For those of you truly wanting to live off grid

Oh my neighbors are rather self-sufficient themselves, and I don't think my behavior surprises them anymore. I don't have kids, and we don't have TV anymore, got it shut off in July. It bothered me at first, but now it's kind of a relief, because I was letting TV dictate my schedule, now I'll watch a video or DVD when I have the time. I like our woodstove, got cooking surfaces on it. Gonna have to saw up some logs tomorrow I was planning to use for building stuff in the spring, but the agency we get our firewood through has decided they'll get it to us when they get around to it, so what can you do?

 

VHestin. What would you like to do with a solar/wind setup ? How much would you be willing to spend anyway ? Solar and wind costs money. Too many people seem to think that just buying a few solar panels is the biggest costs. To be sure it is one of the largest expenses, but all the required support equipment is where all the hidden costs are. Here is one example for you. My first wind generator only cost me around $600.00. Not to bad right ? Well, then I needed five large holes in the ground, and here you almost can't dig with a post hole digger or shovel more then a few inches, so you have a man come out with a bob cat, augger and trencher. Then about 450 feet of trenching. Conduit, super heavy wire to make the distance, conduit up the side of the building, boxes inside and of course a rectifier and charge controller. Oh, lets add the cost of having the tower made, cables to guy it off and then of course you need a boom truck to stand it up. Still cheaper then having a tilt up bar made. None of that would do you anygood without a bank of batteries to store your power in and then an invertor to convert all that dc power into usable ac power. Take a look at my blog and you will see what is really needed to do all of this. I spent about $2,000.00 getting it up and working, and I did all the work myself. Add at least another $1,000.00 to have a professional do it. And I already have my battery bank, solar panels and invertor. Nadja

 

My mother's research turned up the same info, that it's not the windmill or solar panels that are the killer cost-wise to go off the grid. I'd mainly want it for lighting and refrigeration. Got woodstove for heating/cooking in cold weather, and in warm weather don't need heat and we got a barbecue for cooking. My mother can't seem to figure out she *can* live without TV, she did when we got the power shut off that one summer. She doesn't even really watch it, she just has it on for 'noise', which annoys me cause it's just wasting electricity which costs us money.

 

@VHeston........ I actually had time to do very important things that I Could actually do, things like Bible Study......Now here it is I'm 45 yrs old, I am going back to college, studying political science, trying my best to become a journalist so I can hopefully writing some wrongs that are being done as we speak. I'm sorry I'm off topic here, but I'm getting to the point that, All I am wanting electricity for is my laptop and a good laser printer, I'll use a wood cook stove, Deitz oil lamps,candles,
hand crank lanterns, if I have too. And I'll beat my clothes with a rock to get them clean. I have made sacrifices before and I'm not scared to Make them again.

 

This is our plan.. we will have wind, solar and maybe hydro too, but as long as our (code required) heating system is propane anyway, why not install a propane fueled generator?

We already have our land (Western WA State) and we are planning on building a Norman keep with small towers, using Insulated Concrete Forms.. many advantages with this design and materials.. for instance the tower tops are perfect for solar and wind turbines, and the entire roof battlement (25 x 50 feet) will be there for a hothouse and a steam sauna, a generator house, etc

We'll have a basement log burner for our actual heat.. and at R50 insulation rating we won't have to stoke it very often

 

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Thanks for the info, BT.. will definitely make it a dual fuel setup.. I suppose the heat could be used for the adjacent hothouse, hadn't considered that, was just going to heat from below with a tube, since we'll have wood heat. But that would give us an option

Our place is awesome, 40 acres with a remote South facing ridge for the homesite, aquifer, spring, plenty of 2nd growth wood and even a few old growth giants. Haven't seen it's like for sale, since we bought it

 

I'm sitting in a split level in Lacey right now but was raised a country boy in the Shasta, CA area. Our retreat place is out on the Peninsula

 

Never heard of them, but will get out there and check them out..good excuse for a motorpickle ride, thanks!

 

If we won't be able to afford equipment/installation for our own solar/wind somehow, I'm fully prepared to go without electricity all together if need be.

 

Nice thing about solar is you can start out small and add panels and upgrades.. even a single RV size panel and one golf cart battery can supply you with power for an LED light. Better and safer than a kerosene lantern

All of you be sure to look into LED lighting.. it's already 12 volts, no inverter needed!

 

I would be on a fixed income except for my websites, which at the moment aren't doing well at all. But under normal circumstances usually at least buy groceries and gas. But the thought of going off the grid now, would be like banging your head on an oak tree.

 

Well, if you only need power for your laptop and a printer, there are several fairly inespensive ways to go about this. First of all , you can always add a spare battery for your laptop correct ? Now, a good 250 watt panel in 24 volt with a c-60 charge controller and a pure sine wave invertor would do the trick for you. You would use your laptop as much as possible during the day, swapping out your batteries when one is charged, and then at night use only led lights in your work area, and your printer turned totaly off except when your really need it on. So, by swapping your batteries when needed at night, that should get you about 4 hours work time right ? Now if you just saved everything and did your printing during the day when the solar was working you would be just fine. Total cost would be like this. 1- 24 volt shucko german panel with 255 watts of power , are on sale at a solar store here for 565.00 each. 4- 6volt golf cart batteries such as Trojan T-105's at most golf courses are about $75.00 ea compared to about $125.00 each at solar stores. C-60 charge controlers made by Xantrax are on average about $175.00 each and a small sine wave invertor can be had new for about 4-5 hun. each. They are small, but for your needs would and should be just fine. Figure about another 100 - 200 in misc needs such as battery and invertor cables, etc. You can make a homemade frame to mount your solar panel out of old steel bed rails, ususally avail at thrift stores for about $10.00 a set. Stronger then the same gauge angle iron and work well.

 

@Nadja; Thank You, I will look into what your talking about, sounds like it might turn out a little cheaper than the system I was looking at being the Powerenz 2000. I cant remember the wattage on that system right now but it uses a foldable solar panel that stuffs inside its own backpack. the cost is just over 2 grand total but it can be put in the back of a small suv If we had to get the heck out of dodge.

 

@ Nadja......The system is the powerenz LFP40. I know cost is a consideration but I would be more than happy to have a system that I can stick in the back of a truck without getting anything broken. Which I know a regular solar panel can be broken and that can get quite expensive. I know at least that option is there for me and my familyto make use of when the defication does hit the rotary oscillator. Thank you for your assistance.

 

Nadja , great advice about the bed frames, thanks!