[Homestead] Shaking the grid

Don Bowen don.bowen at earthlink.net
Thu Feb 4 15:16:48 EST 2010


Mark Stutzman wrote:
>> Is anyone off grid here or partially off grid? I'm really kind of lost as to where to start.
>>     
My tailer can be off grid if needed.  I have 250 Watts of Solar panels, 
220 AH battery storage, and two Honda generators for backup.With the 
right conditions I can go several weeks on solar and battery alone.

The trailer uses 12V for lighting, water pump, and space heater fans.  
Propane for the refrigerator, hot water heater, space heater, and cook 
stove.  When connected to shore power I can switch the refrigerator and 
hot water heater to 120VAC.  The air conditioner and microwave are the 
only devices that require 120VAC and cannot run off battery power.  In 
winter when the space heater is in use the fans will drag the batteries 
down overnight.

For a small LCD TV and DVD player I have a small inverter.  For laptop 
and cell phone battery charging I have 12VDC chargers.  The modified 
sine wave output from the inverters seems to kill battery chargers.  It 
is a workable system but a bit expensive for what it does. 

-- 
Don Bowen           KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html




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