When you think of living off grid, most people have visions of living in a recreational vehicle with 12-volt lights, propane fridges and a generator running every night.
Far from it, a home set up for living off grid is just like any other home you have lived in: it is generally new, modern, well insulated, has the best windows available and the latest in lighting.
The fridge, clothes dryer, and hot water heater are all gas, and the appliances are all energy star rated.
Living off grid is very interesting, if amazing technology is something that intrigues you.
The system is designed to provide power no matter the time of year or weather conditions.
The only slight problem, and it is being addressed in another column, is the storage of all that free energy from those sunny, windy days.
Days with a good breeze and clear skies are days where all your household chores are done with no worries of the generator having to start, the batteries are fully charged and there is still abundant power for anything of an electrical nature.
When the batteries are full, then all the equipment steps down to standby and the breeze and sunshine continue on unharnessed.
A typical day would involve a check of the power equipment.
Specifically, the voltage of the battery bank, how much energy is the solar array producing, how much energy is the wind turbine producing, how much is being consumed?
These checks take seconds and remote displays are available for mounting in a very convenient location that allows monitoring from the wall in the kitchen or your office.
Energy tracking software is available for most of the wind turbines and solar arrays, and some use online data collection so you can track the system even when you are far from home.
With the system checked, you may notice that your consumption is up from the normal level.
Septic pumps are notorious for floats sticking and if there is one piece of equipment that is a greedy consumer of energy, it would be the single phase electrical motor.
Water well pumps, septic pumps and basement sump pumps all have to run at times but if the float sticks, then they obviously consume more power than they should.
But like the lawn mowing and the snow plowing, inherent in acreage living, checking your water, septic and sump pumps is simply normal maintenance.
The beauty of the off grid system is that it alerts you to errant equipment by tracking daily power consumption.
Like a pilot watching the skies to determine the weather developing for his flight, the off-grid homeowner watches the forecast looking for clear skies and constant breezes.
There is something very fulfilling in being able to rely on one’s self for all your energy needs, and knowing that you are not adding to the world’s problems, but in your own way doing something for the betterment of the world.
Lorne Oja is an energy consultant, power engineer and a partner in a company that installs solar panels, wind turbines and energy control products in Central Alberta.
He built his first off-grid home in 2003 and is in the planning stage for his second.
His column appears every second Friday in the Advocate. Contact him at: lorne@solartechnical.ca