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Comment by knoebber | Hacker News Reader

Up here in Northern California quite a few of us live off grid with just solar/batteries. What law says that a grid hookup is required? Is it at the county level?

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Most counties require houses to be hooked up to the grid. That's why people who prefer living off grid choose unincorporated lands.

Most counties in California

Most all urban and suburban areas. I think it's usually municipalities that have these requirements.

The Earthship Community (dirt in tires homes) in New Mexico eventually had to register as a subdivision and put in sewage lines etc, AFAIK.

That's crazy because there's houses with septic tanks all over Northern New Mexico -- outside the cities.

iirc it works through building code. it has some parts related to grid hookup and without it house won't be up to code/pass inspection. Not sure what are implication in this case

They turn off your power if you don't pay your electric bill. Do they keep charging a hookup fee after they've unhooked you?

(I know the answer is yes, because the answer to this kind of question is always yes...)

they will also send your bills to collections, which will be rather unpleasant, i guess

Why would you want to live off the grid? Battery solar is more expensive than utility power.

Until you’re building transmission to your house

Don't build a house where there aren't any power lines.

He just defeated your argument, so now you're telling everyone to be helpless.

Brilliant.

Dude is complaining about a 100% predictable consequence of his own actions.

Wrong. Re-read.

Because power outages are extremely annoying and eliminating dependencies is a good thing.

They are also very rare and a simple diesel or natural gas generator is a far cheaper method of getting power during an outage.

> They are also very rare

Not where I live.

> a simple diesel or natural gas generator is a far cheaper method of getting power during an outage.

Not self-sustainable. The goal is completely self-contained energy generation. Dependence on externally sourced fuels fails the requirements.

$75K could get you an insane solar system.

It could also be invested and pay for decades of electricity.

No, because if you bothered to read what he said, it would cost that much to INSTALL it... and THEN pay more in a lifetime of very high bills.

Only because HE chose to build his house in an area without power lines.

You sure work hard to promote helplessness. Do you feel helpless?

Until the next price hike

Solar power from a battery is the most expensive electricity.

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