The First Step Toward Off Grid Living

Posted by Author on April 9, 2010

The rising cost of energy is making more people think about off grid living every day. It is now very possible to disconnect from the power grid and make all of your own energy. If you size the system appropriately, you can use solar panels or wind turbines to produce all of your own power. This can allow you to take your first step towards a full off grid living livestyle.

Let’s start by talking about solar power. Solar panels are a great option for supplying power to many homes and can work in all parts of the world, even in remote areas or places with a harsh environment. Some hardware and plenty of sun are the only requirements. If you’d like to build your own solar panel, the best guide I’ve found is  GreenDIYEnergy.   You can put together a solar power system that is as large or small as required and it can even be portable if your living arrangements are mobile. Solar panels are tough, require very little maintenance and can last up to 20 years if properly cared for.

A basic system includes some number of solar panels which are wired together. Solar panels in the northern hemisphere should be facing directly south for the highest power output. 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.  Another great resource for how to build a solar panel is  Build a Solar Panel.

Since solar cells produce Direct Current (DC), the electricity produced by solar cells can be used to power any DC appliance or to charge batteries. 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. Modern wind turbines are fairly small and very efficient and can be mounted on a tower, a pole or in some cases even the roof of your house. 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, visit  Earth 4 Energy

It is possible to combine both solar panels and a wind generator in one system. This can give the best of both worlds and the same batteries and power inverter can be used with both. 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. They will let you take your first step towards completely pulling the plug.