Good morning!!!!

   / Good morning!!!! #11,641  
70F, sunny

Off to Costco, stock up for 4th of July
Have a great day

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet
 
   / Good morning!!!! #11,642  
David, are you off-grid? I don't recall you ever mentioning that.

Yep, totally
I have a tad over 6kw of solar panels, Outback system, Rolls Surettes batteries and a 24kw diesel Genset, our water system is catchment, cesspool waste, Dish network, wireless broadband, ATT cell.

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet
 
   / Good morning!!!! #11,643  
Thanks Drew

Previous used my nailers with the little pancake one, but no luck with impact wrenches etc, so this will be nice.

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet
 
   / Good morning!!!! #11,644  
Drew

Your garden sounds awesome!!!!

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   / Good morning!!!! #11,645  
thanks David. Might be a while before I can get a pineapple to grow here yet...:dance1:

David, did you go offline because your house is wonderfully inaccessible/remote, and basically had to, or
because the financial model worked? Propane powered gen?
perhaps you already have this on ten threads already, but your experiences going off grid I'm sure would
interest many, many folk here, even if only to imagine. Drew
 
   / Good morning!!!! #11,646  
Drew

Great question. Currently waiting for Costco to open. Will respond later.

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   / Good morning!!!! #11,647  
Yep, totally
I have a tad over 6kw of solar panels, Outback system, Rolls Surettes batteries and a 24kw diesel Genset, our water system is catchment, cesspool waste, Dish network, wireless broadband, ATT cell.

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

Impressive. Did you have a choice to grid tie or not? If so, why did you go totally off the grid?

Looking at my options for doing the Solar on the house.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #11,648  
good evening everyone we have had 2 nice days . a story for you i thought was kinda funny. got a call monday from my phone and internet company.[ century link] the guy said he had some good news and i said lay it on me: he my internet speed was going to almost tripple in speed and my bill was going down $10 a month i said good deal i like new's like that. so wensday comes along and i loose my internet so i called that afternoon and the lady said they would check it out thrusday, well no body shows up. i called back thrusday afternoon and they said someone would be here friday i say ok. well the guy shows up friday morning and he's here about 2 1/2 hours before he finds the problem, he was on the phone with 4 different tech's and they finally figured it out. my internet speed was 3gb they increased it to 8gb, now i live 13000' from where they put the new cable and that's to far so they lowered me down to 6gb and everything is fine. the tech said you know i learned alot today i said well i'm glad you did so the next person that has this problem won't do without internet for 3 day's.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #11,649  
i forgot gotta be in lynchburg at 10 am saterday so no good morning from me. i don't have one of those i pad things:rolleyes:
 
   / Good morning!!!! #11,650  
So, to answer Drew et al...

Didn't really plan being off grid when we made to initial decision to move to Hawaii. I had been stationed on Oahu late 70s- early 80's, knew very little about the Big Island and that electricity everywhere in Hawaii was expensive.

One of the criteria looking at property min 5 acres. That alone did 2 things. 1 - limit where, 2 where also divided into a - water and electric, b. water only,c. electric only, d. none (off grid) pricing of course went up with what was available for utilities. Didn't take long to realized my budget was for off grid unless I just stumbled onto something by chance. Off grid locations varied as well, a few were within predetermined areas where for a certain charge (SSSP, I believe it is called) the electric company would continue to run poles down the street, other properties the electric was perhaps within range if you got the easements and paid for the pole installation, others were just to remote for any connection. Our property was the 2nd case, electric ran behind our neighbor up to the cell tower and FAA station, he was hooked in. So I could have asked for the easement, but after a rough estimate for the pole run, decided it was too steep just to guarantee a significant monthly bill. Also I figured if I had power to my location eventually someone below would want to tie in as well, but I didn't want a line of poles across my property and forget about doing underground. So going off grid seemed logical.

As we have a year round stream at the boundary we considered hydro, but there were drawbacks, plus it would be 8-900 ft from the house.

I built our learner solar system from a diagram in HomePower magazine. What a learning experience. Killed our 1st set of batteries in short order, did some upgrades, but basically the system was active from 2005 until 2012 when I removed it and tied the cottage into the main system.

Don't know about now, but back in 2005-6 when I was planning for the main house, choosing a solar person was a crap shoot - all had their strengths and weaknesses. While I personally don't care for some of my guys work or work habits, I can and do say, "my system works" - not something most of my friends can say. Seems like most would underestimate the number of needed panels or use inferior batteries or both. I know I drove my guy bonkers because I approved everything. we doubled the number of panels, made the electronic section expandable, and he recommended his best battery. Our son's future inheritance is $60k less, but along with all the concrete we put in, I tell him we made solid investments and got a charge out of doing so :)

Many told us at the time that we couldn't do solar and have a swimming pool, glad I didn't listen. We started with just 4.5kw of panels and while sufficient, adding another 1.5kw last summer may have found the sweet spot. We have a diesel Genset from China, less than 1400 hours since summer of 2008. I track our solar production and use daily with our low of just over 2kw to 35kw per day. We normally use 17-18 kw per day without guests. Yes, we built a house with normal everything electric. Except the clocks not keeping time, just like on grid, except our habits LOL. We do have propane stove, dryer, and on demand hot water.

So, hope this helps. Willing to answer any further questions either here or privately.

Now that we are off grid, couldn't imagine going back.

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet
 
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