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HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND – Could You Live Off-the-Grid? Part IV October 16, 2009

Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, Could You Live Off-the-Grid?, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Moving to Hawaii, Resources , add a comment

HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran

Could You Live Off-the-Grid? Part IV

AC vs. DC

Every electric motor and light bulb in an ordinary house runs on alternating current (AC). And though your cell phone or laptop computer runs on direct current (DC), you keep them charged up with a little transformer you plug into an AC outlet, that “transforms” AC into DC.

No matter how you (or the utilities) generate power, whether from fuel, wind, hydro, or the sun, it starts out as DC and must be changed – or, more accurately, “inverted” – to AC. That’s done through (what else?) an “inverter” that sits between your batteries and the breaker-box for the house’s electrical outlets. The inverter also keeps the electricity from fluctuating, so your power is as consistently smooth as it would be from the grid.

You could skip the inverter, and have an all-DC house. There are DC versions of most appliances, including TVs and refrigerators; and when people here started living off the grid, in the 1960s and ’70s, home-sized inverters were not commonplace; so going entirely DC was the only way they could have modern conveniences. But DC appliances are not cheap, and you won’t find them in local stores. Making an all-DC house also forces you to site all the components of your system, including the outlets, very close together, because (unlike alternating current) direct current loses strength if it has to run through more than about 50 feet of wire. So, to live off the grid, you need batteries and an inverter, too. The fact is: we live in an AC world.

You need batteries. Here, the first five (of sixteen) 24-volt batteries are being installed in a household system. An inverter (not shown) turns the batteries' DC power into AC.

You need batteries. Here, the first five (of sixteen) 24-volt batteries are being installed in a household system. An inverter (not shown) turns the batteries' DC power into AC.

Go Gas

As for cooking, you will have to forget about an electric stove – you can not possibly generate enough power for that. Get a gas stove, and make sure the installer sets up all the burners for propane (instead of natural gas, which is not sold in Hawaii).

Propane is easily obtained. Tanks range in capacity from backyard-grill-size, to four-foot-tall cylinders, to horizontal giants. You can take the smaller ones into town to be refilled, or pay an additional but small monthly fee (less than $10) to have a gas company driver deliver fresh tanks and/or refill them at your home.

There are, by the way, refrigerators that run on propane. They are more expensive and slightly less efficient than electric refrigerators, but if your generating capacity is limited, and you’re getting propane anyway, for cooking or heating water (which I’ll cover next time), you may want to at least check and see if a propane refrigerator will suit your needs. It is, in any case, one more way to stay off-the-grid.

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HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND: Could You Live Off-the-Grid? Part III: Here Comes the Sun October 13, 2009

Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, Could You Live Off-the-Grid?, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Moving to Hawaii, Updates , add a comment

HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND

By Kelly Moran

Could You Live Off-the-Grid?  Part III: Here Comes the Sun

          Turning sunshine into electricity is the most popular way to generate your own power, here, although two conditions must be met.  First, you really have to have a good view of the sun all day: no trees or hills shadowing the house.  And second, you have to have dough: the initial investment is high, and likely to remain so for the near future.  A “family-of-four” will probably need a system costing $30-40,000, including batteries and control equipment. 

          But electricity from the Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) costs more than 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, pushing utility bills up into thousands of dollars a year, and the rates will only go higher.  So, a solar system should break even in ten years or less.  Moreover, the price of photovoltaic panels is slowly coming down, while their electrical efficiency keeps going up.  And there are no ongoing costs: once the system is in place, your electricity is free, and your batteries get charged up every day!

          Two recent technological developments make solar increasingly attractive. The newest photovoltaic collectors aren’t like heavy picture-frames, with glass on top.  They’re lightweight, flexible sheets of plastic that are available either as shingles or as peel-and-stick strips that lie flat, between the ridges of standing-seam metal roofs.   And these new materials are more sensitive to ultraviolet light than the glass panels are, so they keep on making electricity even on cloudy days, when there isn’t as much “visible” light.

Two ways to Capture Sunlight:

"Building-integrated photovoltaic" (BIPV) panels adhere directly to a standing-seam metal roof.

"Building-integrated photovoltaic" (BIPV) panels adhere directly to a standing-seam metal roof.

Framed-glass photovoltaic panels are mounted on a carport.

Framed-glass photovoltaic panels are mounted on a carport.

          If your land is close to an existing utility pole, the Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) may accept whatever electricity you generate and, in effect, store it for you in its grid.  But hey! – this is about living off the grid.  And that means storing your electricity in batteries.

