We have no power bill…. find out how we did it
My wife and I had found our Shangri La. It was a mountain setting, complete with a lake, nearby skiing, and literally millions of forested acres to explore. The problem: no power.
And the cost to bring a power line in made my eyes tear up.
So we started in clean energy out of necessity. It wasn’t an altruistic notion of ‘saving the world’. We needed power and all we had were sunshine and breezes. That began our journey into the world of living off the grid and saying goodbye to our power bill and hello to true independence.
It wasn’t always easy. There were times in the dead of winter when the sun hadn’t shined in three weeks. Luckily our wind generator takes care of us in times like that now. And we’ve increased our battery bank to last longer in times of bad weather.
We had to simplify our life a little to make it work. I gave up my microwave. My wife gave up her hair dryer. You see anything that generates heat uses enormous amounts of power. We shut everything off with power strips at night. We use mountain breezes to cool our house and the sunshine and wood to heat it. We’ve become extremely efficient in our use of energy.
For us it’s worth it. When we lived in the city, I could not believe how high our energy bills were. It seemed like I was always adding insulation and turning the thermostat up or down – you know all the things the power company tells us to do to save power.
But that damn bill just kept going up and up. And the taxes and fees that they tacked onto the bill were about 20%. For what – the privilege to buy power from their monopoly? Like I had a choice?
And then they started feeding us this line about ‘smart grid’ and ‘smart meters’. Well it all sounds nice doesn’t it? But it’s really electrical socialism. They are going to wire your home so that your devices only run when the utility wants them to. All in the name of efficiency they say. And just how much extra do you think we’ll pay for this ‘efficiency’?
Don’t even get me started on ‘cap and trade’. Believe me, it’s coming and it’s going to probably double your already extensive power bills. If you’re not already trying to generate your own power, you had better get on your horse.
Fortunately my wife and don’t worry about any of that nonsense. We don’t have blackouts or brownouts. And yet our house has plenty of entertainment and creature comforts.
And you can do this too. Take it one step at a time, start small and build up to something substantial. We’ll be here to help….
Has anyone thought of or tried using large capacity electrolytic capacitors such as are used in automotive super power sound systems in place of lead acid storage batteries? A battery is basically a wet electrolytic capacitor.The electrolytics have an unlimited life as long as the electrolite doesn’t fry out and they are not sublected to an over voltage input.I have seen them used to replace the car battery as it is used in normally in a car with no problems.
Sounds great, but without land and money to begin most of this is an unreachable dream.
I live in Florida and have recently discovered, in a conversation with a Solar Energy provider, that it is
“illegal” to go off the grid. This really pisses me of and I would like to know if other states have similar laws and what can be done about it. I am looking at a 46 acre property in a very rural area.
I went solar in 2010 when the America hating, communist, Trojan Horse Muslim usurper said that under his maleficence electricity must necessarily skyrocket. I put in a 10.12 KW system which generates about 125% of my power needs. It’s a hybrid system with battery back-up yet still tied to the grid which is nice so I can back-feed power.
It cost plenty to build my system back then but it has given me peace of mind. I think anyone who lives in an area that gets any sun at all should go solar now. The prices have come way down.
Forgot to make a point in my comment about being off the grid verses being tied to it. Being tied to it is wonderful in the sense that it’s a bottomless battery bank for back feeding. However, I believe that being off the grid makes you much less vulnerable to an EMP since you don’t have all the wires from the grid acting as an “antenna” which could deliver the pulse to you.
We live in sunny Arizona and I had solar installed one year ago. I pay apx 120 per month all year around for electricity, of which most is for the solar panels. I have saved over $1000 this year. As soon as the solar panels are paid off (5year payout) I will invest in heavy duty batterys and go totally off grid.
Frank what can we do to be certain that we power a refridgerator in the event of an EMP ? We have bought our Food 4 Patriots from you and need the water purifier but cannot afford it just yet. If you were preparing for the worst case senario what would you do first. We need to get serious about all this because I’m afraid we are so behind.
I have a manufactured home. Will the roof hold the panels?
Can you suggest some websites where a can research all the equipment I would need to start a small salor power system? Also, where can I learn how to put it together?
