Henson George - Why I Built My Solar Home Off the Grid

Why I Built my Solar Home Off the Grid

From the Anthology

21 st Century Self Reliance: A Survival Preparation

By

Henson George

Text Copyright 2013 by Henson George

All rights reserved

Thanks for reading my book

If you like it try one of the other titles

From the Anthology

21 st Century Self Reliance: A Survival Preparation

How to Build your own Rustic Spiral Staircase

How to Build your own Rustic Front Door

How to Build your own ICF Home

How I Built my Rustic Masonry Heater / Pizza Oven

How to Build your Wealth Selling Derivatives

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Preface

The images contained in this book as well as the charts and statistics are all derived from Google search and unfortunately could not be found anywhere else for copyright purchase. I have seen these images in numerous places including Google+, Facebook and Twitter so I feel relatively comfortable that they are in the public domain. If someone wants to dispute this please feel free to contact me at .

Table of Contents

WHY BUILD OR BUY OFF GRID?

Freedom

Freedom from what? you might ask. Freedom from RELIANCE on municipal, county, state, and federal governments to provide essential utilities and services, including water, power, sewer, and even food and protection. It is my contention that the necessities most Americans rely on and rarely consider to be vulnerable could easily be interrupted or eliminated completely. With the greater frequency and severity of natural disasters, potential terror attacks, an aging infrastructure, a paralyzed, uncooperative government, not to mention a failing economic system worldwide, it becomes imperative that we each begin to take steps toward becoming more self-reliant and less dependent on the rhetoric from Washington. With todays technology we can individually acquire most of these necessities without assistance from the establishment. When the power goes out, the water goes bad or the garbage-men go on strike, a person living off the grid is not subject to the same inconvenience, distress and anxiety as a mainstream customer. They are not left in a position of vulnerability or danger. The off-grid persons world does not come to a standstill every time the electrical/industrial infrastructure breaks down. Living free from the umbilical of the mainstream system gives a person freedom and self-reliance, making him/her almost impervious to the whims of other providers and governments; untouched and unfettered by constraints, regulations, and costs of living tied to the grid. Well maybe not all the whims!

I live in southern Colorado beneath four, 14 thousand foot peaks which act as my sole and pristine water source. My power is generated from six, 225 watt solar photo voltaic panels, which convert the suns rays directly into electricity. This direct current (DC) power is then taken through a Maximum Power Point Tracking charge controller to control and regulate the charge of electricity into the battery bank. By monitoring my state of charge through this device I can keep my battery bank in optimal health without over charging or depleting the bank to dangerous levels. I use eight L-16 batteries which store and provide 19.5 kilowatt hours of power when the sun doesnt shine, and which require minimal maintenance about every third month. In the last 11 months I have not had to recharge my batteries one time with an external generator. This DC (direct current) power from the batteries is then pushed and converted into AC (alternating current) by means of a pure sine wave inverter. From the inverter the power is fed into the home through an electrical panel which distributes the electricity throughout the home exactly like it does for an on-grid home.

This charge then seamlessly powers my entire home, including refrigerator, microwave, hairdryers, lights, computers, internet access, television, washer, dryer, on demand hot water heater as well as all my other electrical devices.

My system is designed to provide about 6.7 kilowatt hours of electricity per day. This has proven to be more than enough power for 2 people living at 8000 feet in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

If you look at your electric bill it will tell you what your kilowatt hours of usage are for the month. Divide that number by 30.5 and you have a kilowatt hour usage average per day. My system cost just around $10,000 including the small building that houses the batteries and inverter / charge controller. Obviously I have to amortize that cost over 20 years to get a realistic cost for living off-grid but this cost is a marginal cost and less noticeable when building your home. When amortized over 20 years this works out to $41.67 per month, $10.42 per week or a $1.49 per day. My power station is located about 75 feet away from my house so there was a lot of wire and electrical conduit expense that I could have avoided if I had built it closer by. My next micro off-grid self-sufficient home will have all of this incorporated into the house itself including the garage and greenhouse. Live and learn.

Most of my friends live on-grid without the benefit of solar photo voltaic panels. The sun that strikes their homes each day is totally unutilized, unnoticed and unappreciated. After living off the suns rays for just a short while you will be converted, or should I say inverted into a solar panel advocate. Solar living is a wonderful experience and you can shortly feel the difference from fossil fuels. You can actually feel they are cleaner. Less polluting! More animal friendly! Living off the power of the sun is clean and fresh. And seriously it is noticeable. It doesnt take long to appreciate the electrical expense saved each month and how it makes a noticeable difference in the pocketbook not to mention the reduction in greenhouse gases one emits. I will make both of these issues plainly apparent in another page or two. Burning power each day all day without having to pay this expense spoils a person and makes them highly resistant to ever paying another electric bill again. A novel idea using the suns rays to actually power a home with all the necessary electricity needed for normal life is operationally no different than my friends who are attached to the national grid. Electric bills, gas bills, sewer bills, trash collection bills reduce the FREEDOM for most of us. I prefer to be FREE and self-reliant using renewable power resources, reducing my carbon footprint instead of increasing it, living more independently. I prefer greater self-sufficiency, and being more prepared for political or economic disruptions, natural disasters, or infrastructure breakdowns. Mankind was able to live for thousands of years without destroying his environment and yet in the last 200 years we have exploited the planet to a point of no return. We have reached a number of tipping points. Solar power enables and empowers us to recapture part of the legacy of the ancients.

Do we really need over 600 coal fired power plants, 104 nuclear power plants, and 493 natural gas plants in the United States? I am not using any of the electricity generated from any of these sources. I dont need them. All of my power is star power. Not insignificantly, my solar system contributes zero greenhouse gases to the environment! It is nearly 9pm now and dark for the last 3 hours. I have been on the computer and internet since early this morning as well as burning power for lights, television, refrigeration among other electrical expenditures and I still have a state of charge (SOC) of 96% in my battery bank.