12-12-2014, 07:22 AM
You've done a good job of identifying your criteria. Just about anywhere in Puna is fine for water catchment. The lower rainfall areas require more roof to catch water and a larger tank to get you through the dry periods. Rainfall maps are available on many real estate sites. Solar will work anywhere, even up to Volcano. It's the opposite trend to water catchment. The higher the rainfall, the more panels you need to capture enough electricity and the more batteries you need for those longer dark rainy periods. Almost the entire Puna district is forested although there are a few areas of recent flows with no forest.
Orchidland to Fern Forest would be my rough suggestion on where you want to go. The problem is much of those subdivisions lack the soil you think you want. If you really want soil, try north of Hwy 11 - areas like Ola'a farm lots. Parcels there tend to be larger, but you can get 5 acres for around 50k. Soil depth varies and you'd need to check each lot separately. That said, lots of soil means you get a mud pit when it rains. You can always build up areas to plant gardens by ripping, importing black cinder and adding compost.
As others have said, building un-permitted is very doable, but you need to be discrete, a good neighbor and select your location. I know that Hawaiian Acres, Eden Roc and Fern Forest are fairly accepting of un-permitted dwellings. Leilani is definitely not. Others are somewhere in between. A good way to search for property is to use bigislandreale.com - their web site is the best way I've found for searching for properties you are interested in. You do need to sign up to get access to all of the features, but they haven't been a problem in terms of spamming me (and of course I have a separate email account for signing up for things on the internet).
2 years ago when I put in my catchment, it cost me about 3k plus pump/pressure tank. It's a bit more now - call one of the catchment companies for prices but add in the cost of levelling a spot, crush rock and sand.
Cell coverage maps are available from most major providers. 3g and 4g coverage is pretty good.
Orchidland to Fern Forest would be my rough suggestion on where you want to go. The problem is much of those subdivisions lack the soil you think you want. If you really want soil, try north of Hwy 11 - areas like Ola'a farm lots. Parcels there tend to be larger, but you can get 5 acres for around 50k. Soil depth varies and you'd need to check each lot separately. That said, lots of soil means you get a mud pit when it rains. You can always build up areas to plant gardens by ripping, importing black cinder and adding compost.
As others have said, building un-permitted is very doable, but you need to be discrete, a good neighbor and select your location. I know that Hawaiian Acres, Eden Roc and Fern Forest are fairly accepting of un-permitted dwellings. Leilani is definitely not. Others are somewhere in between. A good way to search for property is to use bigislandreale.com - their web site is the best way I've found for searching for properties you are interested in. You do need to sign up to get access to all of the features, but they haven't been a problem in terms of spamming me (and of course I have a separate email account for signing up for things on the internet).
2 years ago when I put in my catchment, it cost me about 3k plus pump/pressure tank. It's a bit more now - call one of the catchment companies for prices but add in the cost of levelling a spot, crush rock and sand.
Cell coverage maps are available from most major providers. 3g and 4g coverage is pretty good.
Me ka ha`aha`a,
Mike
Mike