Comments on: Living Off the Grid: Generating Your Own Electricity

By: gabriela castaneda

gabriela castaneda — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:01:49 +0000

hi can anyone help me i’m confused with all this solar info. i’ll be moving to a rural area with no electricity, refrigeration, how will i go about finding out the prices for solar panels and other helpful items that can help me out and are they easy to install? please email me if you can be of any help gaby_8377@hotmail.com

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:22:23 +0000

Hi
I am trying to get all the information I can. We are in the planning stages of a home on land that we have in Maine. This home needs to be totally off the grid, no propane–no electric power. We have been thinking of concrete homes and earth sheltered, however the earth sheltered seems to be more expensive as a 1200 foot home of each is about $100 sq foot however the cement home has a basement adding more space. Any info or insite will be greatly appreciated..Thanks

By: Bill C

Bill C — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:54:01 +0000

If you want the heat from your close dryer, take the exhast hose and put a paer of pantiehose over the hose, makes a great filter.

By: Ted JS

Ted JS — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:11:07 +0000

I’m curious about the routine maintenance required of the alternative energy sources ie; how often to clean solar cells; replace batteries; what is required for the wind turbine? If I want to go away for a few days can I leave the home and not worry?
Thanks

By: Rachel Bryant

Rachel Bryant — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:38:37 +0000

As far as the dryer goes,I hardly ever use ours.When the weather is 50 or above ,I hang ours on the clothesline on the porch.In below freezing weather and temps when it doesn’t dry well outside,I do what my parents and grandparents before me did.I use a clothesrack in the house.There are 4 in our family,and it does save on the electric bill. Rachel,from mid-Maine,USA

By: william

william — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:52:56 +0000

I confess that I’m no Green eco warrior, I don’t believe in man made climate change and i think for the most part the environment is doing just fine. I just want to spend my 14 non working hours per weekday and whole weekends living away from the rat race. My 2 room cabin on acreage in Victoria Australia is well away from the grid. If one dismisses the feel good but expensive, innefficient, unreliable and high maintenance solar array, dual axis tracker and wind generator from the equation $15000 can be deducted from the up front costs of running Bobs household by simply running the generator into the battery bank and invertor. The used old school 6KVA 18 horsepower gasolene generator I just purchased set me back $1000 and according to the spec sheet uses 1 gallon per hour at half load (3KVA).At $4.00 a gallon I can run the Genny for 3750 hrs to keep the batteries charged, or maybe almost double that with a deisel engine. Another possible alternative fuel supply for the genny on my 44 acres of woodland is to build a wood gas producer to run the existing gas engine.
Environmental issues and hippee dogma aside,would any of the electrically knowledgable contributors here agree that this is the most economical and practical way of living off grid ?
Bill.

By: Charlie Chilly

Charlie Chilly — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:16:34 +0000

we need some advice on how to improve our insulation on our home. We live in blue ridge ga. The house is built near a large stream that required us to build the home 12 feet off the ground. which worked out fine by placing 3 garages and my shop under the house. The question is hows the best way to insulate the floor or ceiling of the garages and shop??? We placed r-19 in the floor with the paper side up toward the living space. Could we use styrofoam and sheet rock to close it up?? just not sure on how to do the job better.

By: LomaVista1985

LomaVista1985 — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:25:20 +0000

Hello. Has anyone mentioned the Insulated Concrete Form houses as well geothermal heating and cooling? Only one person commented on making a very insulated house to retain the heat. Someone suggested a great idea to somehow conserve the heat from the dryer. Any way to do that? Thanks. LomaVista1985

By: Ben Erickson

Ben Erickson — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:31:44 +0000

Hi Calvin, Good points. Also, if you install an alternative energy system while on the grid, some states will allow you to sell any excess power generated back to the utility company, and you won't have the expense and complications of a battery backup system to store the power. Plus, you can take advantage of the 30% federal tax credit for the cost of installing a solar or wind system. To find out more about the tax credit, read our article Energy Efficiency Tax Credits for Homeowners.

By: Calvin

Calvin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:36:46 +0000

This article fails to mention that if you live in a rural area where power lines do not already come to your porperty, the cost of bringing power lines to the property may equal or exceed the cost of a complete solar system. That triples the cost of “conventional” power over the lifetime of a solar system.

The article also doesn’t step back and look at the issue of grid reliability and cost: the thousands of individuals affected by an aging and vulnerable transmission system. The cost of power blackouts to individuals and the entire economy compared to the crash of an individual system is many times greater than the simple and unrealistic perspective of simple power production costs. Let’s get real here and take a look at the whole picture.