Sunsaver, Livining Off-Grid In Suburbia- Happy Taconight America!

[sunsaver]

Running a typical home off-grid solar would depend on power consumption but a guess would be anywhere from 10 to 20, 100watt panels, and 2000 to 4000 amp hours battery bank. Regular use of electric heating (clothes dryer, hair dryer, central heat and air, electric stove/oven, space heaters) would require you to double these figures. If you had a gas stove and heat, a propane refrigerator, and used a clothes line instead of a dryer, you could easily run all your lights, tv, microwave, computer, washing machine, etc with 10 panels and a 2000 amp hour battery bank. Eliminate the washing machine and microwave, 5 panels, use a low power TV, laptop, LED lights, and small fan, 2 panels. Thats me. Of course i'm building up my capacity, because i miss the convenience of the microwave and washing machine. But i love my ice box. I'm looking into making a solar powered ice maker so i can have free ice.

 

[Denim Deb]

We have electric heat, but I try not to use it unless I have to, I prefer the wood. I've often wondered if we could convert to solar. I'd really love to be able to do so. And we don't really use that much of the electric heat. There's a heater in the living room, one in the bathroom, one in my daughter's bedroom, and one in the master bedroom. None is turned that high, in fact, some aren't really used at all.

 

[sunsaver]

Electric heat is the biggest waste of electricty. A typical space heater uses 1500 watts of power. To run just one space heater for 4 hours each night, you would need about 15 panels and 30 batteries.

 

[TanksHill]

Just catching up. Sorry about your hens.

Your garden sounds like it doing very well.

I find the info about your solar very interesting. I have
thought about solar for my house.

G

 

[savingdogs]

So you use a wood stove to heat your house sunsaver? That is what we do. But only about 80 percent of the house. We do have a small electric heater in the far bedroom but would like to get the wood stove heat to move into that room better.

How do you heat the farmhouse?

 

[sunsaver]

My house is very small, and each door opens into another room. There's no hallway. The stove heats the living room/winter kitchen and the bedroom/winter living room. I don't heat the kitchen which stays about 45-55*F in winter, or the dining room, where the table is usually covered in root crops and seeds, and dried herbs etc. I usually leave a kerosene lamp on in the bathroom, which is in the lean-too section on the back of the house, whenever we have a hard freeze warning. I also let all water taps around drip during hard freezes. It's usually about the same temp inside as out during the day in the winter. I garden year round, so most of my days are spent outside, or at work. I only come inside the house at dark. I walk around, planting and propagating, or building some device, all day, every day. I might stop to go online, or make a sandwich or a salad. I only cook a meal at night, with propane in the summer, wood in the winter.

 

[sunsaver]

So that was the end of the washing machine story. I want to share a couple of links to two websites that helped me learn what i needed to know, in order to go off-grid. As far as i can tell, both sites are non-profit, or at least not in your face selling anything: http://www.freesunpower.com/index.php http://www.builditsolar.com/


I am not here to sell anything; however, because of my deep love for God's great creation, all creatures great and small, i will often promote geo power, wind power, hydro power, or solar power. These are Aristotle's four basic forces: earth, wind, water, and fire. The burning of dead fossil souls, or the splitting of the universal nuclear force of God's great creation, are an abomination to my personal spirituality. There is no such thing as "clean coal" or "safe nukes".
I was raised as a Catholic, with a heavy dose of modern physics and astrophysics thrown in. So far, i have found no conflict between modern science and ancient religion. Science is a method of testing the truth. God is the truth. He is the light. In my belief structure, science is an exploration of the Infinite Universe (God) that is all around us. He is the set of everything; and therefore, knows and sees all things. The Hubble Space Telescope is looking at the light (God). A microscope looks at the light (God). I think we all need more light in our lives.

 

[valmom]

Sunsaver, you are cool

 

[Denim Deb]

I had to go back to find the washing machine story!

 

[sunsaver]

Sorry, DD. I guess i'll drop the book format, and start changing my journal title so you'll know when there are new posts. I've had two weeks of upper nineties and triple digits, with no rain in sight. Old folks in Dallas and Shreveport are dropping like flies. Heat is the number one weather related killer, killing on average 1500 people per year in the US. To stay cool off-grid in the deep south, i soak my tee shirt in water, wring it out, and put it on damp. A nice breeze is always a big help. I also have a service basin outside that i use to run cool water over my head every hour or so, and i drink 4-8 32 oz. glasses of water or ice tea, ya'll.