Pennsif’s Progress #592 – Come on Steem, I want to save the planet

Today I have been invited to guest on the new Meadows & Makers radio show hosted by Hive account@makinstuff and Hive account@jackdub.

Greg Hive account@makinstuff mentioned he would like me to talk about my plans for installing a solar PV system on our homestead.

I have written several times before about my solar plans and how they were the initial driver for me to join steem.

Back at the start of 2017 I was looking at ways to save up the capital needed to invest in a solar PV and battery system to start our homestead on the journey to becoming offgrid for electricity.

A friend introduced me to Bitcoin that was just beginning to take off at that time, and along with the discovery of Bimble Solar who were taking Bitcoin payments, crypto looked like the way to go to raise the funds for our solar adventure.

But after only my second Bitcoin purchase, my bank blocked any further crypto purchases.

Then as I was looking for new ways to build my crypto-stash I came across Steem on YouTube. Earning crypto currency just through blogging seemed a whole lot better than buying.

I signed up. I was hooked.

Many, many, many, many hours of steeming away, and the super lucky timing of the conversion of my original Bitcoin investment into steem, allowed me to reach Dolphin status at the very end of 2017.

At the start of 2018 steem was topping out at over US$7 and my wallet value was looking rather handsome at around US$40,000.

That would have paid for the solar PV system - and for the biomass boiler I'm looking at now.

Should I have hit the sell button then?

It was tempting but I am ethically opposed to killing dolphins. So I hung on. With the upbeat mood, the moon talk in every corner of the steemiverse, $7 looked like it was the bottom not the top. $100 steem was definitely on the cards.

Little did I realise that the steem price would begin a slippy slidey path all the way back down to where it is now - just thrashing about in the shallow sub $1.50 waters.

So I have kept at it blogging, vlogging (a little bit) and pumping out radio shows to double my stake to over 11,000 SP - currently worth around $13,000.

I have just gone back to the quote I was given early last year by the renewables company. Totally by chance it was just under $13,000.

• 9 PV panels (2.3Kw) = $2500
• Lead acid batteries (600Ah capacity) = $2000
• Outback inverter/charger & solar charge controller = $4500
• Cabling from barn to house = $500
• Labour = $2500
• Tax @ 5%

So if I squashed my account flat and powered down completely, assuming steem didn't fall further during the 13 week power-down period, I could get my PV system paid for by crypto and steem.

But then like Snakes and Ladders I would be all the way back down to the beginning again.

I have faith, and science. I learnt at school that steem always rises. So I will sit tight, and keep grinding, til the highs return and the steemrays shine on my solar plans again.

While you are here check out these to see what else I do :

• The Alternative Lifestyle Show - Friday 3 August 2018 - with @sndbox & @wwf [recording]

• Pennsif’s Progress #594 – My first day at the Food Bank

• Pennsif's Progress #597 - Getting it right

• Pennsif's Progress #599 - Time for change

• SteemRadio - schedule of all the steem radio shows - week beginning 30 July 2018

• My Life In 8 Songs - 26 July 2018 - @jeffleinwand, @lillywilton & @marshalllife [recording]

• Pennsif's Live Sustainability Curation Digest for MSP - week ending 29 July 2018

• A Dollar A Day charitable giving project : July 2018 - summary of donations received and given out

• [CONTEST] A Dollar A Day charitable giving project : What can you buy for 1 SBD?

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[ images from pixabay.com and unsplash.com // graph from coinmarketcap.com ]