Any "Off-Gridders" out there...what kind of systems do you have?

[J F]

Thanks, Rick.

 

[rmorey]

The other thing for US off gridders to consider, some state offer rebates that can be as high as 40% of costs, which can be huge!

 

[dwessel]

Two questions:

1. How much money do you have in your system?

2. Why did you go off-grid?

1. Under 10k. The new 48v system I described in my post above was under $9700 with CA 10% tax and shipping from Wholesale Solar. That included a pre-wired power center (inverter, charge controller and power center panel), remote monitor panel, and the 8 6v AGM batteries with battery wiring.

2. House we bought was off grid because of cost to run power.

 

[tcreeley]

Person at work built his house off grid. Wood boiler for radiant heat, solar panels/batteries - elec, just put in a passive hot water system. -Not a single wire from the road to his house. Says he does great- all of the year.

 

[MossRoad]

I could live quit easily with a lot less conveniences, so going off-grid wouldn't be a problem for me.... unless I wanted to stay married. That's one of the things I won't give up. :laughing:

Thanks to the folks that replied why they went off grid. It sounds like it was the only reasonable alternative to the high costs of having power run to the homes.

 

[rmorey]

I could live quit easily with a lot less conveniences, so going off-grid wouldn't be a problem for me.... unless I wanted to stay married. That's one of the things I won't give up. :laughing:

Thanks to the folks that replied why they went off grid. It sounds like it was the only reasonable alternative to the high costs of having power run to the homes.

We dont have any loss of service from our former house which had a 200 amp service. We have submersible pump in the well, 20 cu ft freezer, microwave and perked coffee. It just costs a little more to build the system.

My bride (of 38 years) had a say in that. "If you get a new tractor, then I get a washing machine and dryer". Alrighty then!

 

[MossRoad]

We dont have any loss of service from our former house which had a 200 amp service. We have submersible pump in the well, 20 cu ft freezer, microwave and perked coffee. It just costs a little more to build the system.

My bride (of 38 years) had a say in that. "If you get a new tractor, then I get a washing machine and dryer". Alrighty then!

Been there, done that.... went to the Credit Union to get a home equity loan. Sitting at the desk the loan officer asks how much we need. I turn to my wife and say $14,000 for tractor, attachments and car hauler trailer. She turns to the loan officer and says we need $28,000 because we're getting a new car, too! :laughing:

 

[sodamo]

Totally off grid
40 Kyocera KC125TM & 8 KC130 in 12 strings 48 volt array (fixed) 6.04kw
4 FX3048T Outback inverters
RTS
2 MX60 charge controllers
FNDC w/3 shunts
Mate 3
12 Rolls Surette 4ks25 Batteries
24Kw New Holland Genset (Chinese)
3 house type watt meters to measure usage at the cottage, total usage, and generator input.

Initial cost to run in commercial power was too high, but even worse just guaranteed a high monthly bill forever. The rates never go down.

Some told us we could have our pool and be off grid, but it works well. The wife has all the appliances found in a grid home.

When we built the cottage before we moved, I copied a schematic out of HomePower Mag. It was a small, learning system. Unfortunately, by the time we built the house in 2006, the county was into permits for solar, so I couldn't do myself. We started with only 4.5kw panels and less electronics, but designed it to be expandable. Added more electronics and last year more panels. Since installing the diesel Genset in mid 2007, only run it a tad under 1300 hours.

Right about $60k in system, unfortunately PV was expensive when we built.


David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet