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Forum Index : Solar : Are You Happy Off Grid?
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Revlac Guru  Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 961 |
For some people, Beside the Grid is still ok.  I was reading This "Do You Ever Regret Going Off Grid?" on https://diysolarforum.com/threads/do-you-ever-regret-going-off-grid.72299/#post-917801 Thought it might be interesting to ask a similar question here. So far I am more than happy to have moved to a a standalone system, much better quality of life and less stress.  Cheers Aaron Off The Grid |
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Murphy's friend Guru Joined: 04/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 583 |
My house is running off grid but I still have the grid connection available. The reason for that is that the local government gave me a lot of electricity cost credit and that will pay my connection fee for, possible, the next 10 years .If I get the grid connection removed I'd loose all that credit  . |
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| noneyabussiness Guru Joined: 31/07/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 506 |
wouldn't go back to grid if I had any say in it... more reliable, cheaper in the long run, and I don't have to worry about how much every appliance costs to run.. just turn it on.. I think it works !! |
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Clockmanfr Guru Joined: 23/10/2015 Location: FrancePosts: 427 |
Okay... but honestly, .... We here in Normandy, France have been off Grid and On Grid for getting on 20 years. All distribution circuits have main Change over switches and we do not back supply to the Grid utilities, and even if we did the law states only 3kw. We kept the 9kw Grid connection as rental for the connection is low and the supplier can do a very cheap rate at night. Also the Grid does mean that we don’t have a large standby generator with all the initial costs and maintenance and fuel required for those emergency situations. Off Grid we have 30kw PV and 3 off 3.7m dia wind turbines, and in the winter when the sun is grim for days, the turbines keep the 1300ah 48v batteries charged. We have 12 buildings here, small farm, with 4 Gites, (independent houses) stables sheep barns, salt swimming pool etc etc. However, keeping the On Grid connection does mean that we can cope with ordinary public folk who visit and take time understanding about their 5kw 230vac supply for each Gite. I have decided to retire to another country and sell up here in France, but sadly the French do not get Off Grid or RE systems, yea they talk allot and puff about, but are not willing to learn. So having the On Grid connection means we do not suffer from stupid people when it comes to house purchase folk. We are offering all the RE as is, if the buyer wants. Its mostly my stuff and very costeffective and our sunk costs are very low. And i will offer support for a few months, if they want it. Our Off Grid system is 24/7 and needs management, and that is difficult to teach the death and stupid. My new place will be in the wilds but a heck of allot smaller for my age, loads of RE stuff so i can continue my RD etc, the modern version of the PLANTE battery etc. Everything is possible, just give me time. 3 HughP's 3.7m Wind T's (14 years). 5kW PV on 3 Trackers, (10 yrs). 21kW PV AC coupled SH GTI's. OzInverter created Grid. 1300ah 48v. |
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| Godoh Guru Joined: 26/09/2020 Location: AustraliaPosts: 378 |
I have been off grid now for 46 years. I had one house in that time that I lived in for a year that was grid connected. The rest of the time my places were Off grid. No connection at all. The current house I live in had grid connection when we bought it, I quickly installed an off grid supply and got the grid connection abolished. I cut the poles down too and used them for gate posts. I have has systems ranging from a car battery to supply lighting , to now having 6kw of panels and 660 amp hour 24 volt batteries. No generator backup. I love it and would not go back to being connected to the unreliable (in Tasmania) grid power. For many years I have looked down on small villages that were in blackouts and wondered why they did not have backup systems. For me it is about being responsible for myself, and I love being totally off grid,' pete |
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| nickskethisniks Guru Joined: 17/10/2017 Location: BelgiumPosts: 411 |
Difficult question It was summer 2018 when I put up my first solar panels (about 11kWp) at my private house. First year with a grid connection and since then without, I now have a backup generator. Started with a small scheppach 2000W generator and now owning a hyundai hy3200 (still toys actually), in a somewhat isolated cabin wich I can turn from inside the house. I can't say they run flawlessly, the scheppach needs investigation, it won't run continuously anymore. The hyundai is decent but I just had 2 weeks troubles with the hyundai because of a bad fuell on/off switch, last year I had a stuck exhaust valve. But I'm not an expert with InternalCombustionEngines. I should have gone straight to a decent diesel (with wkk) and do proper maintenance from the beginning. I have a combination of maintanance free lead accids(300Ah) and lifepo4 battery's (400Ah permanent 400Ah for experiments), 48V system. Everything is DIY (with great forum contribution) but not on the 100% finished level that I want, and sure not kids friendly. Last 2 years I did great things professionally but that made me do very little on my system and completely ruined my health and motivation/energylevel. If the sun is out for 8-9 months/year I'm very happy, it gives an amazing feeling knowing everything in the house is working only with the power of the sun. I have also a collector making hot water. For 5 years now I never had a power down, except for implementing modifications. The system doesn't need a lot of maintenance, just the generator. For the batteries, need to make sure they stay charged so manual activating the generator (this could be automated, another project...). And, don't use all appliances at once but better to spread the load as much as possible. But for example, I can't say I'm living without stress if