Who's got the backup Power

"When the grid goes down, guess who has been to the Solar Living Web page?"


Ira's Home Made 1800 watt, wind alternator
Sun Frost
A Low Powered 12 or 24 volt DC Sun Frost Refrigerator
Off the Grid

Home Water in an emergency

Building and using a Solar Cooker

Growing Vegetables in a Container Garden

Sprouting Food in an Emergency

Here are some Energy Related Usenet Newsgroups

Alt.Energy.Homepower - Alt.Energy.Renewable - Alt.Solar.Photovoltaic - Alt.Solar.Thermal


Barbara Kerrs Kitchen Margarets Household Hints
Building an Earthship Home


And here is the 100% Off the Grid Section



Waynes Solar House

Wayne and Barbara's Solar Home

The picture above is the home of Wayne and Barbara wmbjk@ctaz.com who bought a 640 acre track of land (one Square Mile) on the side of a mountain... then they cut out a landing strip for their airplane and built a house... The house is in Arizona... Today, they live 100% off the grid on that mountain side... A complete history of their adventure can be viewed on their web page at www.ctaz.com/~wmbjk



Pauls Home

Paul's Solar Home

On the left is a picture of Paul paulm47@msn.com standing in front of his large array of PV's (Photovoltaics). He has been off the grid for many years, and has added (not shown) an Air 403 wind generator to compensate his PV's on cloudy days... Paul is the owner of Solar Wind and Electric where I bought the PV's for my house. With this array of PV's he can produce most all of his electrical needs.



Ira's Solar Home

Ira's Solar Home

Ira lives in Wyoming, and has been off the grid for 10 years. He is 7 miles from the closest power line and had to hook up his own Wind and PV systems to furnish himself power. The picture above shows Ira ctvs@fascination.com and some of his friends hooking up a home made wind alternator. This wind alternator, made from some old auto parts, and an old AM radio tower, produces up to 1800 watts of power an hour. In addition to the Wind power, Ira has an extensive array of Photovoltaics (not shown) in his front yard that can produce up to 200 amps of power for his other daily use. It might be worth mentioning that Ira now has 2 banks of 4000 amp hour batteries, and 3 banks of 3300 amp hour batteries, for a total of 17,900 amp hours at 12 volts... for a rainy day.


Dan Metcalfs Array

Dan Metcalf's PV Array

Dan, at dan@metcalfs.com is in the process of hooking up his large array of recently purchased PV panels. His home is in Glendale, California and he now has just enough power to almost make his system, grid free... Dan also has his own extensive web page that contains a lot of helpful PV installation hints at http://www.metcalfs.com/.


Weeks Parker : with his emergency Solar Van


Weeks Parker

The picture to the right is Weeks Parker, an inventor, Ham Radio Operator (KC4VZA) who has developed some backup Solar Power equipment, ready for any emergency.... Weeks also has an extensive web page displaying many of his inventions at http://oocities.com/weeks_parker




Solar Powered Refrigerator Data

Refrigerator AC/DC Cubic Fridge Cubic Freezer Refrigerator Cost Watts Used (24 hours) PV's Needed 80% Sunshine PV's Needed 20% Sunshine
Amana (BR22) AC 16 6 $1000 1700 500 watts 1900 watts
NovaKool
(R-FS7500)
DC 12/24 5.5 2.0 $1000 1200 300 watts 1100 watts
Sun Frost (RF19) AC/DC 12/24 9.5 9.5 $2900 950 300 watts 1100 watts
Vest Frost (Conserve 375) AC 7.1 3.4 $900 1000 300 watts 1100 watts
Solar Fridge
(SFRF-19)
AC/DC 12/24/36/48 12 4 $2600 710 200 watts 800 watts

A Special Catagory for Home Brew Solar and Independent Living


Clive Ellis Refrigerator

Clive Ellis's Home Brew Solar Refrigerator

Nova Kool
Refrigerator Kit
4.75 cubic foot
Foam chest
Power Source 12 Volts DC
Cost of Kit $700+
Watts Used
in 24 hours
150 watts
PV's Needed
80% Sunshine
50 watts
PV's Needed
20% Sunshine
200 watts


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