#945 – The Expat Files: Solar Power, Expat Seminars, and Life in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came out to play and now I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started All right first an email. We've got so much to talk about today. This one comes from Horace He says Johnny. I've been listening and enjoying your podcast for the past two years or so as an electrical engineer myself I have particularly loved your series on solar panels. You did an outstanding job

[00:48] Please keep producing technically oriented shows your information is priceless that I'm working on my own plan B Hoping to persuade my wife to come on board and come on down That said I would appreciate if you could send me the portable water filter details you mentioned on your recent show You know, I look forward to every Friday and Sunday release of your podcast regards Horacio. Well Horace Thanks for the kudos, but I didn't read your email just to toot my own horn I read it because you said you especially enjoyed my series on solar panels Well, just wait Horace since in a past life I was both an electrical engineer and a biomedical engineer, you know us engineers got this kind of weird gene in our chromosomes Seems we all have certain electrical mechanical and technical Obsessions and it seems it starts when we're kids and later we become engineers

[01:36] I'm talking about how we become obsessed with science and certain electrical and mechanical things, too And for me it's been many things in the early days cars and motors also Astronomy and then precious metals gold silver platinum palladium and the like and for a long time I was into esoteric high-quality high-fi stereo systems including guitar amplifiers Especially tube or what they call in Europe valve jobs And you know, the thing is with us engineers and scientific types those obsessions are always there But they come and go and for me lately at least in the last ten years One of my big obsessions is getting off the grid solar power in the light But most importantly doing it cheap and efficiently but still maintaining your first world style of living and so Horace when you mention You particularly like my podcast on solar panels. Well, you ain't heard nothing yet

[02:24] In fact, I was thinking in this show that I would completely fill all you listeners in on my own portable solar energy system The one I got maybe a half a year ago as well as tell you about the latest and greatest system that just came out January 2020 that pretty much supersedes anything I've ever seen before and again I get not a single dime from anyone no click through money nothing for recommending this stuff. Anyway I've got a really really good portable solar system that I'll go into probably next show though We'll get into a little bit of the meat of it today Now my system I picked up a half a year ago is great But there's a better one that just came out So if I didn't have a system and I had to go out and buy one today Whether a portable system or permanent I'd buy this new system made from a company called Titan in a second now by portable

[03:11] I'm talking about a system You can have up and running and the panels set outside in maybe 20 minutes a solar system That's powerful enough to give you all the electricity you need for an RV or a cabin up in the woods Of course, you'll use it at home, too If there's a power outage or grid down and it's got to be a system you can throw in the trunk of your car And just take off and go anywhere with you know My portable system that ran me around fifteen hundred bucks or so fills all those needs and more However, like I said if I was gonna buy a new system today I'd definitely pick up one of these brand-new Titan all-in-one systems. Why well because the batteries are stackable In other words, you can buy the unit as a basic portable unit with 2,000 watts of battery power and turn it into a permanent off-grid System too. So the basic 2000 watt system is a perfect portable system. That's plenty of power

[04:00] Now that basic kit which costs around 4,000 bucks I know that's a lot but you get 500 watts of solar panel with it Of course a system like that's too small to run an air conditioner But the beauty of this system is you could stack additional batteries They literally stack on top of each other and hook right in and each battery pack adds another 2,000 watts For around fourteen hundred dollars each battery pack, of course with more power You'll have to add more solar panels But man the guys that Titan who make these things have considered everything they've solved almost every problem in solar You could think of and surprise surprise they're made in the US though I'm sure most of the parts including the batteries are sourced to China. So what else do I really like about the system? You know, the big problem with having a big solar system is that batteries weigh a ton

[04:47] That's why all the very good portable solar power stations are between the thousand and two thousand watts Anymore power in the battery gets way too heavy for one person to haul around For example, the portable system I have right now has 1,500 watts and weighs around 35 pounds making it just fine for portable solar But not good enough for anything permanent and that's where this Titan system comes in you can buy the 2,000 watt unit and guess what the head for the unit weighs around 30 pounds and each additional battery you buy for it Locks right in and adds another 30 pounds. So suppose you have five batteries. That's 10,000 watts that would be equal to or even above and beyond what you'd need to run a small home So let's do some numbers 30 pounds for the head and five batteries times 30

[05:35] That's a unit that weighs a hundred and eighty pounds impossible to move around however, the way that Titan units been designed you just flick two switches and the bottom battery drops out and you've just jettisoned 2,000 watts and each battery has a handle on it So if you want to move that 180 pound 10,000 watt tower remember we're talking about a complete off-the-grid system If you want to move it to another location, it only takes about five minutes to knock the thing down It'll break into six 30 pound segments Just toss them in your car and you're off to the races and here's another very important thing You know these portable solar units, although some of the high-end ones like the one I have are great They're limited as the amount of solar power You can put into them at one time to charge the battery by day that is but you see even my unit

