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We've lived off-grid. Propane refrigerator and stove. Wood furnace. Solar panel and batteries for lights, charging cell phones, etc. Small generator for vacuuming, wash machine, pump water into tank.
Not hard to set up and way less than $30K. Though I imagine for $30K one could set up a heck of a solar/wind generator system.
It's really not a big deal. During the winter, you load up the furnace once a day and set the thermostat. If it is cloudy and dark for days, you run the generator for an hour and charge the batteries.
We set this up thirty years ago in what is now our second home. We spend weeks at a time there without feeling deprived.
Only difference is the time and energy involved in getting seasoned wood for the wood furnace, hauling in propane tanks and gas for the generator.
We are thinking about updating the solar system. A lot has changed in thirty years.
Thank you. Lots of good info. Yeah, we cut our own firewood each year too and will continue to do so.
I messaged the moderator to move your thread to the Frugal Living Forum- perhaps you'll have more favorable responses there.
I just visited frugal living. The first thread was written by a person who calls him or herself "living in my car". The post was about living in a tent, car, or van. We are building a HOUSE. Frugal living? I wish. Reread my post. I'm deciding between building an on-grid or off-grid HOME.
Last edited by Withinpines; 11-18-2019 at 11:49 PM..
If we were setting up off grid these days, I would look into geothermal and have an underground system for air intake set up while we were having the septic and drainage system dug out.
Nice. We decided not to install ductwork or radiant in-floor heat. There's a small potential for radon beneath the
build site. We'll build a solid concrete slab.
Seriously though, we have an off grid house that we use on weekends for an escape. Unless you plan to spend a lot of $$ on the solar system it sounds as though you aren't willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do the 'off-grid lifestyle'.......
Why does it sound as though I'm not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to "do" the off-grid lifestyle? Because the stalker's disgusted I weighed the pros and cons of heating types in a former post? Or because he's also disgusted my kids play video games?
I wanted to mention that a wind turbine is REALLY noisy. I wouldn't want one. It's a really loud WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH whenever it's windy. It would drive me completely batty.
Nice. We decided not to install ductwork or radiant in-floor heat. There's a small potential for radon beneath the
build site. We'll build a solid concrete slab.
A solid concrete slab is ideal for hydroponic radiant heating which utilizes the thermal mass of the slab itself to assist in retaining and modulating the heat. It also gives you the ability to heat the water with any fuel you choose or set it up for a changeable variety of fuels.
That's just one example, there are many choices available among the manifolds, for example between the made up copper shown in the video and factory made copper or stainless or cast brass. A professional should do the calculations and match to the heat source(s) but there's plenty of monkey work for a do it yourselfer to save some money.
This magazine was the bible. https://www.homepower.com/ Sadly, it went out of business last year. The changes in the publication over the years were astounding. For the archive to be free is a true "public service."
Thank you. This magazine has so much useful information. I'm sending the link to my husband. This is the stuff he spends hours researching. He'll really enjoy it. Thanks again.
Last edited by Withinpines; 11-19-2019 at 03:10 AM..
A solid concrete slab is ideal for hydroponic radiant heating which utilizes the thermal mass of the slab itself to assist in modulating the heat. It also gives you the ability to heat the water with any fuel you choose or set it up for a changeable variety of fuels.
Thank you. It's a great idea. We're concerned about leaks using radiant in-floor heat. And don't want ductwork using an hvac. We plan on using ductless heat pumps and both wood and pellet stoves, no matter the electricity source. Considering just bringing electricity in at this point. Then adding turbines, solar panels etc later. It's not about cost. We have friends in California without power, it's crazy. Other friends in Napa are using Tesla wall chargers to power their homes.
Last edited by Withinpines; 11-19-2019 at 02:56 AM..
Thank you. It's a great idea. We're concerned about leaks using radiant in-floor heat. And don't want ductwork. My husband's looking into using piped hot air (sealed system) if it even exists...
The original Levittown houses built in the late 1940's had radiant heat in their slabs which was done with copper tubing to the standards of the day. Today's copper would be less susceptible to corrosion and PEX is many times less prone to leakage. It was extremely rare for those Levittown houses to develop any problems in less than forty or fifty years. Most were then simply converted to baseboard heating units but other remedies now exist.
Wow, National Geographic would not let me read the article unless I gave them my email address. Not. Normally, you can click an X and make that go away, but nope. Totally held me hostage.
Would have loved to read it, too.
I love the idea of having heating in floors. When I looked into those types of systems, though, what made me nervous was the idea of having to rip up the entire floor and move furniture, etc., if it malfunctioned.
But, they didn't seem to require a lot of power. Seemed really doable off-grid.
The leaks concern us too. Using propane is nice for in-floor heat. We've chosen ductless mini heat pumps which require electricity.
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