Going Off Grid Safely

http://www.electricalpollution.com/OffgridSafely.html<br><br>

GETTING OFF GRID SAFELY<br><br>

Here are a few of the ways that we have maintained as normal a life as possible while going off-grid:<br><br>

Refrigeration - We have a propane refrigerator. We had originally wanted to get a DC refrigerator and chest freezer, but discovered that the compressor being used at the time was highly polluting. We are enjoying our propane refrigerator. The only difference we find is that as ambient temperature changes on a seasonal basis, we have to adjust the temperature control. We are still without a large freezer for our home use.<br><br>

Heat - We installed a gravity flow hot water system. Read How Come? Hydronics Heating Questions We've Been Asking For More Than 100 Years (with straight answers) by Dan Holohan to find out more. The book can be obtained through his website http://www.HeatingHelp.com. We used the overhead system as he describes with a few modifications. Modern modifications include: a closed system (no external oxygen exchange which prevents system oxidation) with a modern diaphragm pressure tank mounted off of the boiler, boiler operates off of a millivolt thermostat, with no minimum temperature requirement only a high temperature shut-off on the boiler, thus it only heats as much as necessary. We have found that the system heats much more evenly and efficiently than our forced air furnace had. Quiet too. Completely non-electric gravity flow boilers are still available, but a doctor's letter and proof of inability to have electricity may be necessary. We do not have the system permanently plugged into a water refill to avoid electrical current transfer from the water system. We fill with a hose. We have several dielectric unions in the gas line. We also have plastic line from the LP tank (a potential rf collector) to the house.<br><br>

Lights - We have tried various LED possibilities. With the very low amperage LEDs draw and the higher voltage (48V) our existing wiring has been fine to use. This would not necessarily be true at lower voltages or higher amperages.<br><br>

We have hooked two 24 volt LED automotive bulbs in series so we can run them on our 48 volt system. We use several pairs of these in a fixture. According to the manufacturer, at that time, the Dialight 586-4606-105F (28VDC) bulbs, and sister bulbs, did not use pulse width modulation. A base that converts the standard Edison base to the S-8 base, which these have, can be purchased from Kansas Windpower (http://www.KansasWindpower.net). It is item L450. Many of the lightbulbs available for purchase for home use do use pulse width modulation.<br><br>

We have also used LEDs (C513A-WSN-CV0Y0151-ND from http://www.digikey.com/) connected securely with a good twist and some solder in series so that they add up to the correct voltage. We have set them up using a screw in base and baby food jar covers for ease of cleaning and to diffuse the light. We prefer to point the LED lights up at our white ceilings. We find that this diffuses the light well, resulting in a much more even distribution of light within the room.<br><br>

Sump Pump - This was hard. Most bilge pumps (the solution originally recommended to me) are still brush motors and their capacity was too small. We finally settled on the pump from Wayne Pumps' 24 volt ESP-45 back-up pump system (http://waynepumps.com/index.cfm/product/56/esp45.cfm), as the best solution. It was part number 06710. We are still waiting to see how it holds up long-term since it is a back-up pump, but so far it works like a charm, doing a lot of pumping on not a lot of electricity. We have two hooked up in series and activated by the same float switch. It does require a bit of wiring work.<br><br>

Well Pump - We got a powerful pump since we need to pump volumes of water at times. It is controlled by a pressure switch, no controller, which would have used high frequency signaling. It allows our system to continue functioning the same as it used to, including the pressure tank.<br><br>

Solar System - We got help designing our system from the helpful folks at Backwoods Solar (http://www.backwoodssolar.com). They will not necessarily automatically design a "clean" system, but they were very obliging about providing phone numbers so I could ask the technical questions that I needed to and then re-designing the system with the answers in mind.<br><br>

Electronics - We have successfully converted various electronics to run on our DC system. Most electronics are DC creatures anyway. The box at the end of the cord converts the AC to DC. It is usually highly polluting with a large electromagnetic field and uses electricity the whole time it is plugged in. (To conserve energy even on a utility system, unplug them or have them on a power strip that is turned off when not in use.) These converters usefully have what voltage DC the converter puts out so then it is a matter of having a knowledgeable professional remove the box and input the proper voltage from a DC system.<br><br>

All the components we got (except lights) required additional electrical filtering to make them clean enough according to the reading from Graham/Stetzer Meter. (In spite of all the care I took in avoiding deliberate radiofrequency pollution, there was plenty of inadvertent electrical pollution to go around. Some levels were quite high.) In a pinch, the commercial Graham/Stetzer filters can be used on a DC system, however they can drain batteries so caution is required. In addition, 0.1 microfarad capacitors can be used to help filter the extremely high frequencies generated. I would recommend contacting Dave Stetzer to help design filters for your system. Stetzer Electric can be reached by phone at (608) 989-2571 or at their website http://www.stetzerelectric.com/. Questions can be directed to sales@stetzerelectric.com <br><br><br><br>

I haven't gone off grid yet, but I will have no choice once AEP/PSO replaces my electric meter.

I plan on doing the same thing, solar with no inverter(DC only) using RV/motorcoach appliances.

I installed a solar setup at my cousin's cabin in California sevral years ago, and wired it 12V, and we just had a few conversion van quartz lights and car stereos. The place was off-grid and had zero electricity before we installed just a couple solar panels, and we never installed any large appliances, but it was an improvement to have lights and music.

I just replied to add this bit: DC-DC computer power supplies. These surely will generate transients, and you're probably better off with a laptop operating off battery power, but in case somebody wants a pico-computer or to run a tower:
http://www.mini-box.com/DC-DC
http://www.powerstream.com/DC_PC.htm
12V, 24V and 48V input ATX power supplies. They may have 36V as well. I have seen them somewhere.