Could our small farm go all electric?

[ultrarunner]

I have a retired Telco engineer friend and he put in his own solar arrays, has an all electric house and has a Nissan leaf and electric mower.

He turned 80 last year and everyday he is out and about... generates all of his power needs with net metering.

I asked him if it was worth the cost... he did his own install with a helper.

He said he would do it again... just from the satisfaction it brings and the notoriety... lots of visitors coming to take a look...

 

[dickfoster]

Thanks Luke.

Sorry if I pissed in anyone's corn flakes.

Me too.

 

[Thall303]

Spare me please. Take away the gubberment subsidies (taxes on the rest of us) and all of this solar and wind stuff is pure nonsense, physics and economics say so. If you care to look and do the math even the so called environmentally friendly cars like Tesla's are running mostly on coal or other fossil fuels. That is unless the tooth fairy is putting the electricity in the sockets to charge the things up.

I love organic too, the gas and diesel in my fuel tanks are organic and so are most plastics.
Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or the product of decay, or is composed of organic compounds.
Organic chemistry, chemistry involving organic compounds or more simply, Organic compound, a compound that contains carbon.

Wanna make yourself a million in farming, then start with two million. Nothing is free and there are no free lunches, everything costs something for someone, somewhere. Try to get something for free and you're more likely end up paying double.

Amen, Brother

 

[otlski]

Just a thought. You are just starting out. The fact that you have doubts and are not sure if an EV is suitable, should suggest that you should go tried and true and get a diesel tractor. It sounds like you have a lot of experimental challenges coming up, why add yet another one? After you figure out what you got yourself into, perhaps you can sell it and go with the EV. Good luck, it sounds like an adventure.

 

[aczlan]

On snow and solar panels.
I work with one of the town councilmen who helped oversee the installation of a good sized solar array for the town. It saved them money as they have no money invested and they are locked into a really good price per kw for the next 5 years (or something like that).
He said that they initially worried about snow on the panels, but they have found that the panels are tilted enough that the snow starts to slide off and as long as there is an inch or two of panel exposed, it warms enough to let the snow slide off, even on a cloudy day.

Aaron Z

 

[redman135]

Hello JamesHW. You mention asparagas as a possible crop. Can you get the man or woman power to harvest the crop? It is hard on the back.

 

[stuckmotor]

I'll have to dig it up, but definitely wanting to generate power, not a homeowner setup like they tout at the hardware stores. It was a letter addressed to me.

If I remember correctly the one that went to my mother's house had a picture of utility poles that carry three phase power with a third line. This was so the land owners could look for them to know whether their property was in the running. It seemed to me that there would be a more economical way to screen out property that wasn't even in the running and avoid the cost of postage.

 

[stuckmotor]

Wanna make yourself a million in farming, then start with two million. Nothing is free and there are no free lunches, everything costs something for someone, somewhere. Try to get something for free and you're more likely end up paying double.

That first sentence has been my experience, just on a smaller scale.

 

[JamesHW]

Hello JamesHW. You mention asparagas as a possible crop. Can you get the man or woman power to harvest the crop? It is hard on the back.

Yes, that would be a concern if we go large with asparagus. We were thinking a couple of 100 foot rows initially and possibly stick with that.

I like the lay down carts that some use to pull pickers through the rows. Looks like a neat alternative to traditional stoop picking.

 

[JamesHW]

If I remember correctly the one that went to my mother's house had a picture of utility poles that carry three phase power with a third line. This was so the land owners could look for them to know whether their property was in the running. It seemed to me that there would be a more economical way to screen out property that wasn't even in the running and avoid the cost of postage.

I believe we do have three phase judging from the images on Google Street view. The boss said she would pull the letter out of the file for me to check.

 

[Everhard]

As an option if you're serious about being "off the grid" - you mentioned you have a fair number of streams/rivers on the property? Any large enough (doesn't have to be that large) to run a generator? Water as a source of power is great given it's constant and not effected (as much!) by weather. The other consideration is often it's more financially logical to sell the electricity back to the grid and pay for what you use. At least in these parts you'll actually get more per kw that you sell vs what you pay and on top of that then you know you've got reasonably secure/unlimited power (power grid) source for the property, therefore less likely to be without.

E.

 

[FatTire]

We did get off track, sorry about that. I even had to go back and read the original post. You mention streams on your property. How big, and how much drop? Everhard's point about hydro is a good one. Near the end of your original post you mention 140 yards to the house from where you might want to put the solar. Does that mean you'd put the AC inverter there, and run the AC to your house?

I get your idea for running around in the electric UTV for the camp sites, but for farm work I'm still skeptical. With a small tractor you could move dirt, get some pallet forks for moving stuff, and plow snow.

 

[JamesHW]

We did get off track, sorry about that. I even had to go back and read the original post. You mention streams on your property. How big, and how much drop? Everhard's point about hydro is a good one. Near the end of your original post you mention 140 yards to the house from where you might want to put the solar. Does that mean you'd put the AC inverter there, and run the AC to your house?

I get your idea for running around in the electric UTV for the camp sites, but for farm work I'm still skeptical. With a small tractor you could move dirt, get some pallet forks for moving stuff, and plow snow.

