Particular Loads & express Solutions When it comes to making load choices, off-grid folks without deep pockets always concentrate on potency. Heres some specific guidance on common appliances, drawn from my thirty years of off-grid living experience.
Chiller / fridge : Set your sights on extreme energy efficiency here, since this is frequently the largest electrical load in an off the grid home. Fridges and freezers cycle on and off continuously, and need to run regardless of sun and windyou cant flex your use to accommodate the adaptations in weather. Using specialty DC appliances may be a good choice in a number of cases, and getting correct numbers on energy use
before you buy any refrigeration equipment is the best idea. Gear up to spend more up front for better overall savings over the long run. 1 ultraefficient refrigerator is available too in an AC configuration for roughly the same cost.
Lighting : Off-grid homes of reasonable design have no incandescent lights. Compact fluorescent lights ( CFL ) and LEDs predominate. Try a spread of CFL and LED options, since quality, colour rendition, and light output varies.
clothing washing / drying : Horizontal-axis ( generally frontloading ) machines use less electrical power ( and less water, requiring less water heating and pump operation ) than top-loading vertical-axis machines. Check your machine for phantom loads and use a timer or switch when necessary. Off-grid homes will rarely use an electrical dryer, and if solar electricity ( a clothesline ) cant be used, a propane dryer is a choice.
Motor loads : In the old days, engineers switched most of the woodshop motors to DC, a clever decision in those days of ineffectual inverters. Today, it is smart to pick prime quality, infrequently variable-speed AC motors ; whether for pool pumps, heat-pump motors, shop tools, oranything else that is motor-driven. The base line is found with your watt meter, which should tell you how much energy is being used.
Computing / office electronics : A single word gives you the center of the advice herelaptops. These often use half or less what a desktop machine uses, and they also incorporate a battery, so in times of really low replaceable input, you can still use your PC for awhile. Peripheralsprinters,
Routers, modems, backup drives, scanners, etc.often are phantom loads, so put them on individual switches and turn them on only when required. These peripherals do not usually have to be on for long amounts of time, so ultra-efficiency won’t be as crucial as for the computer itself.
Solar hot water systems : For off-gridders, solar hot water systems reduce the need for propanemaking hot water with solar power isn’t a clever option. Often its wise to make the electrical portion ( for the solar pumps ) separate from your principal system to reduce the unpredictable load on the primary electrical system. Off-griders prefer PV-direct systems that utilize a dedicated PV module to run the SHW system pumps.
Get more information about living off the grid, and find out more about alternate home energy, by visiting http://OffTheGridHomeEnergy.com.
