^
It's difficult.
You have a dream, the coin plus a passion and drive to build/live according to principles which are admirable and aspirational
I'm a Greenie, but I'm an Economic Greenie. In other words, I'm saving the world in ways it makes economic sense
for me. A variation on think globally - act locally.
In the West, I have solar cells on the roof and an inverter. Only 1.5KW because I bought it 4 years ago and the scheme
wasn't explained very well. It has a feed-in tariff (the price I get for my electricity) is twice the price that you buy the
electricity for from the generating company.
But that tarriff is no longer is available to new installations, so I can't upgrade.
I'd cover my western roofline with additional panels in a heartbeat as the panels have the added benefit, IMO of reducing
the amount of heating of the roof tiles, thus the roof cavity. Passive solar cooling
I have a thermostatically controlled roof vent. It comes on when the temperature reaches a predetermined mark.
Saves power and keeps us a little cooler.
We harvest rain water for the garden. There is a hole in one of the downpipes and I stick a big bucket under it.
Then use it to water the garden. I pull the plug from the kids bath and see that valuable resource go down the
drain hole and think ... what a waste.
In the West and in Thailand we drive an LPG car.
We grow our own veges. It's cheaper, teaches the kids and, of course ... lower average food miles.
We compost because our soil is very sandy and the added nutrients and water holding capacity is needed.
We have an electric lawn mower.
The list is endless.
I have Scottish lineage, plus my Dad lived through the depression, my Mum came from a Farm (so did Dad) ...
accordingly we were taught not to waste ANYTHING, especially money
We translate little of that to Thailand. It would be to expensive. It's expensive because the utilities cost little and
the infrastructure costs a packet.
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At the end of the day, it's your build. Your Dream.
It's a great thread to read and contribute to and you do an excellent job populating it with images and anecdotes.
We can just contribute some of the information gap that we have gained by living here.