The stream that is close to the field is modest, too small for any but a rather small hydro I think as it now exists. The drop is not severe (no waterfalls) though the stream run at a fair clip. If I had to estimate the drop over 50 foot length I would say 7 foot maybe. There is an old dam that failed (logs skidded over it 50 years ago damaged the overgrowth and the water eventually washed a section away). If I can restore it and run a spillway over the top something like hydro becomes more feasible. The other stream is at the far corner of the property, distant from the field and house and runs through a 50 foot ravine. I've seen some floating hydro generators that look interesting that are simply anchored on each side of the stream. Some of our potential campsites are at the top of the hill and it occurred to me I could run electric up the hill possibly.

The solar in the field was just an idea to provide power to a shipping container(s) where I could store equipment and have a small shop to avoid having to run electric to it from the house which would be at least 140 yards or so. No intention of juice going the other direction. If I did solar at the house I have a south facing sunny roof that would suffice.

Thanks. Yours and others concerns on the viability of electric for farming are welcome and noted, though I will continue to research and stick with the idea for a bit. One option would be to try out the electric UTV for a couple of seasons and go ahead and buy a tractor later if it doesn't work out. Have you had a chance to checkout the video I linked to re the Intimidator?

 

[buickanddeere]

On snow and solar panels.
I work with one of the town councilmen who helped oversee the installation of a good sized solar array for the town. It saved them money as they have no money invested and they are locked into a really good price per kw for the next 5 years (or something like that).
He said that they initially worried about snow on the panels, but they have found that the panels are tilted enough that the snow starts to slide off and as long as there is an inch or two of panel exposed, it warms enough to let the snow slide off, even on a cloudy day.

Aaron Z

Next winter I'll as you pictures of the snow laying on the panels day after day on the PV's across the road from my property .

 

[buickanddeere]

As an option if you're serious about being "off the grid" - you mentioned you have a fair number of streams/rivers on the property? Any large enough (doesn't have to be that large) to run a generator? Water as a source of power is great given it's constant and not effected (as much!) by weather. The other consideration is often it's more financially logical to sell the electricity back to the grid and pay for what you use. At least in these parts you'll actually get more per kw that you sell vs what you pay and on top of that then you know you've got reasonably secure/unlimited power (power grid) source for the property, therefore less likely to be without.

E.

Some governments collect income tax on the net metering power "sold" to the utility . There goes any chance of your net metering ever breaking even.

 

[buickanddeere]

The stream that is close to the field is modest, too small for any but a rather small hydro I think as it now exists. The drop is not severe (no waterfalls) though the stream run at a fair clip. If I had to estimate the drop over 50 foot length I would say 7 foot maybe. There is an old dam that failed (logs skidded over it 50 years ago damaged the overgrowth and the water eventually washed a section away). If I can restore it and run a spillway over the top something like hydro becomes more feasible. The other stream is at the far corner of the property, distant from the field and house and runs through a 50 foot ravine. I've seen some floating hydro generators that look interesting that are simply anchored on each side of the stream. Some of our potential campsites are at the top of the hill and it occurred to me I could run electric up the hill possibly.

The solar in the field was just an idea to provide power to a shipping container(s) where I could store equipment and have a small shop to avoid having to run electric to it from the house which would be at least 140 yards or so. No intention of juice going the other direction. If I did solar at the house I have a south facing sunny roof that would suffice.

Thanks. Yours and others concerns on the viability of electric for farming are welcome and noted, though I will continue to research and stick with the idea for a bit. One option would be to try out the electric UTV for a couple of seasons and go ahead and buy a tractor later if it doesn't work out. Have you had a chance to checkout the video I linked to re the Intimidator?

140yards is close enough to run #8 or #10 wiring from the house to the sheds on a 15 or 20amp two pole breaker .

 

[buickanddeere]

Building dams impedes fish migration and spawning. A bridge let alone a dam will bring the MNR and local conservation Authority screaming to the door here in minutes or hours at most.

 

[JRobyn]

If you're still interested in EV discussion as opposed to philosophy and politics , I've watched PART of the Intimidator video. It really looks awesome. Like the Polaris EV on steroids. Even so, if you plan to do much ground-engaging work of more than an acre or two, I don't know if an EV would handle that well. Did he say anywhere in that how much the Intimidator COST? I'm guessing it's near $20k or over.

 

[JamesHW]

If you're still interested in EV discussion as opposed to philosophy and politics , I've watched PART of the Intimidator video. It really looks awesome. Like the Polaris EV on steroids. Even so, if you plan to do much ground-engaging work of more than an acre or two, I don't know if an EV would handle that well. Did he say anywhere in that how much the Intimidator COST? I'm guessing it's near $20k or over.

I think it is 12k before add-ons like winch, etc.

 

[JamesHW]

Building dams impedes fish migration and spawning. A dam will bring the MNR and local conservation Authority screaming to the door here in minutes or hours at most.

Stream is too small for any fish (there is a nice trout stream about a mile away). Concrete part of dam is still there, only the stream found a way around it over the years. Old aerial photos show it containing water. The total depth and volume fall well under the restrictions on dams that require regular inspections, reports and such.

That said, your point is well taken and I would not repair/improve the dam until I was clear that the State DEC wouldn't make a squawk.