It's Our One Year Anniversary On Building Our Off Grid Home

Options
nu2solar
nu2solar Solar Expert Posts: 28
I can't believe it has been a year since we broke ground on our property. There have been a lot of ups and downs and many learning lessons.

We built our home ourselves and my DH designed our solar system without any prior knowledge to solar systems. We have been living off our own electric for almost a year. It is great being so self sufficient.

If you want to see our story you can read all about it at:
http://www.city-data.com/forum...-east-tennessee.html


We are also in the middle of redesigning our solar set up. Here is the link that tells that story. It will be complete in next week's installment of my story.
http://www.city-data.com/forum...286.html#post9239286


Lisa

Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,439 admin
    Options
    Re: It's Our One Year Anniversary On Building Our Off Grid Home

    Congratulations Lisa!

    By the way--both links are broken (the "..." is in the real URL's too).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Options
    Re: It's Our One Year Anniversary On Building Our Off Grid Home

    great. doesn't time fly? i have popped over there on occasion to see what you guys have been up to. i hope all is still going well and no problems.
  • nu2solar
    nu2solar Solar Expert Posts: 28
    Options
    Re: It's Our One Year Anniversary On Building Our Off Grid Home

    Thanks all. I am having trouble with the links for some reason.

    Here is the link to our original story:
    http://www.city-data.com/forum/tennessee/359683-going-off-grid-east-tennessee.html


    Our new solar set up is on page 134.

    Lisa
  • stephendv
    stephendv Solar Expert Posts: 1,571 ✭✭
    Options
    Re: It's Our One Year Anniversary On Building Our Off Grid Home

    What a beautiful view! Regarding the solar panels, it looks like the top row overlaps and throws a shadow on the bottom row, do you see a big drop in power from this shadow?
  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Options
    Re: It's Our One Year Anniversary On Building Our Off Grid Home

    link to page 134

    http://www.city-data.com/forum/tennessee/359683-going-off-grid-east-tennessee-134.html
    Powerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
    || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
    || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

    solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
    gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister ,

  • vcallaway
    vcallaway Solar Expert Posts: 157 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Options
    Re: It's Our One Year Anniversary On Building Our Off Grid Home

    Thanks for posting that.

    You are doing exactly what my wife and I wish to do.
  • Slappy
    Slappy Solar Expert Posts: 251 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Options
    Re: It's Our One Year Anniversary On Building Our Off Grid Home

    nu2solar ya'll are both just one county from us, and that is very nice land down their, I have skimmed thru your blog; I have to say congratulations. You and your husband did a great job. If ya can try to keep every body updated? You both seem so determined, and ya'll got it done! Congrats again!:D
  • nu2solar
    nu2solar Solar Expert Posts: 28
    Options
    Re: It's Our One Year Anniversary On Building Our Off Grid Home
    stephendv wrote: »
    What a beautiful view! Regarding the solar panels, it looks like the top row overlaps and throws a shadow on the bottom row, do you see a big drop in power from this shadow?

    I think you are looking at one of our earlier set ups. We had that through the winter with no trouble. Now we put all 12 panels on top of a shipping containiner and moved our batteries. Go to page 134 for our new set up. We just moved that last week. We had both charge controllers fully charged today.