[06:22] Which was the best available about a half a year ago now will only accept a maximum of 500 watts of solar panel Anything above that is wasted. It won't charge the batteries any faster. Now. Here's the thing that Titan system I was telling you about it accepts up to 2,000 watts of solar panel input and man That's absolutely fantastic and all you'll ever need for a small house family of four Let's say off the grid running everything even an energy efficient air conditioner In fact when that Titan unit first came out in January, I was amazed to see it accepted up to 2,000 watts of solar panel That's pretty hefty a great starting point for anyone who wants to get off the grid completely Whereas 500 watts just won't cut it for a portable system. Yes, but not for a complete off the grid system That's really all you'll need if you're here in Latin America

[07:08] That is as long as you don't have an electric heat which no one does here in land America And you don't have an electric stove, which is kind of stupid. You've heard me say get propane gas That's the absolute best way to go And if you have a couple of fifty or hundred pound tanks of propane you have enough gas to run your stove and oven For probably a year talk about being independent from the corporate energy swine man I'll tell you does that feel good So again stay tuned to the next show or the show after that when I finally have enough time to Thoroughly lay out for you the solar power system. I using right now along with my new number one pick the Titan system Which by the way comes in many configurations, and I'll tell you the best one to get oh and another thing about that Titan system You can order a complete kit including everything all the cables solar panels

[07:55] Everything you can set it up right away, and you know in this case. I recommend buying it that way in a kit Why because the system's perfectly matched at the factory to the solar panels for maximum output and efficiency Oh and another cool thing when you order the Titan system as a kit you got two choices for solar panels Choice one regular solar panels You know your standard high output aluminum frame panels with glass tops and those things can weigh 30 or 40 pounds each Which doesn't make them very portable especially if you're ordering five or more however the Titan people have sourced a flexible solar panel That's so light that makes it truly portable with a 20 year solar output guarantee Which is something flexible solar panel companies don't like to do because as you flex them

[08:40] They start getting tiny little micro cracks, and that degrades their efficiency, but not so with these particular panels in fact They've got a kit called the 2000 flex kit that comes with 20 100 watt flex solar panel And it turns out they're so thin and light they fit into a nice Reinforced carrying case with a couple handles on it in other words one person can move all 20 of those panels around Anywhere at one time now personally I think flex panels are great for portable systems I never want to use them for a permanent off-the-grid system because yes They are flexible, but that's a downside when you want a permanent solar installation You have to somehow mount them and support them on your roof enough so that the wind doesn't pick up and carry them away in truth They're too light and flimsy to leave up on your roof forever and ever

[09:26] So those Titan kits offer you a choice between the solid regular very heavy solar panels that you can only carry one or two at a time Versus those very light flexible solar panels that are just so convenient to haul around just perfect for portable installations Alright now I've said about that there you have a little preview of what's to come in the next show or maybe the show after Believe me what you're gonna Hear is absolutely on the cutting edge Extremely up-to-date what I recommend and what I really think you ought to put some serious thought into by the way when you go on The Titan website listen I'll give you all that information when I do the show on it and I'll have a new report for you too on all My updated solar recommendations Anyway, you'll see that every one of their systems and kits is on backorder for months Oh and people always ask me how long will these systems last just note that most decent solar panels have a 20-year rating

[10:17] That means after 20 years, they'll still deliver 80% of their rated power though with lithium batteries There's a different rating system We'll talk about that too because it depends how many times you charge and discharge them So for example, you often see on the ratings of a lithium battery system that it's good for one two or three thousand cycles Now for lithium batteries once you start using them and draining their power when you get to 20% of full power They got to be recharged or you'll damage them So what's a full charge cycle from hundred percent to twenty percent not up to a hundred percent again That's one charge cycle now For example if the specs on a unit say it's good for let's say a thousand cycles When you initially crank out the numbers the life numbers how long it's gonna last it doesn't sound that very good

[11:02] Let's use a thousand cycle figure. In fact, my own portable system, which I'll be talking about on next week's show in great detail It's rated at a thousand cycles, too Again, that's from full charge down to 20% and up to full charge again Of course, you don't have to worry about the fact that when a battery gets down to below 20% It's gonna get damaged because the electronics in the unit takes care of that for you. It turns the system off That's why a solar systems instruction manual will always say you have to charge it up at least once a year because over a year If you haven't used it at all, it might just drain very slowly down to that 20% point You don't want to get below that. Alright, let's quickly do the numbers on a lithium battery with a thousand charge cycles Well, there's 365 days in a year divide that into a thousand. That means your batteries have about a three-year life

