I'm off the grid, here in the Sunset Valley. The homestead land is three and a half acres, stretching across the one side of the valley. The property came with a cabin. The cabin is a comfortable place for my family and I to stay, while we take our time building the house at the top of the valley. The cabin is well built with good insulation, energy efficient windows, and a wood burning stove. For electricity production, we have a Solar Power setup.
Current Cabin Setup:
960 watts of Solar Panels
60 amp Solar Charge Controller
800 amp hours of Battery Storage
2500 watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter
3000 watt Backup Gas Generator
70 amp 12 volt Battery Charger
The Solar Panels send energy to the Solar Charge Controller.
The Solar Charge Controller charges the Battery Array, or provides power directly to the Inverter.
I use car charging adapters to charge USB devices directly from the 12 volt Battery Array. A Pure Sine Wave Inverter is used to convert the energy from Batteries and/or Solar Charger into standard household alternating current outlets, which can then be used to power the fridge/freezer, the internet router, the washing machine, the xbox 360, etc.
If there are too many cloudy days and the batteries get low, I turn on the Gas Generator for a couple hours to fully charge the batteries.
With zero sunlight, and a full set of batteries, the fridge, and internet router (the essentials:) can run for about 24 hours.
In upcoming posts, i will go more in-depth into these separate parts, options, and strategies of a Solar Power system.
Have a great weekend!