number of water consuming fixtures in the house: $X per sink, toilet, and even outdoor spigot. Many houses didn't even have water meters in them. A few years ago, they decided charging for actual water used was more fair. Then they decided that raising the rates was better than raising property taxes. Those rates include what they charge suburbs they supply, so my water bill is helping pay for Chicago's deficit.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.