The following is a series of 3 posts I made on FB regarding my small foray into a few solar panels on my house:
I finally took the plunge and installed some solar electric panels on the roof. I have 3 – 144 Watt 24V peel and stick flexible rolls glued to the rubber membrane, and a 50 Amp MPPT Charge controller on the way. I also have decided against the red tape and permits associated with grid tying the system, and instead have ordered a backup transfer switch that will actually work the reverse of most backup transfer switches. I will run certain items (such as my fridge and a TV) on solar full time to defray Duke charges. If the solar cant keep up and the batteries fall below minimal voltage, the switch will put them back onto the grid in the rest of the house. Just trying to get a feel for what the capabilities and capacities of this small system are.
The charge controller arrived today and I couldnt wait to get it installed. Got a little thrill as I was hooking it up to see a decent little spark – those panels mean business! I am running my fridge totally off the batteries as I type. I dont have the backup transfer switch hooked up yet, because I wanna see if the battery capacity is enough to last overnight to when the sun resumes charging the batteries. I am optimistic!
The fridge didnt make it all the way through the night. It switched over to house power sometime in the wee hours of the morning. The inverter cuts itself off before letting the batteries drain too far. but as of 930 AM, with the sun very low in the sky and it being sorta overcast, the fridge is back on battery power and the battery is up to 12 volts again. The batteries peak out at 14.2 volts when they are fully charged. I think Im happy with 20-ish hours a day of free refrigeration. I probably dont even need to have the backup switch involved, considering the fridge wouldnt be open at all during the dark hours. Might increase my battery capacity if the solar can keep up with the demand and then some. This is also very promising for food preservation in the event of a prolonged power outage.
The solar has actually improved since my last post. I am now getting 100% fridge power from solar. I dont know if it is the leaves falling off the trees, or the house is cooler (since I keep it at about 60 all winter), but The battery stays at least 12 volts overnight. The inverter doesnt stop powering the load until the battery voltage falls below 10.5, and it hasnt gone that low in a long time, even on overcast days. I am amazed how much power it produces on cloudy and rainy days. I can get instant info with the remote meter in my dining room, so I am not guessing, I am witnessing this. I was baffled that I was recording some minimal voltage even at night time. Then I noticed other nights I was getting zero voltage. Finally figured out that even the moon produces a small amount of voltage. One last thought– I have read that deep cycle batteries do best when they are “exercised”, and mine were never exercised before unless I had a power outage. Now they get exercised every night, so that may be why the system is putting out so much more power now than it used to at first. I love it!
Congratulations!! I wish everyone could feel the way you and I feel with their solar power.
I have been sending emails asking about the solar panel shingles that I had seen on this site and have not gotten a response, I need to redo my roof and I want to get info for the shingles where I can get the and how much they cost. I have a short time left before I am to redo my roof and the budget I will need. please help me grt this info.
When you do find out about those “Solar Shingles” PLEASE! would you pass that info on to me & the rest of us? Thank you in advance, sincerely, J Anthony (warehouser13 @Gmail.com
Thanks for all you do and share. Keep up the good work
We are always out here listening and watching!
Do you know of any kind of heat capturing films that can be put on the inside of windows to help generate heat in a room? This could help people in houses, apartments, and trailers that are not able to afford solar panels or are not allowed to add any exterior solar panels or wind turbines.
I don’t know anything about stuff, but apparently, it’s not hard to find: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/low-e-window-film.htm
If the battery is the heart of the system (because it will not work without it), and they last no longer than 10 years (you could only have 2 years left when SHTF), what can a person do for electricity then?
I would like to become Electric independent & subscribed to Frank Bates instructions anticipating a move from city to a 6 ac tract on the west edge of Austin, TX but I have not been able to find any of my subscribed instructions. I had planned to use solar power initially & then add wind power. I admire the independence that this provides to those with the know-how to construct their systems.
Here is a site that can help: http://windenergy7.com
Dear Frank..How do you get solar power in the winter? Snow covered solar panels? Generator Back-up? No sun for days? These are questions we have before going forward installing a system, Thanks Rhonda
Did you know that you can live completely off the grid, drive a 100% TOTAL electric carc, like the Tesla Model S, (oh yeah!!!), and STILL HAVE TO PAY GAS TAX!!!!!????? WTF!!!!!!
Do you think that when you move to electric cars that the roads will be taken care of? This is a miss conception. The road use tax put on fuel is used for that purpose. So when you put fuel in your car you are also paying for upkeep of the roads you will be driving on with your electric car. Where will the funds come from if we all switch to electric…? You guessed it, there will be a tax on miles driven instead of gallons..
