The First Step Toward Off Grid Living
Off grid living is becoming more appealing to many people as the cost of energy continues to rise. It is now entirely possible to disconnect from the power grid and make all of your own energy. Many people are producing their own power with solar panels or wind turbines and accommodate all of their power needs, if their system is correctly sized. You can take at least your first step towards off grid living by producing some of your own power.
First, let’s discuss solar power. For supplying electricity to houses, solar panels are a great option all around the globe and even in remote or harsh areas. The only thing you need is some hardware and lots of sun. If you’d like to build your own solar panel, the best guide I’ve found is GreenDIYEnergy. A solar power system can be as small or big as you want and can also be made portable if you are mobile. Solar panels need very little maintenance, are tough and will last 20 or more years if taken care of.
Some number of solar panels wired together are primary part of any solar power system. In order to produce maximum power, solar panels in the northern hemisphere should be pointed due south. With older solar panels, it was more important that they point directly at the sun and many solar power systems used motors to rotate the panels so they always pointed directly at the sun, however with more modern panels this is less important.With more modern solar panels, it is less important that they point directly at the sun, but older solar power systems often had motors to rotate the panels as the sun moved across the sky. As long as modern solar panels are pointed directly south and are at the right vertical angle, stationary panels will work just fine. For another good guide to building a your own solar panel visit Build your own Solar Panel.
Solar cells produce DC electricity which can be used to charge batteries or provide power to any device than uses DC electricity. Using batteries allows for storing electricity to be used when the sun isn’t shining.
In order to provide power to standard AC appliances, you will need to use a power inverter. A power inverter can be used to do the DC to AC conversion on power coming from either the solar panels or from batteries.
Another way to generate power to enable you to live off grid is with a wind turbine. Wind turbines can be mounted on a tower, a pole or sometimes even the roof of your house. They are very efficient and fairly small. Wind turbine can generate power at night, which is an advantage over solar panels. As long as the wind is blowing, a wind turbine can produce electricity. For information about making a diy wind generator, check out Earth4Energy Review
It is possible to combine both solar panels and a wind generator in one system. You can use the same power inverter and batteries with both solar and wind and this setup can give you the best of both worlds. If it is sunny and calm, the solar panels will provide most of the power and if it overcast and windy or at night the wind turbine will take over.
Using either or both of these systems can provide enough electricity to enable you to pull the plug and start living off grid. It can be your first step towards fulfilling your dream of living completely off grid.
