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Issue #216 July 2008
Intelligent Energy Solutions
Living And Working Off The Grid
Part 1: Planning And Design
by George Martin
George is going solar by installing an off-the-grid photovoltaic (PV) power-generating system at his workshop/apartment in New Mexico. In the first part of this series, he describes how he planned and designed the system.
Start | Power Usage | Estimating Solar Radiation | Equipment | Solar Panels | Inverters | Charge Controller | Battery | Miscellaneous Items | System Cost | Sources & PDF
My wife and I are getting to the age at which we are looking for a place to retire. We live in Connecticut and have heard lots of stories about friends who sold their homes and left the state to retire only to regret the decision. So, our plan has been to find an area that we would consider for retirement and try it out by living there on a part-time basis. Well, to make a long story short, we ended up near Silver City, New Mexico, with a nice plot of land suitable for a retirement home (see Photo 1).
a) b)  |
| Photo 1a—Our land is located near Silver City, NM. It’s a perfect spot for living off the grid. b—It didn’t take too long to get started. Here you see the guest house taking shape. |
Located where the Rocky Mountains come to their southern end, the area is beautiful with four moderate seasons. We purchased the land at a good price. Our property is only 2 miles from the Gila National Forest. The New Mexico portion of the forest is about the size of the entire state of Connecticut. To say we are out in the middle of nowhere is an understatement. You can hear the crows breathe as they fly by. It is a perfect place for an off-gird solar home.
The plan is to build a small workshop/apartment so we can spend time in New Mexico and see if we want to make the move permanent. The property has an existing well, which took a big risk out of the decision to purchase. We could theoretically drill at about $20 per foot and hit nothing. So, having the well in place removed a big gamble in my mind.
My wife is a trusting soul or I’m very convincing. I assured her that we could build a house and I could get the water and solar working like you would never know we were off the grid. No fuss, no muss, no problem. Well, a lot is really riding on this project. Let’s call it domestic tranquility. And I also don’t want to give up my day job designing embedded systems.
How does one go about planning for an off-the-grid solar system? After reading through some books and magazines on the subject, I soon realized that this was just another project, like many others I’ve completed in my career. The books and magazines didn’t have the engineering details that I required. As we visited the property and talked to builders, we met our neighbors, who were also off the grid. Perhaps it was not impossible.
Let’s treat this as a normal design project. What are the project requirements? We need to design and install an off-grid system that we can afford and that does not change our lifestyle significantly.
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