Off the Grid Power Solutions

Determining Your Off-Grid Power Needs and Options

• Going "off-the-grid" requires a homeowner to make several crucial decisions regarding power usage and power generation. Assessing what methods of power generation are appropriate for your own situation requires looking for alternate ways to accomplish the ends for which you use electricity and to what natural sources of power exist on your property.

  To begin, you must answer such questions as whether you will need to heat or cool your home. In addition, you must look at how much sun, wind and running water are on your property. Many homeowners will reduce their power consumption by using passive solar heating of air or water . In addition, basic home improvements -- including the addition of skylights to release heat in the summer, adding insulation or improving the quality of your windows to reduce heat transfer -- can all reduce the load required for power generation in your home.

Solar Options

• Solar power options can be broadly categorized into passive and photovoltaic systems. Passive systems may include the addition of windows that collect heat, heat collectors that function as window boxes or radiators or water-heating systems that use solar collectors to heat up large bodies of water -- thus reducing or eliminating the need for a gas or electric water heater.

  You also have the option of placing photovoltaic collectors on your property, especially if your location receives a lot of direct sunlight. A PV collector is a classic "solar cell" that converts the rays of the sun into electricity instead of heat. Stand-alone pole mounts or roof mounts remain the two most popular methods of securing these collectors.

Wind Options

• Using wind to create electricity is a very attractive option if you have a property suited for this type of collector. Wind can be very constant and the wind turbines tend to be efficient. However, fewer properties are better suited for a wind collector than solar collectors.

  Before deciding to invest in a wind turbine, a homeowner should consider the cost of a wind collector, the area it will take up and how high it will need to be mounted for efficient wind collection. In addition, wind turbines will only produce electricity when the wind is over a certain speed, referred to as the "cut-in speed." Thus, before deciding to rely on wind as a primary form of power, it is important to measure the wind in different areas of the property, at different elevations, and consider what turbines have a cut-in speed that matches the typical wind pattern on your property. Bear in mind when testing for a good location that the wind is typically best at least 30 feet above obstructions, such as the house or trees.

Energy Storage

• A critical aspect of off-grid living is knowing how you will store the energy you create. For example, if you live in a desert and have chosen to rely primarily on solar power, you will need a backup for the rare rainy day. Most people living off the grid will use either a gas-powered generator for auxiliary power or a large installation of deep-cell batteries to store excess power for when it's needed. If you choose to use batteries, you have the advantage of continuing to produce no atmospheric emissions. However, the batteries required for storing energy from on-site turbines are expensive and require a sheltered installation with extra components including a disconnect.

The Power Inverter

• While power consumption can be reduced using passive means, most homeowners looking to produce power at home are not interested in giving up electricity entirely but rather to produce electricity at home.

  Green power generators such as wind turbines and solar cells produce direct currents while home appliances operate using alternating currents. Use a power inverter to transform the DC power to AC power. Be careful to use well-crafted components; imperfect AC signals arising from a low-quality inverter can burn out appliances or cause them to malfunction.