          The right kind of batteries for home-size power-plants are similar to car batteries, but larger and heavier, with higher electrical capacity (24- or 48-volt, instead of 12).  And their installation has to meet building codes (e.g., you can’t put them in the crawl-space under the house).

          To keep your system operating at peak efficiency, you will have to take on some responsibilities that have traditionally been shouldered by the utilities.  Though you don’t have power-poles to climb, or high-tension wires to string, you will have to perform some regular maintenance tasks, the equivalent of those that utilities ordinarily do, and the cost of which they bundle into their monthly bill.

          So, for example, you must ensure that the fluid in your batteries is at the proper level, by topping them off with distilled water, once a month.  And as soon as you do that, it’s a good idea to run your backup generator for at least an hour or two, not only to help your batteries stay fully charged, but also to keep the generator itself in top running condition, so it’s always ready in case of emergency.

          Go solar, and you also ride the wave of the future.  If we in Hawaii are ever going to free ourselves from imported petroleum fuels, we will have to generate more and more of our electricity from the sun.

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HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND – “The Music Man” Comes to Hilo October 6, 2009

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HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran

“The Music Man” Comes to Hilo

I’m interrupting my discussion of living off-the-grid to let you know that some of the best local actors and musicians stage a Broadway musical every October at Hilo’s Palace Theater, and this year’s (Eighth Annual) Fall Musical is “The Music Man” by Meredith Willson.

I have a friend who’s a singer and band-leader here, but right now he’s a member of the cast. So I’m going to turn this blog entry over to Hal Glatzer, and let him tell you about the show … 


Hilo's Palace Theater“‘The Music Man’. . . is that the one with ‘76 Trombones’?” Yes it is. And you know that because you have almost certainly seen it before: perhaps in the movies, on TV, or on a local stage somewhere. It was even the inaugural musical for the new UH Hilo Performing Arts Center, in 1974. So, you may think it’s merely a valentine to small-town America, with old-fashioned music. And indeed it is that, too. But like many great works of art, it seems simple on the surface only because it’s complex underneath.

 

“The Music Man,” which premiered in 1957, is among the cleverest pieces of musical theater in the history of the American stage, and easily one of the best “book-musicals” ever. (In Broadway parlance, a book-musical – unlike a “revue” of songs and skits – tells a coherent dramatic story, with songs that advance the plot and/or deepen your understanding of the characters.)

Into stodgy River City, Iowa, on the Fourth of July, 1912, comes Harold Hill, a con-man posing as a music “professor” who will organize a marching band, and teach the local children to play, so they’ll stay out of the pool hall. Of course, he’s really there to fleece the townsfolk and skip out with their money just as the band uniforms arrive. But unexpectedly, he’s touched by the sadness of a small boy; and he falls in love with the boy’s sister, the local librarian, who sees right though his scam and is all set to bust him.

Meredith Willson had a long career as a composer and arranger for big bands, radio orchestras, and movie scores. He wrote “The Music Man” – book, music and lyrics – at the height of his powers, combining many of the American musical theater’s best components into a single show.

* Memorable characters in a believable situation, inspired by the playwright’s own Iowa boyhood.

* Beautiful love songs, the most famous being “Till There Was You,” which The Beatles also recorded.

* Funny, fast-talking raps – Willson called them “speak-songs” – not only Harold Hill’s grifter pitch “Ya Got Trouble,” but the entire opening scene with a railroad-rhythm chorus of traveling salesmen.

* Four-part harmony numbers that have become “standards” for barbershop quartets everywhere.

* And “double-songs.” Three of the songs in the show turn into six, when a different melody line, fresh lyrics and a change of rhythm form a counterpoint to those that were sung before. In this musical legerdemain, one of those beautiful love songs – the waltz, “Goodnight, My Someone” – is soul-mated to the show’s signature march (you guessed it) “76 Trombones.”

Willson wrote a short book, called “But He Doesn’t Know the Territory,” about how the show came to be. [Long out of print, a new edition was published this year by the University of Minnesota Press.] The title quotes the traveling salesmen’s hapless complaint about their rival, Harold Hill; but it’s also what thespian snobs were saying, in effect, when they predicted that Willson’s debut musical, set in small-town Iowa, would flop on Broadway. It didn’t. The original production won five Tony Awards, beat out (New York’s own) “West Side Story” for Best Musical honors, and ran for more than 1,300 performances.

Our Hilo production showcases great local talent. Jim Thompson is the slick Harold Hill, Corey Paglinawan is lovely Marian the librarian. Steve Peyton is the blustery mayor, with Jeri Gertz his haughty wife. Don Moody is Hill’s goofy pal Marcellus, and Nathan Sullivan is sad young Winthrop. Arval Shipley directs the show, with choreography by Lina Manning; musical director Cheryl “Quack” Moore conducts the orchestra.