[11:52] That doesn't sound too good, huh? That's not what you signed up for. You want that thing to last you 10 or 20 years, right? Or more so then why is Johnny saying it can easily last 20 years? I'll tell you why because no matter if you're talking about a portable unit That's only used once in a great while or a permanent unit that's used every day because you're off the grid Almost nobody that is if you size your system, right? Well use so much of the battery that it discharges from a hundred percent down to 20% every single day That almost never happens normally and I've seen many examples of this people with a permanent setup might routinely discharge their battery down to 60 or 50% in fact a full discharge down to 20% per day Might only happen when it's been raining or cloudy for a couple of days in a row So chances are you'll discharge your battery down to 50% maybe every day not to their 20% limit now

[12:41] Remember your panels are working all the time that the Sun is up and for many people with pretty good sized solar systems The batteries only used at night. That means during the day if you got enough wattage Let's say 2,000 watts of panel like you can put into the Titan unit Those panels will charge up the battery for a couple hours and the rest of the hours where the Sun is out the extra wattage Coming out of your panels will be powering up the things in your house Well, then barring clouds and rain your battery just might be cycling every day between a hundred percent and fifty percent That means your battery is not being stressed nearly as much as a battery that goes down to 20% of its maximum charge every day And under those conditions, you should be able to get three four five even ten thousand cycles out of it So think of the battery charge lifecycle data in the specs as the absolute worst case for your battery

[13:29] And that's a situation that rarely happens with the average off-the-grid house whose battery and solar panels have been sized correctly Oh, and by the way, the Titan system I'm talking about has a 2,000 hour charge cycle rating So if you divide 2,000 by 365 days you get around six years That's absolute worst case if you're draining the battery to its limit every single day again that almost never happens So then what can you expect in the real world? I expect the average person with a nicely matched system could get 20 years out of it by the way I'm putting together a little report right now Tentatively titled how much solar power and what kind of solar system do I need for my house? Of course, it'll be geared to people living in Latin America where you don't have any heating concerns But it'll be just as useful a guide if you're living in Canada, Minnesota or Cleveland though

[14:17] Again, the problem is up in the states in most places you get maybe four good hours of Sun each day and here in Latin America you get more like seven or eight in a future show. I'll talk about that too and I'll give you a link to an excellent resource I have a site where you plug in your state or country then it gives you a breakdown of your son's Radiance over the day that really comes in handy when you're deciding on the wattage of your solar panels You heard me say a while ago that for a full off-the-grid system You need at least or minimally 2,000 watts of solar panels again. We're talking about here in Latin America You'll need twice that or more if you're up in the Midwest. So if we go with 2,000 watts That's about seven or eight standard 300 watt panels The kind you can get on craigslist or olex.com for around a hundred bucks apiece or so at least down here

[15:06] Of course when it comes to the number of panels you'll need it's all about the angle of the Sun And it's much more perpendicular to the earth as you get towards the equator Thus when you're living in Latin America your solar system whether portable or permanent will only have to be half as big and half It's costly as a system. You'll need to power your stuff up in the states. So hang in there and stay tuned I'll be talking about all that stuff and more in the next few shows. Oh and don't forget I'm always around to do a phone consult with you on anything and everything having to do with living working playing and doing business here In Latin America as well as any questions you might have about setting up solar water and or LP gas systems So if you need to talk send me an email the expert files at gmail.com Which brings us to the next email this one comes from mr. J He says hi Johnny. Hope all is well with you and you're staying happy and healthy

[15:54] I'm sure your emails are accumulating rapidly with people like myself who haven't left the states yet I'm currently studying for my chartered financial analyst card and ultimately starting a hedge fund The attractiveness of Puerto Rico is hard for me to ignore with the tax incentives for my type of business I haven't heard your opinion about Puerto Rico, but I can guess you're not a fan It's really expensive there and probably an easy target for any US adversaries What's your opinion about PR as a six-month resident and with the other six months living in some other Latin country? I remember you weren't a fan of Argentina as well, and I can't remember why something about Doug Casey Oh, and I'm glad Johnny you moved your seminar to August I'm definitely planning on attending the July date was conflicting with freedom fest in Vegas

