Off Grid Living – How to Make Solar Panels
With so many different resources today becoming nearly scarce, it’s essential that we do our part in trying to use less of our resources by living off grid. Turning to alternative resources can also help the situation. And when you’re talking about power and energy, there are many other alternative methods out there that we can rely on.
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Do you have an off-grid home in a cloudy, rainy climate? Would solar panels be worth it?
I've been doing a lot of research on places to live when I finish school, and I really think Oregon is the perfect place for me. Me and my boyfriend want to build an off-the-grid house. The thing is, he says we can't live in Oregon because it's not sunny enough, and if we relied on solar panels it wouldn't work out. Is there some other off-grid solution besides solar panels we could use as backup? I don't know much about wind turbines and how much they would cost. Does anyone living in a rainy, cloudy climate make much use of solar panels? Or should I move to a state that has more days of sunshine (I've been considering Colorado)? Suggestions? Thanks.
You can use batteries to store access energy during the time when you have enough sunlight. And I guess the idea is not necessarily to take yourself off-grid completely. You could sell you access energy through the grid, and then you could get the energy off the grid when your panels are not producing enough (which, of course, is not something you can do right now).
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There are a lot of off-grid houses in Oregon, and many sell their power back during the sunny days to balance the rest of the time. Just do a search on green houses in Oregon to find some of the projects listed. There are also cob houses in Coquille that are quite interesting. But at present. it costs more to get these off grid houses built than they recover. Most folks just starting out can't afford to do it.
I'm looking for ways and colaborators to take an existing house and pull it off the grid – affordably. Have lots of ideas, but little free time to play with doing them. Would love to share ideas.
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You will have a hard time making enough electricity to be off the grid and satisfy your needs. I live alone in a sunny area east of San Francisco, and am thrifty with use of electricity. My 6 kw system barely covers my electrical usage. I do heat with electricity, but still have a gas water heater.
Being off the grid is not necessarily a good thing. One has to have batteries to supply power when the system is not generating enough to keep up with the load. Batteries are expensive, and have to be replaced occasionally. Because of the inefficiencies in charging and discharging, they consume some power themselves.
Being on the grid in California, I can dump power into the grid when I am making more than I am using, and take it back when i am using more than I am making.
Before making any solar decisions, study as much as you can. Decisions are more or less permanent, and mistakes can be costly.
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