Washington State legislators are already discussing how to tax people by the mile and reported that they would be taking this issue up during their next session.
For Leland Brun…..You must live where there is legalized pot
“Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian.” Henry Ford
Absolutely. Lots of folks have solar-powered RVs. You still want to be careful about your power usage (blow dryers, cook tops, etc). The P4P system is perfect for that kind of off-grid usage.
This is exactly what we want for our RV
Frank, is it possible to build a small solar electric system with an inverter set up from a 25ft. camper?
Hi there Frank
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about the sollor and wind project that I want to get involved in,
He told me that when one that lives in the city or countery is going to have a problum for the fact that the gouverment is going to step in and keep us from going off the grid and I thought we lived in a free countery?
Frank what do you think about this BS!”
Truly always Jaak Langendoen
I bought the DVD and related materials ALL 2 FIND THE “COST” has trampled me into non compliance; therefore I bought a shot gun and a box of shells; got any idea what that is for?
Check it out for yourself it is a WEALTHY – Persons folly. With $12,000./year I failed years ago not working for higher wages and being STINGIER – not that I wasted more than $ 10,000. in 40 years. I just did not have the GAUL to demand more from those I worked with – the street people who had lost it all or for one reason or another got KICKED 2 the street for not fiting into the BOX society demanded.
I have a 1850 Watt Inverted inside my trailer and would like to reverse engineer all the necessities to be 100 percent off-grid on Solar/Wind/Battery Backup Systems. Is there one site or an individual I can contact to assist.in this endeavor? Thanks Power4Patriots. I have 100% sunny days and have a typical 30mph SW Wind which should be extremely assisting for Solar and Wind Generator.
Regards,
Tom
Tom,
Keep an eye out in your emails. We will be hosting a webinar class, probably in late May or June where you can get more detailed and live information.
I had a solar system installed on my roof. It was installed through a program from the natural gas company free of charge. I pay a lease fee of $66.00, which is far less than I use to pay. The only issue is that it is not hooked up to a battery bank. It is tied in to the grid. When I generate extra energy, the two way metere records the excess and I get credtied by the power company, and this gets credited to any energy I use from them. In the summer months I pay the electric company their minimum fee of $2.20. And these are the months that I usually spend from $250 to $300 a month due to the central air system. But whenthere is a power outage from the grid I lose the use of my solar system because it is hooked up to the main intake and uses 40 watts to run. I would love to hook it up to a battery bank and be able to run when there is a blackout. What do battery banks go for?
Albert, your average 12V deep cycle battery runs about $100. So, it depends on how many you want plus a little more to build a box and string them.
Leland Brun….LOL…What kind of mushrooms you growing in your garden? Being self sufficient sounds like a good plan to me. The role of the Government should be to follow the Constitution. Heaven FORBID those far right people who love liberty might generate their own power and become FREE of power monopolies. OMG…
I have 11 cabins that are summer & lake access only. I want to find light-weight solar panels
which I* can mount in the summer and dismantle in the early fall when I leave (and ship out via
my small 17 foot open boat) so they won’t get stolen. Any ideas?
We would use to run
refrigerators in each camp and cook stoves and lights. presently we have to use LP gas which is
heavy ad dangerous to transport by boat and back woods road plus 80 miles on highway, to
obtain (we use the 4 ft high cilinders that, full, weigh about 150 lbs!
Refrigerators and stoves are high energy items. The fridge is especially tough because you will need to have enough power to not only run it, but back up enough in battery power to run it all night and on cloudy days. That said, they make foldable and rollable solar panels that would be much easier to transport. A quick web search for foldable solar panel will get you started.
I would like to get your take on the issue of the pending E M P in regards to solar colectors. If we experience an E M P do you think that our off the grid instalations would survive,or should we be chaneling our efforts in another direction?
Given the limited research done/released on EMP, I can’t do better than this: http://www.survivalblog.com/2009/06/two_letters_re_protection_from.html
Frank
Thanks for sharing your experience and inceasing interest in freedom from
High uncontolable utility bills
“Its just not possible to make the sun and wind energy needed to live on.”