[16:40] Our plan is to visit Puerto Rico Guatemala and Argentina late May Is there anything you can do for or recommend for stragglers that come down not during your seminars? Thanks for everything you're doing with the great information and hilarious opinions on the podcast kindly mr. J. All right mr. J. Let's plow through some of these points Puerto Rico. I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. It's a US territory They're completely bankrupt beyond bankrupt not only that they've had a huge brain drain to the states because you know They automatically get a u.s. Passport so there's no problem as long as they can get the airfare They can go to the states and just hang out forever there for them It's perfectly legal and you know after the hurricane It was like Venezuela and also like Venezuela with a very serious brain drain So what you got is a bunch of puddin heads left behind who are either broke just living paycheck to paycheck

[17:29] They're not really motivated to do much of anything else Now where have I heard that before I hate to say that but I'm telling it like it is It's so true that almost all the Puerto Ricans and Venezuelans I meet who are living outside their country are really pretty creative and motivated people They know how to survive and they knew their countries were basket cases. So they found a way to get out early However, I know rags like sovereign man and sovereign individual which are pretty good rags By the way in some respects except they're pushing Puerto Rico all the time as a superb tax haven because you pay no federal taxes Promise you're doing it because the infrastructure is absolutely destroyed dating back to the hurricane Thus they voted in all those tax breaks Well, there's already talks and legislation in the works planning to take those tax breaks off the books or severely modify them

[18:14] Of course, I think they'll grandfather people in who've already taken advantage of it But you can never never trust politicians especially with a country that's tied at the hip and really totally dependent on the USA And you know, mr. J I know quite a few people who live in Puerto Rico and they're telling me the same thing Lots of rich people have moved in to certain areas of San Juan where the prices are now higher than in New York Bottom line, they have big problems in Puerto Rico. I would not want to be there Oh and mr. J you mentioned how I wasn't a fan of Argentina Well, they just defaulted again on a big chunk of their sovereign debt inflation set 50% and now if you got a bank account There they've got currency controls, you know There are three things in life that are certain death taxes and another Argentine default In fact, no country in the modern world has defaulted on its sovereign debt more times in Argentina

[19:03] This will be nationwide bankruptcy number nine number nine number nine number nine Bottom line Argentina. I would never recommend it for a plan B. Oh and by the way I noticed in the last year or so when Doug Casey puts out a report. He's not doing it from Argentina anymore He does it from Uruguay or Chile But not from Argentina where he has a huge estate a winery and a bunch of real estate in that development called a stancia Funny how he's kind of completely disassociated himself from that project Whereas just a few years ago. It seems like every week I got some kind of blurb in my box about buying land or property in La Estancia Doug Casey's version of Galt's Gulch then suddenly Nothing is as if the place went dark and people I know who are kind of close to the project are saying it was a good

[19:51] Idea that turned out to be a big mistake can't win them all glad I didn't get sucked into that one by the way I've had more than a few expat insiders seminar attendees Tell me they've been down to the place checked out the real estate and the winery the swimming pools the horse riding the whole bit And all of them came back thinking something's just not right I'm not gonna go into it right here, but next time you run into me personally ask me about it Oh and mr. J asked in his email if there's anything that I could do for stragglers who come down to Guatemala or Central America Apart from the seminar dates well as a matter of fact mr. J after disassociating myself from that lady Jen bird Who was secretly swindling and stealing from people she was the one whose father was a very good friend of mine John Galt And then when he died she took over the John Galt tours from her dad

[20:38] And then over time she started secretly stealing from me and others when there's a little matter of PayPal fraud, too They're going after her for that oh, and it gets worse. She stiffed a Guatemalan hospital for over 25 grand Then some months ago. She escaped to the US and is in hiding a lot of people are after her So as you might imagine that was the end of the John Galt tours Which by the way I endorsed wholeheartedly when her father was in charge though I had no stake in it financially or otherwise I did refer a lot of people to the John Galt tours And it was a great success until he died and his daughter took over You know the fact is when people come down here to Guatemala in Central America They need to have someone put together an itinerary for him give him something to do show him around sometimes They're looking for hospitals doctors clinics real estate health insurance business deals

[21:28] They're looking to get residency set up bank accounts meet our Bitcoin and crypto guys or just do some exploring whatever Everybody's got a wish list and if you don't know anyone down here And you're just getting information from me by listening to the show people really did need a go-to person and John Galt tours Provided that and more that is when Tom Byrd alias John Galt not his slick fingered daughter was in charge So then what about people showing up in Guatemala in Central America today or more precisely when the travel bands are lifted Well, I'll tell you the lady who's in charge of the logistics of my expat insider seminar her name is Rita She's been working with me a couple of years now. She's an absolute fantastic organizer. Everyone loves her She speaks perfect English and is extremely efficient That's why princess and carnival cruise ship lines have got a contract with her to take people on excursions

