Retired and REWIRED!

RETIRED AND REWIRED

Last August 2013 as we were finishing up building the ohana, we had a conversation with our contractor about eventually wanting to do an electrical wiring that would, in an emergency, allow us to utilize our generator most efficiently.  The reason I know this is because I wrote it down in our “bible.”  Now our “bible” is a reference book with categories and information about such Puna Topics as:  Bugs & Pests, Water Pump, Gutters (the cleanout debris schedule, which if we forget, clogs up with leaves), Propane (where to get it at what prices, and when we refilled our tanks), etc, etc.,  Since living here necessitates learning new skills and language associated with those skills, it has taken on the hallowed essence of "The Sacred Word of Life In Puna."

We are using our skilled contractor for this rewiring work, but we have to understand what he has done, and what steps we need to do when the power goes, how to switch the generator on, and switch on related systems like the water pump from solar to generator/12volt, etc.  Now we have dedicated lines for refrigerator, freezer, computer, phone and TV, as well as lines for the tenants in our ohana for their refrigerator and kitchen.  While we had it written down and knew it was important, The Lava Event has made it a high priority.  Mahalo to our Leilani friend Richard who gave us a personal tour of his own “smart house” to begin our power-full education.  All that’s left now is to finish the little generator shed and we have checked off another thing on our self-sufficiency list.  (Just wait ‘till you see the too cute shed.)