This independence comes at the cost of freeing our enviroment and freedom
from both countries and oil loards even within our borders.Please share what you did
intially to get your solar/wind energy system started
f
Hey, Leland, (The below commentator)
My forefather folks arrived here in 1632 with radical ideas about the government, and the monarch dictator they had just escaped from. They too were the minority with a similar view. And, believe me, there were lots of people disappearances during a period of time that lasted from that time up until 1776. They shuddered to think what would have occurred had their far Right ideas not taken hold in America, They banded together to help one another to survive the elements. They wrote, and they pledged themselves to a Constitution that protected their far Right ideas, and they formed a representative government to encourage, and keep safe those same ideas, . . . a Republic. Unfortunately, many of the people who would later migrate to America, had other ideas that were more opportunistic in nature, ideas of dominion, and greed. They began a highjacking of, ‘The Constitution of the united states for America’ back through the Authorization Act of 1867, replacing the people’s government representatives with their own representatives, and implementing a step by step plan to control all natural resources, liberties, and rights of the people by starting the first private corporation in America. You, Len are not an owner of this corporation, You are a subject of this corporation, You are subject to pay this corporation to be alive. Take water, a necessity for staying alive. Did you ever pollute the water? Did you ever receive financial gain for making the water clean again so that it was safe enough to drink? Where I live, it is against the law, the corporation’s law for me to drill a well without paying them $27,000 for a license to do so from them . Same thing, if I want to collect rain water on my property to drink or use. In fact, the corporation’s law states that unless I buy water service from the corporation they will not issue me a license to occupy MY own house. Rather, THEY WILL CONDEMN MY HOUSE, SEAL IT, AND THROW ME IN PRISON IF I TRY TO ENTER IT, even if I can prove to them that I buy water elsewhere, and bring it in and store it. They have got water storage wrapped up in their laws too, And that’s just water. What about my rights to air, natural resources, to procure food, to travel, access and harness energy, to invent and to build, and in general, to the Bill of Rights? I am a citizen of the Republic, and not The United States of America Corporation. If you need me to help you build a well so you can have water to drink and use, I am glad to help you. But, if you need my help to build a toll booth for that well, well you can just tell that private corporation to drop dead. I left the Left Wing the day they decided to give a PEACE prize to the man who who holds a Tuesday meeting every week to come up with a new Kill List for that next week. I decided to go Right, for my sake, and for yours. I am not a democrat, I believe in justice for all. I am the PEACE Core, and not the corps,
I’m slow getting started, I don’t know much about electricity but am trying to build a self sufficient greenhouse first, then the wind generator you sent plans for sounds like a place to start, eventually I would like to at least get enough solar to keep us at a bare minimum (keep the freezers cold) in case of trouble elsewhere
thanks for the updates
Dear sirs,
Thank you. I like this idea. I want to know the actual costs of these changes, please. My husband and I are thinking of living on a barge. I love to fish. I would like to use sun, wind, and water power.
I have thought a lot about this. I have been looking for a long time. I also can’t find the cost of batteries to use for the bank of power.
Patricia.
Good going. There is some real concern about the smart meters with folks that have medical issues and RF signals. The concept was to reduce costs since they don’t require a meter-reader going door to door anymore. But my bills have consistantly gone up and solar is sitll too costly for what you get, with panels at an under 20% effeciency. More than likely they will wear out about the time they are paid for, which will require updating all over again.
As for the comments of Leland Brun: I’m not sure what what radical ideas he is refrerring to. The fact that he served in the Peace Corps shows he is a concerned person but maybe misguided since he seems to believe all the garbage repeated by the main stream media from our corrupt leaders as gospel. Personally, I would do nothing that would reflect positively on that butcher Pinoche and his super corrupt regime.
Fantastic! I look forward to following your lead.
Thank You xoxoxo
You folks do not seem to understand that your radical ideas about the role of government are a minority view. I served in the Peace Corps in the 70’s under the rule of right wing dictator Augusto Pinoche and travelled in Argentina during the same period of the disapearances of people opposed to right wing rule. I shudder to think that your similar far right ideas could take hold in America.
You must get intouch with me as I need to go a pilot project on these in africa.Good job!
Frank, you are a model for those of us who are working to get where you and your wife are today. I’m still struggling with the battery-power storage isssue since this technology doesn’t seem to have moved very far in a long time. I’m planning to add a backup generator and an automatic transfer switch of some kind to disconnect my current roof-mounted solar system from feeding the electrical grid here in San Diego. I did get the electrical bill for my 3100 sq ft home down to less than $10 a month (mostly for net metering connect), but I want power when the power grid goes out (or is taken out). This is where you and your company come in. Thanks for being there.