The bane of my existence! Can't wait till it's running...
I feel as though I’m loosing my mind! Setting up off grid energy when you are a laymen requires a lot of reading. Even getting cables to connect to the batteries takes quite a while of reading and pertinent forum research. Still all is coming together. Just got my Xantrex ProSine 2 inverter/charger and will soon be hooking it up. Solar coming up soon.
Continue reading “Simple clean soap” »
So as you know we’ve been living off-grid for almost a month now. The amount of information I’ve accrued is crazy. Set up some stuff, fixed some and broke some others. At this point the main goals are, reliable battery charging and internet. Blogging gets tricky when you are not online.
I’ll be back on track soon, till then it’ll be small posts from my phone.
About a year ago I wrote about a thermosiphoning passive solar water heater from Build It Solar.
Well, they have out done themselves. Now they show a design that will also track the sun as it travels from east to west. This increases it’s water heating capabilities by %30!
This video shows an “emergency” way to back feed your generator to your home electrical breaker panel. Not sure it’s safe, but it’s clever enough to entertain the thought.
There are many DIY projects on getting off grid energy. This one struck me as a good one to share and maybe make happen here on the land.
We’ve had many a good times together but , alas, my trooper of a car is on it’s waning hours.
Yae Olde 4Runner at Sequoia National Park
It’s hitting the 250,000 mark soon and sounding less like a well oiled machine and more like a tractor. Don’t get me wrong, I love this car, but it’s time to be realistic.
So in that vane, I’m looking at options. I’ve not settled on a car yet, but what I do know is that it will have this SVO conversion kit installed. I’ve mentioned my interest on a converted diesel bus before, but this is a much more attainable and logical goal… for now at least.
Living here on the land is very interesting to say the least. Interactions are a minimum of 15 minutes, and always very informative and sincere. A walk to get the laundry can take you half an hour on average.
On a walk of the perimeter the other day, I found two old solar panels laying in the trash a.k.a. storage pile. You can imagine with what speed I picked them up. Of course asking the pertinent people if I could use them. After consulting with my partner in DIY crime, Aaron (he donated some needed hardware), we set up a proof of concept solar system. It needs some refinement and the light is just a single 3 watt LED, but it’s a start. Best of all it cost me $0.
Continue reading “Let the sun shine in” »
This is our new heater/stove. We do have a gas oven for every day use, but this puppy heats up the whole house quite nicely and for free. I’ve been picking up non treated wood scraps and shipping palettes.
This is a design by Barbara Kerr, she is a solar oven pioneer. The design looks simple enough to build and best of all it’s accessible from inside your home.
Build it Solar brings it again! This might be common knowledge but, heat rises and cold falls. This is the action behind thermosiphoning.
The short and sweet of it is that you run some cold water through metal pipes that are being hit by the sun to heat it. You have a circulating system where water from the tank (it’s raised higher than the pipes) falls as it cools, there by flowing to the heating pipes. As this water heats from the sun, it rises to exit the pipes and ends up in the tank again, this time on the top. This leaves you with hotter water on top and colder water on the bottom, circulating and heating more and more.
If that explanation left your head spinning, then the link to this project should help.
I first heard of thermosiphoning thanks to Ampersand Project. I might be lucky enough to go there towards the end of the year and help with a retreat.
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