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5 Mar ’12
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Where do you live? Electric heat will use a ton of power -- not easily or cheaply overcome with solar. Would you be open to using a wood stove for heat?
We had a washer and dryer, well pump, refrigerator, etc. all off-grid at our last house. Here is a walkthrough of our system. Keep in mind our place was built with efficiency in mind. Converting an existing house, with existing appliances, regular light bulbs, etc. will cost more time and money.
http://thehomesteadi.....wer-setup/
Feel free to ask any questions you have.
22 Aug ’15
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We live in central/eastern Colorado. So the setup you explained in the link you provided is what you had your former home running on?
22 Aug ’15
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Oh and to answer your question, yes we would be willing to use a wood stove for heat instead; we've actually been looking into that too - do you have any thoughts on wood vs. pellet stoves?
5 Mar ’12
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Yes, that was the setup for our former home. All LED bulbs, all energy star appliances, everything turned off at night, no electric heat and AC only when the sun was shining. AC and heat will be some of your biggest challenges as they use the most power. Oh, some propane/natural gas stoves use a glow bar when baking that uses a ton of power. Something to watch for.
Pellet stoves aren't very reliable, in my opinion. They use gears and flaps to move pellets around and these can get clogged, cause ash, etc. that needs to be cleaned up frequently... like every day. Our last house had an indoor wood stove that worked really well. Now we have an outdoor wood boiler that provides hot water for the house and leaves the wood and dirt outside.
22 Aug ’15
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I'm pretty sure our propane stove doesn't have a glow bar - I would be able to see it, right? We don't have AC and we'd be okay using a stove for heat. And if we HAD to, we could live without washer/dryer, and we could even get some indoor solar lights if need be. I think it's mainly the fridge We would most need enough power for. And our hot water heater.
Glad to know about the downsides to the pellet stove. Did you custom-build the home you're in now too? Sounds like you have a serious set-up. Would love to get to that point someday.
15 Feb ’12
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not a fan of pellet stoves myself for the same reasons pork stated and the fact that if the unit doesn't have a battery backup you can lose your heat during a power outage. Anyone else seen a huge spike in pellet prices this year? It's going so bad up here newsettler is going back to mainly oil for heat
15 Feb ’12
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looks like they are starting to install them in pilot homes
Tesla Motors confirmed to Electrek that the company is now installing the Powerwall, a new home energy storage system, for “pilot customers”:
“We are currently in production and have started installing Powerwalls with pilot customers. Over the next few weeks we will continue to ramp up volume production,” Tesla spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson said.
Tesla will initially only deliver the 7 kWh version of the Powerwall and the 10 kWh version will follow in “early 2016”.
The 7 kWh Powerwall cost $3,000 and is designed for daily cycling, while the 10 kWh version, which costs $3,500, has a different battery chemistry optimized for weekly cycling, making it more appropriate for backup power.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the production of stationary storage battery packs will shift from Tesla’s Fremont factory to the Gigafactory in Q1 2016, which presumably means the company is waiting for its new battery factory to be ready in order to start production on the 10 kWh Powerwalls in “early 2016”.
5 Mar ’12
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So is your water heater electric? If so, before doing anything with solar I would switch it to either a regular propane tank water heater or a propane tankless water heater. We used a tankless and it worked well for us.
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