I'm away for 3 weeks, I work in power electronics and I have seen the results of spectacular blow ups. Not all cause I fire but that is my greatest concern. My system is currently located in the basement... When I installed my system I was 30, now I'm 35 and have 2 small kids... I'm not the same fearless guy I once was anymore. Since I've constructed my house, they've build 2 new houses near me and I'm not feeling that comfortable as 5 years ago when I turn on my generator or throw another log in my nice wood stove(where I completely heat my house with also sanitary water). Damn eco movement... It's not that I live in the city but I do have neighbors left and right within 20 meters. Winter is coming now where I live, and we do not have a lot of sun in this part of Europe, so the generator needs to be put on. You can still hear it inside the house because the cabin is placed on the other side of the wall. I always need to think ahead if we have guests, I don't want it to be running. And it would be silly to plug in a power cord at the neighbors no? So when the generator fails... I think I'm living in constant stress if I read the above again :p We also go in "winter modus" where we use the dishwasher less, or towels are not going in to the dryer etc. It's because I'm considering it somewhat as a hobby, If I look at myself I'm still that little inventor I was when I was like 4-5years old. It's a great platform to experiment with and to keep learning. So in a final attempt to stay off grid (I serious consider a grid connection, it's not that expensive and at this moment pretty reliable, but in the future with all those electrical cars, heatpumps, closing nuclear plants, importing only energy...), and a total financial stupid idea, I purchased another pallet of solar panels to occupy every bit of roof or place to fill with solar panels. So that in theory I have enough energy to go thru winter. I'm now having trouble to put everything up and running because of the bad weather, so I already failed in my attempt to use the generator as little as possible. Also I didn't finalize how I would "manage" the system, I'm still in doubt how for example I transfer the energy (parallel/series, etc) from the solar panels to the battery. 30kWp is a lot of potential power to handle Edited 2023-11-19 07:01 by nickskethisniks |
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| mab1 Senior Member  Joined: 10/02/2015 Location: United KingdomPosts: 152 |
It's a good question:) When i moved here the grid was largely coal but moving to gas, and renewables were a small contribution, and whilst grid-connected pv offered a feed in tariff, and i do have a grid connection, i decided that i would go down the stand-alone off grid system, which would be 100% renewables (part of the reason i chose this property is because it had hydro-electric potential, which dovetails nicely with seasonal pv output). having moved from a boat where i had already been practicing maximising the use of my small, expensive pv panel, i already knew the basics of living with a limited energy budget. If i were moving in now i might have opted for a grid connected sysyem, as there are now plenty of off-the-shelf battery / hybrid inverter systems to choose from, and whilst there is red tape, the uk grid is much more amenable to individuals having their own pv/battery system connected/backfeeding than some other countries. On the other hand, if the uk keep pushing up the standing charge for a connection i may tell them to take it away. |
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| bigrock Newbie  Joined: 14/01/2024 Location: CanadaPosts: 3 |
Yes, I'm happy off grid and don't plan on ever going back. I'll use this thread to introduce myself around here. We are a family of 5, off grid since 2015 in Saskatchewan, Canada. Started with 3kw solar and 10kwh usable (L16 surrette rolls) lead acid. Added a homebuilt 13' diameter wind turbine in 2018 and added 2.4kw more solar this year. We also upgraded our batteries to 40kwh usable (2v 920ah Tubular Fla) this winter. We built our house ourselves and it is super insulated and airtight. R60 walls r80 attic 8" rigid foam all the way around the foundation. The grid is only a 2 minute walk away. 300m or so. It was going to be $15000 to connect and thats how I ended up being off grid. We had a bad ice storm last year and the grid was down for a week. We've never really had a proper outage off grid. |
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Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1209 |
Yea for me back in 2001 I was living in my 39K house I bought in Pt Hedland WA and instead of going down the pub everyday I sat in the cool at home and did research. Saw SA going going to sell the grid so had a look around around the world to find the best and worst case of doing this. Well there was no best case and prices for the grid went from stable to lets make a profit where we can for big business and the sheeple were just stuck with paying the price. Back in the our friends asked what your off the grid do you live in a cave  these days when the weather moves the same friends didn't like us calling and asking how their dark cave was So my decision was made and 2 years later when we sold up and moved back to SA it took about 8 months to find this farm. 85 acres, 3 dams one spring fed and the cost to get a 10 amp grid connection 80K to the corner boundary. So for me it was a no brainer to live off the grid. Had a 15KVA 3 phase genset that ran on gas for my shed and we spent 17K for our solar/battery array in '04. Well the dry cell 600AH batteries last 10 years so I got a free 600AH forklift battery which is still powering our house today. For my shed where I have my own machineshop I just setup VFD's on each machine and programmed each VFD to get the best out of the three phase motors. Now that 3Kw Kipoint inverter I got custom made back in '05 is still going today as well as the SA32 Selectronic inverter for the house and our 80 amp Staff & Stanbury solid state battery charger is still kicking and has gone thru a few gensets to date. Honestly this forum over the years has helped many of us learn to just make our own gear which run better and just plain work then if something goes wrong well we just fix it don't we. Cheers Bryan |
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