Alternative Energy

Programming Your "Favs" in Your Magnum ME-ARC

Marc describes the process of saving your most frequently viewed information to your Magnum ME-ARC so you can access this information more quickly. Learn how to easily view items such as State of Charge, Amp hours in & out, and AC load Amps of your RE system.

Watering and Cleaning your Off-Grid Batteries

Whether you are living off-grid or have a grid-tied battery back up system, it is important to maintain your batteries. Marc explains how to water and clean your batteries and why this is important for optimum life of your battery bank. For more information on battery types, selection and tips, visit our online store http://www.offgridsolutions.us/battery-facts/

Our Off-Grid REvolution

Our dream all along has been to be independent from the utility, to be as self-sufficient as possible and live in balance with Mother Nature. So here it is; our humble story of how we finally began our off-grid life. The term "off-grid" can mean so many different things, but for the purposes of this article, I am referring to the creation of our own energy.

Whether you are off-grid or grid-connected, it is a good idea to know what your electrical consumption is. Our average before installing solar was around 225 kWh (kilowatt hours) per month. A kilowatt hour is a unit of energy. Your electrical company bills you based on how much energy you use, and therefore, how much money you owe them, unless of course, you are off-grid.

We live a pretty simple life. We heat with wood and cook most meals with either propane (in the summer) or wood (in the winter). Yes, we have a few acres of land, but by no means do we have extra money to throw away on trivial things.

Setup of our first four panels

So, where did we start? We didn’t have the cash for a major purchase of an entire off-grid package upfront. So, we decided to take baby steps. Our first purchase was the solar modules. With solar panel prices dropping dramatically in the past few years, we were able to find six 200 watt panels for 1.00 per watt…$200 per panel. Batteries were the next major purchase. We bought 8 Trojan (T-105) batteries which cost us $900 in early 2012.  We had a nice used wooden box which Marc, with a few modifications (like Styrofoam insulation) turned into a battery box. A few months later we were able to purchase a Midnite Solar Classic 250 charge controller ($800).

Inverter, Panel and Charge Controller

The final “big” purchase was an inverter/charger. We decided to go with a Magnum PAE4448, a 48 volt inverter, and purchased that at the end of 2012 for $1900.00. Finally, we had all our major components out of the way and were able to begin to piece them together. We mounted our solar panels (4 to start) on Zilla rack and made our own pedestal out of old lumber we had on hand. We are able to move them around if needed. Nothing fancy, but it works. It did flip over once in a big gust of wind (with no broken panels), but we had not had it anchored down as we do now and since then it has held up to 60+ mile per hour winds, not to mention the golf-ball sized hail that came along with it.  Not bad, huh?

Homemade Solar Cooker

We did the trenching, laid conduit and pulled wire ourselves. Marc made the final connections and finally we were at a place where we could be off-grid or connected to the grid with a flip of a switch. With only four 200 watt  panels (800 total watts) we could completely be off-grid during sunny days. We could run most of our appliances, our refrigerator, freezer, lights, computer, TV, and pump some water. We could not, however, run all of these things and run our swamp cooler as well. We also did not have enough power to heat our water. So we had to be inventive, doing most of our activities when it was sunny, switching off our swamp cooler when we had to use an appliance that drew too many amps, or turning down the fridge/freezer. It’s kind of fun trying to live with what Nature throws our way. I also learned how to cook with a homemade (cheap!) solar cooker. On a really sunny day it can get up to 200 – 250 degrees…great for rice, baked potatoes, soups and stews. More on that later.

Final Array with six modules

Last summer we added another two panels. So six solar panels later our average kW usage is around 100 per month. We are able to be off-grid most days and a majority of nights too, as long as we turn our refrigerator and freezer to “low”. We still don’t create enough juice to heat water, though. Heating water is definitely our biggest energy draw on the homestead. Eventually, we will be working on a solar hot water set up and, once we have our “homebrew” turbine up, heating water shouldn’t be an issue...on most days anyway.

So while it has taken us a couple of years to get this far, we are still not totally off-the-grid...but there's nothing wrong with baby steps!