The Log house Project begins........

[tommu56]

check backwoods solar too

Backwoods Solar Electric Systems

I got my solar stuff from them

I don't recommend the agm battery's.
The Trogan L16's are one of the most reliable solar battery's as are the rolls or the surrette's.


pasted from back woods

#3 CONSERVING SMALL FAMILY HOME
$7500 to $13500
PRODUCES ABOUT 3 USABLE KILOWATT-HOURS ON A SUNNY DAY

Year round home for 1 to 3 people. Provides 120 volt AC power for lighting, vacuum, washer, kitchen appliances & microwave. DC or 120 volt AC well pump, color TV, VCR, satellite receiver, stereo, computer, and hand-held power tools. There can be enough power for a small DC refrigerator in southern climates. In northern winters, the generator supplements battery charging while doing laundry. This system could be set up with either 12 or 24 volt battery.

SOLAR 750 WATTS: (six Mitsubishi MF125 modules on pole mount)
POWERCENTER: (with charge control and cables)
BATTERIES: (8 T105 or 4 Trojan L-16RE, & cables)
INVERTER/CHARGER: (any 1500 watt to 2500 watt)
Or consider complete pre-fab Outback Flexware 500 Power System
Recommended Generator: Honda EU6500 or Kohler 10ERG

or just put a system like 3rrrl's in


tom

 

[David Devuono]

The OSB doors don't look so good but they are two 7/16 OSB boards sandwiching 2x6 on side, glued and screwed, note the 4 hinges for the heavy doors. Also have barrel bolts inside on one door into the header. My Kubota rests in there and if someone is going to take it they will have to work for a few minutes. Anyway I picked up a nifty 2.5 Cubic foot fridge (for $50) that uses 65 watts and I use compact floresent bulbs and a radio at my camp so could get away with a 200 Watts solar and couple of deep cycle batteries for my weekend use. In my area 80 watt panels going for $495 cdn.

 

[MotorSeven]

Hmmm....ok guys. I will investigate solar further. Could the difference in cost be the installation fee?? if so thats over 15K to install....not good. I just read in Home Power magazine that solar panels are at a all time low price. I would love to be completly off grid. The only thing(big) we want to run in the house is a cloths dryer a fridge and micro. My 30x50 shop will be on grid & anything requiring lots of power will be used there. Any solar installers reading here feel free to pm me.

Here are the pic's of the footers & 3/4th's of the 12" block delivered:

 

[tommu56]

Hmmm....ok guys. I will investigate solar further. Could the difference in cost be the installation fee?? if so thats over 15K to install....not good. I just read in Home Power magazine that solar panels are at a all time low price. I would love to be completly off grid. The only thing(big) we want to run in the house is a cloths dryer a fridge and micro. My 30x50 shop will be on grid & anything requiring lots of power will be used there. Any solar installers reading here feel free to pm me.

gas drier no problem i have a stabler washer and it works good to.

microwave isn't a problem either.

Look at a sun frost refrigerators if you read HP all the ads are in there I've been reading it for over 20 years.

you will have to learn to monitor you loading

tom

 

[EddieWalker]

You sure got a load of blocks. Are you installing them yourself? How high will the walls be? I'm really interested to see how you tie the walls and floor in together and water proof all of it.

Eddie

 

[saltman]

I am building a 1700 sq foot home that will be 100% off grid. I made came to the same conclustion as you did, solar prices are all over the place. Here in Southern Californian every electrical company is getting into solar, here installation is about 20% of the cost. The truth is you can easily install it yourself. I did my small cabin a few years ago and I am expecting a larger system to be the same basic thing just more panels, larger inverters and more batteries. Go with a solar company that's got practical experience, the guys at Backwoods live off grid and have been doing this for long time.

My goal was not to spend too much but also to not have a funky house that had a super small fridge and freezer. The truth is with the new energy star appliances you can use what you would use in an on grid home if your careful. You just have to not try to do too much, like no 70 inch big sceen that uses 300 watts of power unless you want to sacrafice somewhere else. A new LCD 40 inch uses just 160 watts.

Everybody has thier own ideas but for me it was a no brainer 50,000 for electricity or 21,000 for solar. I do also realize that you would need more panels given your climate. I would trade my sun for your creeK!!!!

Great location love the lushness.

Backwoods has Hydro power systems as well.

 

[MotorSeven]

That's not even all the blocks, the mfg plant "ran out" of the 12"ers, so I am waiting for one more load. I am terrible at laying block & brick, so I hired this out. My installer says there is a wafer sheet type of waterproofing that comes in 10' widths(my walls will be 10' because I want to be able to drive the tractor into the basement to drop pallets of firewood). He say's we can hang it like a curtain & use one sheet to go all the way around the two walls on the cut bank. I don't know the price or name of the stuff yet.

I am talking to Mike at BigFrogMountain solar. He is quoting a 4KW grid tied system installed @ $24K & that is after rebates. He says off grid will be way more. TVA here is paying 12 cents more for solar on a by back KWhr than their grid rate, which puts it around .20 cents. It's a good deal, but the payback for this system is around 20 years at current rates. If rates increase as we all know they will, the payback could get down to around 15 years. My concern with grid tied is that I am not convinced that the "grid" will always be around. This printing of gazillions of monopoly money to give away has me worried(but that's another thread/story).

RD

 

[Danno1]

.

Hey M7,

Pics sometimes don't show all the details accurately, but it looks like the outside edge of the foundation is awfully close to the edge of the hillside.


.

 

[MotorSeven]

Danno, the pic is accurate. That is why that footer is 3' deep with holes dug at each corner and in the center to 5'. I wanted to make sure that we were down to undisturbed solid ground. The "creekside" footer took about 5 yards of crete.

RD

 

[Johndeere3720]

This is a very interesting thread. Although I won't build a house for a few years yet it still makes me want a log home on a hill. I am wondering though, is your tractor on site yet?