Watching these folks in top form, I’m sure you’ll gain a new appreciation for Willson’s achievement. “The Music Man” is a feel-good show in the best sense: you won’t be embarrassed to say it made you feel good.

Evening performances of “The Music Man” start at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays Oct. 9 & 10, 16 & 17 and 23 & 24. Sunday matinees start at 2 p.m. on Oct. 18 and 25. Advance-sale tickets are $15; $12 for ages 12 and under or for Palace Friends. At the door, tickets are $20 and $15, respectively. The box office is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Phone the Palace at 808-934-7010 for more information and credit card orders.

HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND: Could You Live Off-the-Grid Part II: (Electric) Power to the People September 25, 2009

Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, Could You Live Off-the-Grid?, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Resources, Updates , add a comment

HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran

Could You Live Off-the-Grid Part II: (Electric) Power to the People

In my discussion of catching rainwater, last time, I neglected to mention that in some places it’s possible to draw water from a well, especially if your land is near to places where Hawaii County draws its water. But finding a reliable and sufficient source of water underground is not easy, and on the drier, western side of the island, wells have to be drilled very, very deep. So, you may get lucky. Or not. And the cost of drilling could exceed the cost of a catchment tank. Besides, a well needs a pump – and that means you need electricity.

There are four ways that people here generate their own electricity: fuel, wind, hydro, and solar. I’ll cover the first three now, and discuss solar next time.

A stream this big could genereate electricity, but only if the water level drops 40 feet or more from the intake point down to the turbine.
A stream this big could genereate electricity, but only if the water level drops 40 feet or more from the intake point down to the turbine.

 

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HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND – Could You Live Off-the-Grid? September 21, 2009

Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, Could You Live Off-the-Grid?, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Moving to Hawaii , 6comments

HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND

By Kelly Moran

Could You Live Off-the-Grid?

          Notice, please, the question is “Could you . . . ?”
You certainly can live where none or only some of the Big Island’s commercial services – water, electricity, telephone, television, internet – are piped into your home for a monthly fee.

          And you don’t have to rough-it to live off-the-grid.  You can enjoy a thoroughly up-to-date lifestyle, with all the accoutrements of a modern home, without being a customer of any commercial utility.  In this and the next few blogs, I’ll tell you about the challenges and the strategies of acquiring for yourself the necessities of life here on the Big Island.

          Water comes first, of course.  Hawaii County has an extensive water system of wells, pumps, pipelines and meters, with high quality and modest rates.  But where 40 or more inches of rain fall every year, you can reliably collect your own water from the gutters on your roof.  Rain is (shall we say) especially abundant in Hilo and Puna; so even in neighborhoods, there, where County water is easily available, some homeowners choose to use catchment tanks.

IMG_1893
This house, though only seven miles from downtown Hilo, is entirely off the grid. The water tank – a metal frame lined with plastic – is in the foreground. The roof also has photovoltaic panels for generating electricity.

 

          A so-called “family of four” should have at least a 10,000 gallon tank, which is generally a cylinder about twelve feet in diameter and eight feet high. Although some old redwood tanks are still in use, and are aesthetically quite pleasing, they are rarely if ever built nowadays.  More common – and actually better, because they do not decompose – are tanks made of sheet metal and lined with tough plastic liners (very much like above-ground swimming pools), or tanks made of ferro-concrete (in which cement, sprayed onto a metal “rebar” frame, hardens into concrete).  The latter is more expensive but will last much longer. Also, since rainwater is naturally slightly acidic, contact with the slightly alkaline concrete tends to neutralize the “ph” of stored water.

           Once you have water in the tank, you still have to pipe it into the house.  You’ll want some kind of filtration, because dirt and dust, or fragments of leaves, always wash down from the gutters; and though they generally settle to the bottom of the tank, little bits of stuff do sometimes get into the house’s supply line.  But particulates like that are easily intercepted with simple filters which, like their smaller under-the-sink cousins, are typically replaced once or twice a year.

          Getting that supply to flow inside the house’s plumbing, however, requires constant pressure in the pipes.  Standard household water pressure is 40 pounds per square inch (psi).  If your tank can be sited at least 40 feet higher than the highest faucet in the house, gravity will supply enough pressure.  But unless your land is a steep hillside, that won’t be an easy setup.  Besides, it’s much easier to site the tank close enough to the house to take the runoff from the roof.

