1) Welcome!

2) Off-Gridding today

3) Exhibit A: 9 Main Street

4) Where we are!

5) My Site

6) The Castle

7) Why this system works!

8) What it really looks like

9) The Batteries

10) The Solar Panels

11) Diesel Co-Gen

12) Human Power!

13) Incentive

14) The Inverter/Chargers

15) Staber Washer

16) Energy Guide

17) Spin-X Dryer

18) Sundanzer Refrigerator

19) Demand Water Heater

20) The Idea!

21) Water Tank relocation

22) The Big Questions

23) Low usage = Porking

24) Another Example

25) In Summary

Here's a very brief diagram of this off-grid system.

The yellow retired 1972 ChevyVan has six - 100 watt Siemens Solar Panels attached to its side. The panels are wired in parallel to provide 12 volts. Their output then goes directly into the house via welding cables.

The white retired Ford Ariel Bucket Van houses six - 100 watt panels, is wired the exact same way, and uses its boom as a portable wind tower! Talk about recycling!

Between the two vans, there is a total of 1200 watts of solar: But wait, there's more! There's an additional six - 100 watt panels on the side of an enclosed trailer. Now we're up to 1800 watts. Beyond that, there are two 110 watt Kyocera panels.

In ideal conditions, total wattage is 2020 @ 105 plus amps at 12 volts. Also keep in mind that each van has a 12 volt factory charging system (100 amp alternator). This enables each van to feed 12 volts to the house through the exact same welding cables as the solar panels.

If one were to re-read this page, you can see that already there are many sources of electricity here, and we haven't even touched the Diesel Generators or the bike yet!