Woodstock after 10 years or so

[hoot]

This couple did a great video on repairing one

Off-Grid - Below Zero - Wood Stove is Broken | Whiskey n Sunshine Off Grid | NewsBreak Original

Off-Grid - Below Zero - Soapstone Wood Stove is Broken As usual, with things on this modern off-grid homestead that you rely on, things break. Our Woodstock Soapstone Wood Stove broke, the cast iron bypass cover cracked right through. It will not properly seal the way it is, so we ordered a new...

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[peakbagger]

They are probably looking at -30 F tonight if they are in valley, a bit warmer if they are up higher (they are a bit south and east of my place). Its good they had a backup. Its -10 F at my house at 7:45 PM with clear skies.

 

[snobuilder]

I'm not sure I understand the term "offgrid" I guess it means different things to different ppl. Different levels and such.

 

[Highbeam]

I'm not sure I understand the term "offgrid" I guess it means different things to different ppl. Different levels and such.

For sure. Wide range of what people feel is off grid.

 

[begreen]

I'm not sure I understand the term "offgrid" I guess it means different things to different ppl. Different levels and such.

Generally, it implies not being tied to any utility.

 

[Todd]

I hope he replaces that combustor pan and the cat with the giant hole in it or he may end up with even more problems.

 

[snobuilder]

I thought one of the advantages to solar and wind was the reverse meter sell back where your excess turns into cash. That obviously would mean having to be "hooked-up"

Of course there are some that are too far in the boonies to be hooked up to anything.

 

[Todd]

I thought one of the advantages to solar and wind was the reverse meter sell back where your excess turns into cash. That obviously would mean having to be "hooked-up"

Of course there are some that are too far in the boonies to be hooked up to anything.

You could say I’m in the boonies. It would of cost me 25k to get hooked up to the grid where I live. It was a no brainer for me to get a small solar system for a 1/3 of that cost.

 

[stoveliker]

I thought one of the advantages to solar and wind was the reverse meter sell back where your excess turns into cash. That obviously would mean having to be "hooked-up"

Of course there are some that are too far in the boonies to be hooked up to anything.

Also, if your local utility does not do net metering, there is not much advantage to "selling back". Net metering (have the meter dial backwards on a sunny day) does not exist everywhere .

 

[kennyp2339]

I guess it means different things to different ppl. Different levels and such.

I live on grid, my cat on the other hand thinks he's off grid because he eats dry food and I have to use a mechanical can opener to open wet food for him, he also sleeps in a cardboard box in the basement... his choice not mine.

 

[kennyp2339]

Also, if your local utility does not do net metering, there is not much advantage to "selling back". Net metering (have the meter dial backwards on a sunny day) does not exist everywhere .

Most states that have regular publicly traded power co's will have net meter options, where as most utiltiy co-op's dont offer net metering because it will cost them more money due to buying energy a year ahead of time in a bidding process, and in co-ops every customer is an owner.

 

[snobuilder]

I live on grid, my cat on the other hand thinks he's off grid because he eats dry food and I have to use a mechanical can opener to open wet food for him, he also sleeps in a cardboard box in the basement... his choice not mine.

Show it a picture of a mouse and throw it out the back door.

 

[kennyp2339]

You could say I’m in the boonies. It would of cost me 25k to get hooked up to the grid where I live. It was a no brainer for me to get a small solar system for a 1/3 of that cost.

A few years back I worked on a "project smart house" about 2500 sq ft colonial, from a leading co that makes batteries and electric cars
They took a house, removed the old roof and installed new shingles that were solar panels, installed a natural gas generator and install (2) car battery's in the garage, the idea was to use a "smart automatic transfer switch" and cycle the house under different tests from solar, battery, generator to utility power, they did certain things which made sense to gain the most money back from selling solar back to the grid, to turning off utility incoming power and running on battery only.
The part of the project that amazed me was the cutting off the power and running the house with all appliances on and seeing how far they could stretch the batteries to day light charge, the house ran in simulation for 4 days no issues, all hvac working, all refrigeration working, all lights working, I quietly learned that with the proper setup residential utilities are really not needed anymore for normal day to day kw loads.
As far as cost, retro would not be effective, but new cons in my opinion would be effective because you can design efficiency to square footage

 

[peakbagger]

I now have the capability to go off grid for extended periods by tying my solar trailer into the house with the flick of a few switches. Its got 25KWH of usable battery capability and stacked hybrid inverters. With its 2.5KW watts of panels and the 3 other arrays totaling 4.6KW with proper load management I could cover 9 months a year easily. It would be dicey December to February unless I wanted to run some diesel or add in a combination of another array and more batteries. Most off gridders go quite agressive on load management, if the sun is not out they only use a the bare minimum of power and wait for the next sunny day to do their chores that require power. One big plus is that the new Lithium batteries do not need to be equalized to the same extent that flooded lead acids do and most folks use a diesel or propane generator to equalize FLAsevery month or two as unless they have a very large array the PV just can not put out enough power for long enough.

BTW many "off the grid" folks do not count propane and diesel for the generator in their claim of an off grid lifestyle. Many beginner OTG folks under estimate this and end up having to get emergency deliveries for a few years until they figure it out (or hook up to the grid). To date there have been no viable homeowner size commercially available options for using wood to backup electric power. Many have tried, particularly with wood gas type units but the "devil is in the details" and there are lot of details with wood gas.

If I was starting from scratch, I would go with net zero or house designed to passive home specs. In either case power is not really needed to keep the house heated and cooled. Go with a small wood cook stove and there goes the cooking loads and incidental heating and the biggest remaining load is probably the well pump. There are low power well pump options they just cost more.

I do need to point out is that batteries do not last forever. At best my FLAs will last 12 years, Lithium chemistry batteries may last longer but they will loose capacity. The only "forever" batteries are potential Nickle Iron Edison type cells, but they impose significant operational limitations, guzzle distilled water on a frequent basis and the only currently available ones are made in China and seem to have a lot of durability issues. There is a hydrogen based battery announced for sale in Australia but its definitely not commercial.