{"id":6737,"date":"2010-04-12T11:53:22","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T17:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sustainablog.org\/?p=6737"},"modified":"2010-04-12T11:53:22","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T17:53:22","slug":"living-off-the-grid-solar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/living-off-the-grid-solar\/","title":{"rendered":"Off Grid Solar Living: Lessons in Energy Efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bergethon<\/p>\n

I get a lot of people that ask me ‘What’s it like to live off the grid?’\u00a0 I think a lot of people picture us huddled around a candle in darkened cabin in the middle of the woods.\u00a0 Well for the first couple weeks we moved into our home, that’s exactly what it was like!\u00a0 But we’ll get to that.<\/p>\n

Off Grid or Off Our Rocker?<\/h2>\n

A few years back, we grew tired of the city and noise and hassle that came with it.\u00a0 We decided that the life we wanted was in the mountains.\u00a0 We fell in love with an area that had phenomenal views, a lake nearby, and\u00a0 was close to a skiing community.\u00a0 One problem: no power.\u00a0 Not only was there no power, but there was no water, sewer, or <GASP> high speed internet.\u00a0 In fact the only real utility that existed was phone lines, and those are soooo 1996, right?<\/p>\n

But there were other houses in the neighborhood running on solar kits and small wind generators and we naively thought ‘How hard could it be?’.\u00a0 With the help of friends, family, and a builder that had built in the neighborhood, we felt we had the perfect house for us.\u00a0 We are not rich folks by any means, but we felt we had a comfortable home that we could grow into a little.\u00a0 We had 16 batteries, 1300 watts of solar, 300 sunny Colorado days per year, and a propane generator backup.\u00a0 This would be easy right?\u00a0 Just wash the clothes on sunny days!\u00a0 Piece of cake.<\/p>\n

Oh, You Mean We Need Sunshine?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We chose to move into our home in the winter that our little hamlet would break the record for snowfall in one year.\u00a0 We figured out in a hurry that our panels didn’t run on snowflakes.\u00a0 Go figure.\u00a0 We had 3 solid months of snow, 6-12 inches EVERY DAY.\u00a0 Even the toothless old timers with the long beards had never seen anything like it.<\/p>\n

And worse, our builder had suggested a forced air electric furnace for our modular home to save money.\u00a0 Big mistake.\u00a0 Since there was no sunshine, and since we decided we like the pigment of our skin to be decidedly un-blue, we were running off the generator. When it wasn’t breaking down, freezing up, or getting overcome with snow, it was burning through $1800 worth of propane per month.\u00a0 Did I mention we’re not wealthy people?<\/p>\n

The worst part was that when we ran out of propane, which was about every 15 days, the propane truck couldn’t get to us.\u00a0 Being isolated and at the end of the road, which seemed so attractive just a few months ago, the snowplows couldn’t get to us until late afternoon.\u00a0 And as soon as they did plow, we’d promptly get 12 more inches of snow, sealing off our isolated little home from the propane man.<\/p>\n

Altitude Adjustment<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So this is the part of our life where we got used to setting the thermostat to 50 degrees, warming up by shoveling endless amounts of snow, and sleeping under enough blankets to cover a jumbo jet.\u00a0 Good times.\u00a0 And actually, they were good times.\u00a0 My wife and I grew closer, learned a ton about our new home, and became conscious of every watt that flowed out of the system.<\/p>\n

We learned that EVERYTHING needed to be on power strips.\u00a0 Even the garage door openers.\u00a0 When the sun did shine, we learned to milk every drop of heat from it to help heat the home by opening shades.\u00a0 And when there was no sun we shut the blinds tight and hunkered down.\u00a0 We opened and closed the shades so often the neighbors probably thought we were sending Morse code.\u00a0 If we had known Morse code we would have said ‘Bring soup!’.<\/p>\n

\"bergethonWe learned that since we had a well pump drawing power out of our system, that wasting water meant wasting power (yellow is defintely mellow at the Bergethon home).\u00a0 We eventually got a wood burning stove and took advantage of the acres of already-dead trees not far from our home.\u00a0 We learned that there is a major difference in power used in different light bulbs.\u00a0 And we learned that we really didn’t need to watch as much TV as we thought.<\/p>\n

Finally: Bliss while Living off the Grid<\/h2>\n

So, with some painful lessons, a little cash, and a lot of patience, we live very comfortably now.\u00a0 We consume approximately 200 kw-hrs per month of electricity, compared to the typical American household that uses more than 1,000.\u00a0 We use about 500 gallons of water per month, whereas some families use that in a day.\u00a0 I don’t say these things to brag or toot my own horn, I say these things as a reformed waster that is trying to help others change their habits and become conscious of their energy consumption.\u00a0 And the best part is I get to help people do just that every day! And hopefully this industry, this blog, and the people that read it can spread the word.\u00a0 I look forward to sharing my experience and learning from yours.\u00a0 Thanks for reading.\u00a0 In the coming issues we will discuss the lessons we’ve learned and how they might apply to you, whether you’re off grid or not.<\/p>\n

Kriss Bergethon is a writer and solar professional from Colorado.\u00a0 He lives off grid with his wife and two dogs.\u00a0 For more information visit his site at Solar Kits<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not quite ready to go off the grid? Start simple with a solar cooker<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I get a lot of people that ask me ‘What’s it like to live off the grid?’\u00a0 I think a lot of people picture us huddled around a candle in [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":6746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7],"tags":[257,156,218,735,4295,4296,6],"yoast_head":"\nLiving off the Grid: Going Solar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Bergethon's learned a ton with their first efforts at living off the grid with solar power.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/living-off-the-grid-solar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Living off the Grid: Going Solar\" \/>\n<meta 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