Escapees July-August 2022

seminar attendees. When you compare our current lifestyle to the average, American household, the picture becomes more clear. Gasoline Even with all the traveling we do, all the times we’ve crossed the Mississippi, we still drive about half the number of miles of the average American couple. Most individual drivers put about 14K miles on their vehicle annually, 28K per couple. Together (the two of us in one vehicle), we average about 16K. When we stay somewhere for a season, we try to walk, bike or take public transporta tion as often as possible. Are you amazed that the daily commute and soccer practices can rack up more miles than cross-country travel? We sure were. Electricity We use the power of the sun to run our lives. For the past 10 years, we have lived, worked and traveled with a very small portable solar powered system. The total cost of our fi rst system was less than $1,000, which is signi fi cantly less than what the average American spends annually for electricity.

Most households spend about $1,400 per year for electricity for their home (much of which is still coal powered), using nearly 11,000 kWh. We now have 200 watts of panels on Hamlet’s roof, an MPPT charge controller, a 100Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate battery and a 700W inverter. We have a portable panel in case we are parked under a forest canopy. This will allow us to camp in the shade with our panel in the sun. Admittingly, by most RVers standards, our system is still pretty tiny, though it meets our needs for ourselves and our growing mobile business. Cooking & Heating As vegetarian foodies, we love to cook with a propane stove and over a camp fi re. We don’t care for electric stoves, microwaves, electric coffee makers or even a toaster. Instead, we save energy and a great deal of money by using a fl at top griddle, French press and the amazing Banks Fry-Bake, which serves as both a skillet and oven. We use about 25–30 gallons of propane for cooking and heating, costing around $150

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July/August 2022 ESCAPEES Magazine