          So the force that pushes water through the plumbing typically comes from a pump and a special tank which, together, maintain constant pressure.  To have that you’ll need electricity, which I’ll tell you about next time.

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HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND – The Road Less Traveled By September 14, 2009

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HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran

The Road Less Traveled By

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by.”

Of course, Robert Frost wasn’t waxing poetic about the Saddle Road. But most people heading from one side of the Big Island to the other take Highways 19 or 11, so there’s relatively little traffic over the Saddle. If you’re willing to put up with the lousy condition of the westernmost twelve miles (as noted in my last blog), there’s enough to see to make it worth the journey. At the very least, the trip will help you understand some of the challenges – still unresolved – that the road poses to Hawaii County.

Start at the zero milepost in Hilo, at the intersection of Puainako St. and Kanoelehua Ave., across from the Prince Kuhio shopping mall. Puainako dog-legs at Komohana and becomes a wide, modern thoroughfare known as the “Puainako extension” – which some day will be fully extended, back toward the mall, parallel to today’s Puainako St.

The road heads steadily uphill, bypassing Hilo’s mauka suburbs, and joins Kaumana Drive after about six miles. The last houses in Hilo are at the eight-mile post.

The next ten miles or so wind, twist and turn through a forest reserve, deeply green with ohia and koa trees, and tall hapu’u tree-ferns. But the vegetation thins out as you gain elevation, until bare lava – including one flow from Mauna Loa that nearly reached Hilo in 1983! – becomes the dominant feature of the landscape.

But at the 19-milepost, a true highway begins, newly completed, with an uphill passing lane, wide shoulders and solar-powered emergency phones every mile or so. The access roads north to Mauna Kea and south to Mauna Loa branch off from this new section too, on either side of a thickly-wooded kipuka: a high piece of land, untouched by lava that flowed around it, and so leaving its older, dense vegetation intact.

(To remember the word, recall that a puka shell has a hole in the middle).

Continuing westward, you might think you’re in the desert Southwest of North America, because it’s a dry, rocky, nearly treeless stretch of scrub-brush, including the highly invasive and fire-prone exotic “gorse” weed.

About 35 miles out from Hilo, consider stopping and picnicking at the highest point on the Saddle Road: Mauna Kea State Recreation Area, elevation 6,500 feet, where there’s drinking water and toilets. You can reserve overnight cabins there, too; call the State parks office at 808-587-0300 for more information (or go to:
http://www.hawaiistateparks.org/parks/hawaii/maunakea.cfm).

 

Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea

 

Don’t be surprised if you see military vehicles and soldiers in uniform on the next six miles of highway, as you skirt the edge of the U.S. Army’s Pohakuloa training grounds. The Army has used a huge tract of land to the south, toward Mauna Loa and Hualalai, for target practice since World War II, so it’s littered with metal fragments and unexploded ordnance, including some radioactive shells from the 1950s. Civilian efforts to get the Army to clean up the area have not been successful.

 

This part of the road (showing a concrete tank crossing) were bypassed in May 2007 by the new Ala Mauna Saddle Road alignment.
This part of the road (showing a concrete tank crossing) was bypassed in May 2007 by the new Ala Mauna Saddle Road alignment.

 

Unfortunately, that isolates the Ahu a Umi (the “mounds” of Umi), an ancient Hawaiian ceremonial site which can not be reached from the Saddle Road. Umi was first known king of the whole island. In the 9th century A.D., he held court once a year on a plateau in the Saddle where, by a trick-of-the-eye, tall Mauna Kea, enormous Mauna Loa, and the much smaller Hualalai, all appear to be about the same size. There, in the symbolic center of his realm, Umi built a heiau (temple) where he received his annual taxes and tribute, in the form of agricultural produce, animals, feathers and other decorative objects and religious tokens. His priests – having no written language – enumerated everything by mounding up rocks; and those stone cairns are, of course, all that remain today. But because Pohakuloa is too dangerous to cross, the only access is from mauka Kona, over private property, and the mounds can be visited only by professional archeologists and historians.

Ahu a Umi (the "mounds" of Umi)
Ahu a Umi (the “mounds” of Umi)

If Ahu a Umi were open to the public, it would be an intriguing and important visitor attraction, for it is hundreds of years older than the giant Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historical Site, near Kawaihae, and the Pu’uhonua O Honaunau (”City of Refuge”) National Historical Park in Kona.

HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND – Back in the Saddle Again September 14, 2009

Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel , 3comments

HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran

Back in the Saddle Again

          As the crow flies (or as it would fly, if we had crows here, which we don’t), Hilo is about 80 miles from Kailua-Kona.  So you’d think, on an island this big, somebody would build a road from east to west along the shortest possible route.  And indeed, somebody did; but it’s never been a shortcut.

          In 1942, the U.S. Army needed a lot of space to practice target-shooting – somewhere with no population – and they picked the relatively barren lava fields of Pohakuloa, in the saddle-shaped valley between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.  To get their troops and tanks and canons in and out, they hastily built a road westward from Hilo, up to their training grounds; and continuing on, through the Parker Ranch, terminating at the “old” Mamalahoa Highway (now called Rte. 190), the mauka road connecting Waimea with Kona.

          The Army “brass” took no chances – after the attack on Pearl Harbor, they realized that enemy bombing could easily destroy a wide, straight highway.  So they built the 53-mile road very narrow, with many tight turns.  It was never attacked, but it was heavily used by heavy equipment, and after the war – even after Statehood, when it became State Rte. 200 – it was never maintained to decent standards.

          Mauna Kea State Park was built on the Saddle Road; and so were access-roads to the summit of Mauna Kea, and to the NOAA weather station on Mauna Loa.  But there are still no rest-stops, gas stations, or restaurants; and quite a few miles are still “dead zones” with no cell phone service. That’s why rental-car agencies forbid customers from driving the Saddle in any but four-wheel-drive vehicles.

 

Several warning signs are posted at the point where pavement stops and the road narrows.
Several warning signs are posted at the point where pavement stops and the road narrows.

          But there have been improvements, and more are coming.  A new center section has just opened between milepost 19 and milepost 41, with two broad asphalt lanes, 45-55 mph speed limits, and a couple of extra-lane uphill passing zones.  On the Hilo side, the first 19 miles have been widened and repaved, although the route still follows the Army’s original curves and twists.  The twelve-mile western section, however, remains simply awful!  It’s extremely narrow, with soft shoulders and one-lane bridges, and many blind curves – some of them right at the crest of a hill.

(May 2007) New Saddle Road Dedicated - First Section Opens Linking Mauna Kea State Park and Mauna Kea Access Road
(May 2007) New Saddle Road Dedicated – First Section Opens Linking Mauna Kea State Park and Mauna Kea Access Road

          The next phase of improvement, in 2010-11, will straighten out the Hilo side.  The Kona side is still in the design-stage: the Army, Parker Ranch and the State are talking about a new right-of-way that will angle south, and meet Rte. 190 at the Waikoloa intersection.

          Until that is built, however, take the Saddle Road only if you want to try out the new segment or see the sights (about which, I’ll write more in my next blog).  It is shorter – in mileage – than going through Waimea, but it will not save you any time: driving from Hilo to Kona still takes two hours, no matter how you go.

Island Webcams Added to Hilo Brokers Website June 8, 2009

Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, Resources , add a comment

Webcams have been added to the Hilo Brokers website!  To view them, hover over RESOURCES and pick “Big Island Webcams” for the choices.

Mauna Loa Summit Rift Zone Eruption

Some of the webcams include:

Images displayed represent last feed shot at time of website hit. Different webcams update at different times … most update by the minute and include time stamps.

TIPS:

Check them out!

Huge Library of Hawaii Aerial & Scenic Images May 14, 2009

Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, Hawaii Travel, Resources, Updates , add a comment

Big Island SurfWe now have a HUGE library of aerial and scenic images for all the Hawaiian islands posted and available for viewing. This includes the Big Island, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, O’ahu, Kauai, Niihau, Kahoolawe, Kaohikaipu, Kapapa, Lehua, Manana, Mokapu, Mokolii, Mokuhooniki, Mokulua, Moku Mana, Molokini and Okala.  We also have whale, surf and ship photos!

All of these images are presented in a very easy to navigate sorter. Choose your Island from the Island Overview Map, then choose your view. Or view as a slideshow from any image view.

You can view directly using this link or by going to www.Hilo-Brokers.com and clicking the “Resources/Coastline and Scenic Photos” link.

All images provided by Brian Powers and www.hawaiianimages.net (and high quality images are also available for online purchase if you find one you like).

Heading to Kona for West Side Riding Turf March 4, 2009

Posted by Kelly in : Aloha Rider, Big Island Hawaii , add a comment

Aaron and I are riding over to Kona today to film some west side riding turf. There are so many great places to tour it’s hard to decide where to go first.

We also plan on doing a session on dirt bikes – maybe a scramble up Mana Road on Mauna Kea Mountain.

This is a great island to be a motorcycle junkie. More soon…
Kelly