<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" POPULAR MECHANICS contributor Ben Hewitt keeps readers updated online as he researches a series of print articles for the magazine on alternative-energy technologies--using his own home as a test lab. Hewitt and his family live off the electrical grid in northern Vermont; they&amp;#039;re experimenting with ways to improve their lifestyle, while reducing dependence on fossil fuels. -- The Editors Oh, boy. I&amp;#039;ve been bad. Actually, I&amp;#039;ve been traveling for vacation and work, making it really difficult to keep up with this blog.  We just got back from the San Francisco area, where it was supposed to rain every day, and every day it was sunny from dawn to dusk. Ok, so maybe there were a few clouds and an errant sprinkle, but by and large, we were soaking up the sun. Back home here in Vermont, our solar home was slowly draining its batteries during a week of thick cloud cover. We returned to find things limping along, with the batteries at about 50 percent. That&amp;#039;s not perilously low, but it&amp;#039;s about as low as you want to get if you care about things like not ruining $3000 worth of batteries.  Anyway, we managed to squeak through without the generator; the days are getting long and light enough that even a day of hazy sunshine is enough to put us back in charge. We even did three loads of laundry the day after our return and today I&amp;#039;ve been running power tools quite a bit.  Living in a rural area, it&amp;#039;s a real shocker to delve into an urban environment. Every time I go to a city, I&amp;#039;m astounded by the profligate energy use: Bumper-to-bumper cars and trucks and SUVs everywhere you go and construction on every block. I don&amp;#039;t remember being aware of this stuff growing up. I think the past eight years of living off-grid has really honed my awareness, for better or worse.--Ben THE PM ENERGY FAMILY BLOG "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a523/2483036/>