running off batteries in the alaska winters

Re: running off batteries in the alaska winters

The only way you can charge your batteries is with either fossil fuel or renewable energy...

The stove, pump, and fridge--you can run off of propane... In the dark, unless you have something real special (geothermal or something else), you are pretty much limited to water turbine or wind turbine...

Since you need a water pump--I am guessing you don't have a lake/fast flowing stream around your place (assuming it can even flow in your winter)...

So, your last choice would be a wind turbine.

There are no really reliable small (home sized) wind turbines out there--anything you get will probably need lots of work to keep running. If you can, a tilt tower will save you costs renting a crane.

But, a wind turbine will only work if you have quite a bit of wind... You might check around your area and see what others have done for power (and what brand/models of wind turbines they may be using).

However, before you start designing/building your system, you need to know how much electricity you will want--will it power a small AM radio and a few LED lights--or are you trying to keep a 60 watt laptop computer up and running 24x7... The larger the power requirements, the more costly the system to build and keep running.

You may end up, at least during winter, not finding any really good RE solutions... If so, then you may fall back to using a generator and battery system--sort of like a Hybrid Car... The generator runs at "full load" to charge the battery and run larger appliances (i.e., vacuum cleaner, water pump, coffee maker, microwave, power tools) during the morning/day and use the batteries to power a few lights, TV, radio, etc....

This can end up being much more fuel efficient--Generally the problem with large generators is that they are fuel efficient at 50% or more load, and when power small loads (especially below 25% load), the generator is still consuming the same amount of fuel as if it was powering a 50% load...

I don't live in a cold climate where a simple equipment failure could end up killing you--so I would hesitate telling what will work for you in your climate...

There are others here with a lot of experience in cold climates.

But, if you can swing a small generator like a Honda eu1000i or eu2000i (900 watt or 1,600 watt), they are very fuel efficient at low loads... You can live with the small power output, and set them to ECO (economy) throttle, the engines can slow down when there is not much load (these are electronic inverter generators--so very good for electronics and motors).

Use them to charge your battery and run the larger loads during the day and run a battery/inverter at evening/night.

And as you probably know, lead acid batteries, when fully charged, can withstand very cold temperatures, but as they discharge, the temperature at which the will freeze rises... So--keeping the batteries warm (and vented because of hydrogen gas production) will be important too...

My other concern is your "bus house"--will you be able to make it insulated enough to be livable (and affordable with fuel costs)?

-Bill