[22:18] to see the pyramids to explore the Mayan ruins to see the rainforests the coffee fields the Spanish colonial cities and Lake Ataclan the most beautiful lake in the world and of course the beaches and the volcanoes So bottom line whatever you have on your checklist my seminar logistics lady Rita can help you with that and more Including taking you to check out real estate rentals help you get a bank account by a car hookup with MDs dentists hospitals and insurance Companies in fact when it comes to medicine and health care She's really got it down because her dad's a physician not to mention for years She's been working hand-in-hand with my favorite Latino lawyer So bottom line if you come to my next expat insider seminar, you'll surely meet her She's hanging with us all the time And if you come down before or after the seminar or any time in between Rita is the go-to person that'll hook you up with practically everything you need even if you're just coming down to explore

[23:09] And that's your only goal. She can set up a fantastic itinerary for you You know everybody who's been down here will tell you we've got a great setup and a great network a one-stop shop for getting that plan Beyond steroids got the lawyers the doctors the hospitals insurance plans rentals agriculture crypto We've got everything covered now My next seminar is scheduled to launch Friday August 21st finishing up Thursday night August 27th You know at the seminar you'll be drinking from the fire hose All right, however, if you come down and it's not seminar time Just send me an email to expat files at gmail.com and I'll hook you up with Rita and she'll Skype or what's up with you For nothing you can lay out your plans and she'll help you accomplish them and she's one person I have a hundred percent confidence in I know some of you might be thinking well Johnny

[23:55] You didn't do so well with Jen bird Well, the fact is I had a hundred percent confidence in her father while he was running the John Galt tours and the concierge operation But when he unexpectedly died and the baton got handed over to her because of the family connection We thought the John Galt trips could go on as usual because as they say the Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree Who'd have thought that such a likable smart honest noble and trustworthy guys only child would turn out to be such a bad seed I'm sure you've heard the saying I never met a con man in this case a woman I didn't like So anyway, all you emailers who've been asking me about those John Galt trips. They no longer exist That's why I brought it up But there is the fact that people like mr. Jay want to be able to come down to Guatemala and places in and around Central America and have some

[24:42] Knowledgeable person to connect with and we have all that more with my seminar logistics lady Rita So again, if you're coming down send me an email the expat files at gmail.com and I'll hook you up with Rita right away Alright one last email this one's from Scott He says hey Johnny been listening since day one and now my wife is finally on board due to this kovat 19 syop thing Seems like they're following the event 201 script to a tee what a coincidence Johnny by the way Can you send me mr. B's info regarding teaching English online then he says Johnny when are you gonna get rid of that gulag mail? He's talking about Gmail and switch you're a bright guy Johnny can't be too hard to forward You've saved emails and set up an auto response to direct people to your start mail or proton mail address

[25:27] All right me Johnny. Let me take that one. Well Scott you're right I hate Gmail, but you have to remember when I first started this show ten years ago I had to have an account for this show and Gmail was accessible and there weren't no such Encrypted services like start mail or proton mail. They didn't exist ten years ago And now after receiving something like a hundred thousand emails on Gmail and having ever so often to eliminate 10,000 or more just to stay under the maximum capacity limit well problem is Scott Although I hate Gmail and everything that's got to do with Google I really don't want to spend the extra time and effort to switch to a completely other mail account aside from that I have other email accounts where I talked to my family and such and I have two that are encrypted and one Encrypted end-to-end. So basically I've got four email accounts each for a specific purpose and I realize of course having a Gmail account

[26:19] It's like hanging your dirty underwear on the clothesline in your front yard But since I also use a VPN 100% of the time I get practically no pop-up windows at all because advertisers and marketers can't really home in on where I'm coming from But you're right I hate Gmail and it would never have selected it at all knowing how they spy mine and sell your data But we didn't know that ten years ago And you know people who I deal with confidentially and who do consults with me and need my help for various things I always use my other much safer emails to communicate with however If you're just talking about non-critical run-of-the-mill stuff Gmail will serve. So go ahead. Call me lazy. Call me foolish Call me irresponsible. I just don't want to spend the time and effort to pull everything off Gmail and move to another service

[27:06] Meanwhile, I'll continue to disc Google and all its malignant tentacles including YouTube Even though you may be thinking I don't practice what I preach remember I don't have an insta crap fake book or even a Twitter account How many people do you know who can say that I bet none unless you count kids under 10 and your 93 year old grandma Oops, we're getting towards the end of the show now. I'll finish the rest of Scott's email next time There's a lot more so stay tuned You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at Gmail dot com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat Insider seminar in Central America where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B

[27:54] Send me an email the expat files at Gmail dot com. No spamos