by matt walker » Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:18 pm
Great thread Firgela. I design electrical systems for boats for a living, sitting here right now refining a CAD schematic package for a boat that has three AC sources, and three DC sources. 5 different voltage systems on board. Due to that, I do have some alternative energy sources here at the house that I've picked up along the way, uninstalling from boats as I put in new systems and so on. I'm lucky in that some of the expensive bits and bobs are stacking up in my shop, inverters, big cables, batteries, etc. This summer in my barn I cobbled together a solar package that includes a 50w panel, charge controller, 600 amp hour battery bank, and small inverter. I use it to run the stereo and lights in the barn when I'm puttering around down there, and I can hear the stereo in the garden too, which is great.
That said, I moved into a finished house, so I'm on the grid. I often wish I could start from scratch, as I'd do things very differently. Tiny house, alternative energy sources, etc. As it is, this house is pretty energy hungry, so I don't see myself getting this thing off grid anytime soon. I do have parallel systems set up for power outages, which happen all the time here. I usually spend a couple weeks a year without power. My water is gravity fed, so that's easy. Lighting I have some battery powered LEDs and a battery charger I can run off the solar panel, done. I heat the house solely with wood, and when the power is out I keep a big pot on the stove and have a few gallons of hot water available at any time. So, while I'm not off grid, I don't miss it much when it goes down. I have DSL for internet, so as long as the phone lines are up, I hook the modem and computer up to an inverter and run that off either the charged batteries from the barn or I have also just tapped into the tractor battery and let that little diesel idle along generating power for me.
I do have plans to install micro hydro at some point. I've done some research, and I don't have enough volume to create a lot of power, but again, I have enough batteries collected that I could charge up a large bank and use it for times when the grid is down, and run some lighting in my shop and stuff. I've got about 100' of head and maybe 10 GPM, so I could do a little something. More than anything, I just love tinkering with this stuff, so I've definitely got some more alternative energy systems in my future.