[Cob] structural engineer

[Amanda Peck]

Hmmm.  At a guess Joyce doesn't read British murder mysteries.

For some reason I'm (I grew up on British mysteries) more comfortable with 
the word "mains" than "grid" to describe the electricity you buy from your 
friendly local electrical utility.

PV = photovoltaic, solar panels.

And it sounds like Joyce is a little closer to utility company power than I 
am.  They'll have to PUT the pole on my side of the road, then the house 
site is--also in a meadow--a couple of hundred feet away.

In either case, while it's nice to contemplate still having electricity for 
the two weeks it takes them to get back down your road after a horrendous 
ice storm, being able to use a slow cooker--or air conditioning--might make 
up for it. Also not having to be a fanatic about phantom loads--e.g. the 
clock in the microwave or what enables your TV to turn right on, etc.

I've one set of friends who, after ten or fifteen years of building the 
system slowly have all the comforts of home--their solar panels and 
batteries are matched in size, they have a Sunfrost refrigerator, ceiling 
fans, nice big TV that gets unplugged when not in use.

Two more households just starting--One seems to have more batteries than his 
solar panel (note usage of singular and plural there) will charge 
comfortably (which means he's ruining his batteries by letting them 
discharge too far too  often), the others complain about having to run the 
generator all the time.  They blame this alternately on the teenager with 
the computer games, and a movie addiction.  In any case there is something 
mis-matched with both systems, expectation about what they CAN do, not 
enough panels, not enough batteries.

.......................
Joyce asks:

What are "mains electricity" and "PV?"

There is one power pole sitting on my land about 5 feet near the road.  
Planning to build my house in a meadow located about 200 feet into the 
property and away from the road.