 |
| Boiling
water for coffee... only took 9 minutes to reach a rolling boil! |
It's finally COLD & winter is officially here! In Anchorage, Alaska, the temperatures
are dropping into the single digits at night and the snow is beginning to
fall. In the past, I never paid too much attention to this fall-to-winter
transition... but now I am! Why? Because when you live in a traveling
motorhome with no where to "plug-in", you are forced to find off-grid
solutions to keep yourself alive in the cold.
 |
| 34 F
outside, but 81 F inside! | |
I was forced to think
"outside-of-the-box" to keep myself alive this winter, and my
solutions are working really well right now! There is one reason I am
going to survive this winter in my little motorhome... the life-blood of my
off-grid lifestyle, otherwise known as the "Kimberly wood
stove." This little gem provides all of my heat and does an
incredible job at keeping my little home toasty warm. I have also been
doing the majority of my cooking on this Kimberly to avoid using my counter top
propane stove (which causes excessive condensation in cold climates).
Pretty soon I will have
an add-on oven that will sit on top of the Kimberly, which will allow me to
bake pizza, casseroles, pies, and all kinds of goodness. I also will have
a thermo-electric generator soon, which will sit on top of the oven and produce
electricty from the fire's heat, this way I'll be able to charge my laptop/cell
phone, power my lights, a fan, a vacuum, or charge the RV battery. The
owner is also creating a hot water coil system, where I can hook my sink &
shower's plumbing directly to the little wood stove, start a fire, and take hot
showers... pretty cool!
 |
Wiring
my solar panels (I actually electrocuted myself because the solar panels were
in the sun!)
|
|
The Kimberly stove is obviously my centerpiece, and I can't rave enough about it! To help
charge the batteries, I have two 30 watt solar panels (60 watts combined) that
work very well, even with the minimal sunlight we receive up here in
Alaska. I basically try to park facing the sun every day (they are up on
my roof and tilted towards the front of the Toyota. Since the motorhome
is my daily driver, the alternator on the engine actually charges my batteries
after a few errands around town.
 |
My
home for the night, overlooking Cook Inlet with the Alaska Range in the far
horizon.
|
|
The one downside to
living off-grid in a motorhome in a cold, winter climate... frozen pipes.
It just isn't feasible to keep my water "running" through the winter,
as it will cause the water pump, pipes, and tanks to expand and crack
open. To avoid that carnage, I drained my drinking water and grey water
(sink/shower) tanks completely. I flushed the pipes with RV antifreeze
(they say it's safe to drink, but I don't want to test that hypothesis) and
shut the shower & sink down for the winter. I just take showers
wherever opportunities arise.
 |
| Practical functionality ain't got nothin' on attitude. |
|
For drinking/cooking water, I simply carry
a 4 gallon jug and refill it about once a week (the water won't freeze this way). I rigged my sink plumbing where my dish water in the sink falls directly into a 5 gallon bucket beneath the sink, & I can easily dump out the 5 gallon bucket as it gets full. It's shocking how much fresh water people waste every day, and how little water you truly need to survive. I connected my toilet plumbing to my waterpump, which flushes RV antifreeze
down the toilet every time you flush (instead of water). This allows me
to still have a bathroom for the winter. I also took
toilet freeze-proofing precautions by applying a 12 volt heat pad and heat tape on
my blackwater tank and piping, which I can thaw out if the RV antifreeze doesn't live up to its -50 F expectations.
 |
| Releasing thesis work stress via banjo. |
 |
| Thesis work: Collecting data & modeling Alaskan Rivers. Gulp... |
It seems like there is no time to
get "bored" these days. I search for interesting new places to park my
home every night (usually with an awesome view), and I have yet to experience getting kicked out of my parking
spot for the night. Alaska truly is a laissez-faire state. Moving around is pretty fun, I almost feel like a modern-day nomad.
Whitewater kayaking season is wrapping up, so it's about time to stash the kayaks for the season.
Finishing off my master's thesis (creating a hydraulic isoscape for
Southcentral Alaska) and playing the banjo currently fill my time up in the RV,
at least until ski/speed-fly/snowmachine season come knocking at my front
door. That's the update, more soon enough...
Pretty soon I will have
an add-on oven that will sit on top of the Kimberly, which will allow me to
bake pizza, casseroles, pies, and all kinds of goodness. I also will have
a thermo-electric generator soon, which will sit on top of the oven and produce
electricty from the fire's heat, this way I'll be able to charge my laptop/cell
phone, power my lights, a fan, a vacuum, or charge the RV battery. The
owner is also creating a hot water coil system, where I can hook my sink &
shower's plumbing directly to the little wood stove, start a fire, and take hot
showers... pretty cool!
