Living Free On A Shoestring

[Barterer]

Wow.  That is some serious "roughing it."  Personally I'd try to find someone with a spare room who needs home repair, landscaping work, etc. and do that instead of rent.. but good luck in this endeavor.

About the moisture problem, have you considered Damp-Rid?  Or to save a few bucks, get some calcium chloride and make some homemade damp-rid buckets. Or maybe buy a couple of damp-rid buckets and use the calcium chloride to refill them. 

[srqrebel]

In the "Keene metro area", this allows me to park in parking lots without inviting unwanted attention.

Guess that rules out a    in the parking lot for the snapper, shrimp, rice and fruits I'm bringing up for you.  lol. 

And here's me, thinking you miss the flavors of     Florida.   

Parking lots aren't the only places I park

I will be sampling those flavors soon enough -- I'm heading down later this month to tie up a few loose ends, but back in time for the Liberty Forum.  Ain't nothing like spending a couple of weeks getting reconditioned to balmy weather, then taking the plunge back into the NH freezer!

Speaking of flavors, IME there are more good flavors here in the Shire than in the Sunshine State.  Heck, I didn't even know pizza could taste as good as the stuff they ply around here.

[srqrebel]

About the moisture problem, have you considered Damp-Rid?  Or to save a few bucks, get some calcium chloride and make some homemade damp-rid buckets. Or maybe buy a couple of damp-rid buckets and use the calcium chloride to refill them. 

Thank you for the links!

I think I'll replace my futon mattress with the aluminum faced insulation board, and try constructing an air circulation channel like Bald Eagle suggested.

If those aren't sufficient to solve the problem, I may need to include dessicants.

Someone mentioned a dehumidifier that runs off a truck battery.  If they even make those, it seems to me they would run down a battery awfully fast.  I have a regular dehudifier which is very effective, but draws a lot of energy.

[srqrebel]

This is an amazing thread, thanks for sharing this with us, Menno

You're welcome!

I was hoping to undermine the common excuse of, "I would like to be free, but New Hamshire is just too cold for me, waaaa"

If it knocks even one freedom lover off the fence on the FSP side, it was worth it!

[dalebert]

Let's have a polar bear party and YouTube it!

[Puke]

Let's have a polar bear party and YouTube it!

Let's have a "I have heat and thus the cold is naught an issue" party. 

[Barterer]

Someone mentioned a dehumidifier that runs off a truck battery.  If they even make those, it seems to me they would run down a battery awfully fast.  I have a regular dehudifier which is very effective, but draws a lot of energy.

It probably would be too much for a truck battery to run all night.  Maybe they have some fancy new dehumidifiers.. I'd definitely check the wattage before buying.  The only ones I've seen use a compressor/condenser/evaporator set, and those can't help but use a lot of power to be effective.

[dalebert]

I've been running a HUMidifier in my room the last couple of nights and it's been WONDERFUL. My nose isn't getting stopped up and I don't wake up with hard, jagged, painful boogers the size of the old man of the mountain in my nose. The thought of running a dehumidifier in this weather just sounds like masochism.

[Bald Eagle]

Wow, Bill you have some great ideas here (as usual)... thank you!
I might have to try the pulverized drywall or epsom salt.  How often would one have to change it?  It is amazing the sheer amount of moisture that condenses in a single night.
I have a set of small home made fans .... to run off a 12-volt battery, but never used them.

Hey man, what can I say, I'm a chemist.  I would I had learned something useful after 15+ years of college.   

Weigh the dessicant before you dry it out.  Weigh after you've driven off the water of crystallization.  That's how much water it can reabsorb before it becomes inert building material and has to be regenerated by driving the water back out.  Some grades of calcium sulfate (Drierite) and silica gel have a little bit of cobalt chloride added as a color indicator.  When the dessicant is still dry enough to be of use, the cobalt chloride is still anhydrous and is blue.  Once the dessicant runs out, the cobalt chloride absorbs moisture and the hydrated form is pink.  Add a little bit of the color-indicator grade to a large amount of regular dessicant to keep it economical, since sometimes when heating to regenerate, you overdo it and fry the indicator probably through oxidation to an inert oxide.

With the fan idea, if you can grab most of the moist air before it hits the cold shell and channel it through a cold tube, the water will condense in the tube first, and the air will return to the space with the moisture already removed.  Probably neither method is 100% effective, but it may help minimize the problem.  Insulating the walls and ceiling would also help.

[Lloyd Danforth]

About the moisture problem, have you considered Damp-Rid?  Or to save a few bucks, get some calcium chloride and make some homemade damp-rid buckets. Or maybe buy a couple of damp-rid buckets and use the calcium chloride to refill them. 

Thank you for the links!

I think I'll replace my futon mattress with the aluminum faced insulation board, and try constructing an air circulation channel like Bald Eagle suggested.

If those aren't sufficient to solve the problem, I may need to include dessicants.

Someone mentioned a dehumidifier that runs off a truck battery.  If they even make those, it seems to me they would run down a battery awfully fast.  I have a regular dehudifier which is very effective, but draws a lot of energy.

When I attended the first Porcfest, I had bought an inflatable bed.  I had sleeping bags and quilts to keep myself warm. My problem was the bed was sucking heat out of my body. I went into town and bought an emergency space blanket and put it under my sheet.  It did a good job of reflecting my heat back at me.

[Recumbent ReCycler]

While I was in the army, I learned that sleeping in an uninsulated steel trailer during the winter is a bad idea.  I eventually bought a body bag from a local military surplus store and put my sleeping bag in that to keep the bag from getting wet.  The Army issue body bags are water resistant, but not waterproof.  I learned that while sleeping outside in a downpour.  It'll protect you from light rains or leaks in your tent or whatever you're in.  One problem with the body bags is that they can be difficult to open from the inside.  I'd really like to live in a camper, RV or houseboat or even a decent sized sailboat, but when I discussed those ideas with my wife, she was opposed to them.  As far as condensation goes, one way to reduce it significantly is to insulate your sleeping area and keep a small heater going.  You could put some solar cells on the roof of your truck and use them to recharge an auxiliary  battery that could blow warm air around your sleeping area.  I would use the thin film flexible cells and epoxy them to the roof.  Insulation is the biggest improvement you can make.

[Lloyd Danforth]

One problem with the body bags is that they can be difficult to open from the inside. 

Clearly, a safety feature

[KBCraig]

One problem with the body bags is that they can be difficult to open from the inside. 

Clearly, a safety feature

Damn zombies.

[Puke]

I'd really like to live in a camper, RV or houseboat or even a decent sized sailboat, but when I discussed those ideas with my wife, she was opposed to them. 

Check this out regarding small homes.

http://newhampshireunderground.com/forum/index.php?topic=12409.0

[Puke]

Dale?....................that was gross.

But horribly true. Iraq was much the same, but with a year round crust-i-fest.