Living off the Grid, Part II: Northern Exposure

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KT: I am planning to do that, but home wiring is a different animal altogether. The solar equipment I pieced together was designed to be pieced together. It was already UL listed and met the National Electric Code specifications, so following the instructions carefully meant a measure of safety. Home wiring is more complex. You can't just string wire to an outlet and plug things in. Certain outlets cannot be joined together in one breaker for instance, some must be joined together. The code is specific. And then there's the shock hazard. Twenty-four-volt DC current running from the panels to the batteries and then to the inverter carries a very low shock. Electricity coming out of the inverter though, is I20-volt AC, which is standard household current and can kill if mishandled. Unless you are qualified to handle home wiring, I'd bring in an electrician for a little while to handle the preliminary installation of the outlets.

MOTHER:Was there a moment during installation or during use when you experienced a real problem? Any days without power?

KT: I've had plenty of problems, but not with the power. Digging the well was a walking, talking nightmare because initially I thought I could tackle that one alone too. I found out quickly that my little well-drilling rig wasn't up to the job.

After about 200 feet, a broken back and no water, I had to hire a team with a professional rig to come over and finish it. They had to drill 340-feet down until they found sufficient water. The well was terrible, a low point. Building a house is always an adventure in problems, but the power hasn't been a bit of bother.

How Kip Did It

After assessing his electrical requirements, Kip settled on a solar system composed of a 600-watt array of photovoltaic panels (12 panels, each producing just under 50 watts), a battery bank with 880 amp-hours of storage at 24 volts, with 120-volt AC service to the house as well as 12-volt DC service for some other applications. He also wanted to utilize battery charging capabilities from a generator. The system's major components are:

12 Siemens 48-watt M75 PV modules
16 Trojan T 105 6-volt 220 amp-hour deep-cycle batteries
Ananda Powercenter III with a 200-amp main fuse disconnect, smartlight state of charge indicator and SM5 monitor.
Trace 2624 inverter with battery charging and LCD meters
Vanner voltmaster to change 24-volt battery power to 12volt DC service
Square "D" load center with 00 breakers to distribute the DC service Small square "D" Homeline load center and breakers to bring the AC power from the generator into the battery charger in the inverter
4KW/120-volt AC backup generator that supplies power to recharge the batteries during extended cloudy periods.

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