After the 2023 Lahaina fires, I decided I wasn’t going to wait for someone else to protect my property. I was going to build a system myself. Over the past 18 months, that system has evolved into something I think could protect a lot more than just my house. It can protect yours, and I’m
AI-Powered Wildfire Defense: Building a Complete Home Protection System Read More »
Some viewers have commented that the fire resilience system I’m building will be expensive–that’s just not true. I’m designing the core system to be less than $3000. It might make your home insurable, or if not, greatly reduce the risk that your home could be a total loss. Virtually all mortgage lenders require you to
Cheap fire resilience Read More »
It lives! a not very brief (sorry) walkthrough of the fire mitigation system as it is currently. It’s quite far along, and after lots of struggles it’s working very well except some of the physical stuff still isn’t done. It’s challenging to find pro help on Maui with all the work available related to Lahina
AI powered wildfire mitigation system You can Build with AI help Read More »
Project: Save Your Home From Wildfires With Solar Power Episode 1: Introduction Can Solar Power Help Protect Your Home From Wildfire? Yes it can, and this project will show you how. There is a long list of preparations you can undertake to make your home more defensible. We’re going to cover most of them. But
Could Solar Power Help Protect Your Home Against Wildfire Read More »
The first thing I want to do is recommend that you watch some of Fire Safe Marin’s excellent videos. If you want to create a defensible space around your home you need to understand what that means, and these videos do a great job of that. I’d start with this one, but they are all
Assessment and plan—mitigating existing fire hazard Read More »
I didn’t design or build the ground mount system at my home on the North Shore of Maui. It was done by a professional installer who left the solar business years ago. It looks improbably flimsy, but it’s held a double row of 32 Sanyo 250 watt panels for the last 13 years through several
A wimpy-looking Ground Mount System That withstands Hurricanes Read More »
A quick video to show the prettier part of my shop, which used to be a granite and marble cutting company (hence all the marble everywhere). This part was the showroom.
Pretty part of the Expert Amateur shop Read More »
The usual way to manage critical loads is to isolate them in a subpanel so that during an outage or other similar event you can power just that panel. That works more or less OK when you’re doing new construction, or you can easily access the wiring coming into your main panel. But if your
A Different Way To Manage Critical Loads Read More »
To mitigate wildfire risks for homes and businesses, a comprehensive strategy focusing on defensible space, structural hardening, and proactive maintenance is essential. I’ve developed a 10-step plan based on wildfire resilience best practices from fire safety organizations and mitigation experts. I’m not an expert at this–far from it–so the first thing I did was study
Wildfire Mitigation with Firewise Read More »
Update: Okay, at the end of this article I wrote “I don’t foresee major problems, which may say more about my foresight than how challenging the issue might be.” which turned out to be accurate. The pool recirculation pump and the salvaged piping isn’t up to the job. so I’m hiring a pro to install
Designing the Sprinkler System Read More »
