We didn't run our heater once last year. We live in the Sacramento Valley and it gets into the low 30s and a couple nights high 20s at night. So, probably not as cold as some of you here

During the day doing things around the house you start to notice the cold on those REALLY cold days but overall I was fine, my lady noticed it a bit more.

It can be done around here though.

-TOdd

We had one winter where a day or two before Christmas we had ice rain, asn't quite cold enough higher up for snow so what came down was basically ice or nearly frozen water which froze when it landed on anything. It sounded like a war that night as trees and power lines were falling down. People had to bug out to hotels for as long as a week due to no power. I've moved to a suburb now and the power lines directly to my house are underground so its a bit better but were still without power in the area often.

Let's see, I've lived within 5 miles of where I do my entire life, and my parents lived there for 54 years - in those 54 years, the power has gone out 5 times, the longest for about 36 hours, most of them for less than 12

For some reason I'm not too worried. That said, when I rebuild the house next year, there is a real good chance I'm putting in a whole house genset, as I think the grid is getting worse - 3 of those 5 times are in the last 5 years

The local electrical power is very reliable. It’s never been off for more then a few hours and I can only remember it going down ½ doz times in my life. A few years the whole eastern seaboard had a blackout (that was caused by my local electric company) and while other places were without power for up to a few days, we were down less then 2-hrs.


I would still like to be grid free.

Solar water heater
Solar cooker(s)
Solar power by photovoltaic cells

12 volt LEDs, and appliances

Wind-power generator
Wind-powered pump(s)

Roof runoff water capture system
Gravity-fed water system

Lots of big batteries with inverters (and other things I don't quite understand).

Switches between you and the grid: sell only when you want, divert to your batteries when you do not.

Buried mass heat exchanger for HVAC

Why not add an electric vehicle and a sailboat?

But I assume you have some always ready, large capacity, deep cycle batteries for ARES or RACES work? I don't think I've ever met a ham involved in emcomm who wasn't (very) well prepared.

For those who just want to get into solar power and, in the long run, save money a grid tied system may be the way to go. Once the system is installed there is very little maintenance. About once a year you wash off the panels and the major mechanical and electrical connections should be inspected and tightened as needed but that is pretty much it.

A system with batteries is considerably more expensive and complicated. Batteries require regular maintenance and it isn't just adding batteries. The solar output has to be regulated to charge the batteries. And once charged there has to be a inverter to convert the DC power in the batteries into the AC most of your household appliances require. Last time I looked adding a large battery bank, charge controller, inverter and related equipment can double the cost of a simple grid-tie system.

The good news is that it is possible to get your foot in the door with a small grid-tie solar system and to add to it to get a very capable system. Once a full rack of solar panels is installed it is possible to take the monthly savings on the power bill and put it aside to let you buy a battery bank later. Effectively bootstrapping your way into a fully independent power system of your own.

A good way to start out with solar is to explore solar water heating first. This will give you a useable source of hot water and it’s inexpensive compared to photovoltaic cells.

And if you are mechanically inclined you can make a lot or even all of it yourself. You just have to make sure you incorporate a few safety items that a regular hot water system doesn’t need. Solar heat can far exceed the temperature limits of a normal water system. Pipes can break, hot water tanks can explode or vent extremely hot water with no notice.

But as long as you install safety devices it’s a great idea that pays for itself a lot quicker then solar electric panels.


Also look into solar air heaters for some free room heat. A solar air heater is about the size of a medium window and produces as much heat as a 1500-watt electric heater.

It needs a small electric fan to circulate air, but a very small solar panel and a computer fan can work for this. Making it 100% free heat.

I have just been a part of some research on turning a house onto solar power with the idea that he would run his home on sufficient solar so as to roll the meter back during the day and suck off the grid at night, when his demand for power was much lower.

He knew what his annual kilowatt hrs were and he supplied that to the distributors that he was talking to when discussing his needs.

After looking at the estimates that he received, I advised him to do the math-money wise.

When he did that math, he found a curious coincidence. He has been consistently quoted a lifetime of 28 years for the solar panels. The prices quoted were consistently HALF of his projected electrical costs for 28 years. In other words, the price quoted is based, not on actual costs, but what the distributors calculate will be half of his regular cost, no matter what hrs he was quoting. IMHO, this sounds like trying to buy a used car.

This sales tactic is designed to fool people into paying a much higher profit margin that what is reasonable and is significantly slowing the spread of personal homes from becoming power sufficient.

Now do the math in this regard and see what you are finding. Another item of interest: I am being told by some that the true lifespan of solar panels is anywhere from 15-28 years!! That can seriously change the outcome of the money side of "doing the math"!!

Grid power is in many ways wonderful, it’s probably more reliable then a home system if you take into account all the maintenance you have to do and things will break and power stops till YOU fix it (lay in a good supply of spare parts or you could be out of power till they get shipped to you or a good sized generator and fuel)

Grid power (from the customers viewpoint) is self repairing, it goes of (rarely) and then comes back on in short order. It’s also less expensive then any electricity you can make.


But I still would like to be off-grid.