Living Off-Grid

          So, recently the conversation has come up in my life about living off-grid.  Me, being from Wyoming, am 100% on board with off-grid living.  Has this goal been possible yet? Not quite.  There are many factors of living off-grid that need to be accounted for, prior to making that leap.

          One of the main things to think about, is what kind of off-grid are you thinking is best.  Yes, off-grid is mostly a lifestyle choice, but when you get into the idea, it opens up a black hole of information, choices, and sacrifices.  While writing this article, I must admit that this is a completely theoretical ideology of mine.  I don't currently live off-grid, I don't see myself going off-grid for a few more years, at least.  These are my thoughts, ideas, considerations, and possibly my own way of creating myself a long-term plan, and goal path.  My way may not always be the easiest, or the correct way, but it's my way.

          The first to consider, like stated above, is what type of off-grid.  When you are considering off-grid living, you will learn there are indeed different types.  Do you want to be completely self reliant?  Do you want to be self reliant as far as utilities go, but still have a 9-5 and utilize the grocery store and other first world amenities?  To me, going off-grid needs to be a leap of faith into the world of self reliance.  I think that in order to go off-grid, you need to fully take care of yourself and the loved ones that will join you on this journey.  You shouldn't have to go to the grocery store for every single meal.  You should have everything you need at the end of the day.  Now, is this feasible for everyone?  The short answer, no.  It isn't always ideal for every situation.  You can certainly consider yourself off grid if you are living on a secluded piece of property, are on your very own alternative energy source, and utilize an alternative source for your water.

          Power.  Face it, it's 2018 and everyone needs power.  The old fashioned way of life is dying.  Personally, I have found a great deal of enjoyment in using old school hand tools.  Hand planes, hand powered drills (you know, the old fashioned auger type, that you have to spin by hand), chisels, hammers, hatchets and saws.  Let's be real, it's a serious step to voluntarily opt to use tools that require physical exertion, when you can reach across the work bench and grab the ol' Ryobi or Dewalt.  I am guilty of sometimes cheating and using the power tools.  Think about it, sometimes I just have one or two holes to drill, or a couple screws to run.  Would it be smarter for me to dig out the hand tools, or the power tools?  Just because you live off-grid, doesn't mean you are an old timey pioneer that doesn't have options.  If you have the money and know-how, or have done your own research, you can have as much power as you will ever need.  It is all limited to what you can, and want to do.  If I build a big enough battery bank, and have enough solar panels to sufficiently and efficiently keep these batteries charged, and keep my night time power consumption (if using solar), to fall within those bounds, the options are endless. 

          Alternate energy is a complex, yet simple concept.  You must have your source of power.  Maybe not a source, let's dub the battery bank as the power storage system.  Okay, let's go full hypothetical here.  I have twelve 12V Batteries with an 8Amp Hour (Ah) life.  This means that each battery can power a device that draws one amp for 8 hours, or 8 amps for one hour (you get the idea).  Now take the 12 batteries and wire them in PARALLEL, this means positive to positive and negative to negative.  This doesn't change the voltage output.  This simply combines the capacity of the batteries.  I started with twelve 8Ah batteries, wired them in parallel.  Now I have essentially created a giant battery that is still 12V, but now instead of 8Ah, it is a 12V battery bank with a capacity of 8x12.  This gives me 96Ah capacity.  Now, we jump to the charging source.  There is an abundance of alternate energy sources.  You have Solar, wind, and water. 

          Solar is a little different compared to wind and water, so we will circle back to that shortly.  Wind and water/hydro, utilize the same basic concept, rotation.  The alternator on your car is a great example, and possible solution for these steps.  The alternator spins round and round to create the charge for your battery.  In your car, the pulley is spun by the serpentine belt.  In order to use an alternator to charge batteries, there has to be a way to spin the alternator.  This can be done in both wind and hydro setups.  Wind, if you live in a locale with a decent amount of wind, setting up a wind turbine and connecting it to an alternator, will provide the charge needed.  Get you a wind turbine (or windmill) and connect the alternator to the blades using a chain or belt driven system, then the alternator to the battery bank.  As the wind blows through your area, it spins the blades, which spins the pulley on the alternator, which charges the batteries.  The benefit to wind is that if you have wind, night or day, you are charging.  The downfall of a wind system, is that if you don't have wind, you aren't charging.

          Water or hydro power.  This setup utilizes the same basic concept as the wind turbine, but instead of the wind spinning the blades, it utilizes the current of the water to spin the blades.  This system only works if you have a flowing water source nearby, or the massive amount of wire and cable to reach a flowing water source.  Everyone has, at some point in their life, seen the most important part of a water system.  The water wheel.  You have seen them in movies and pictures.  These can be created fairly easily.  one way is to set up a log or other circular piece of material that can spin and wont roll away from you.  Then you create a round housing around that.  One way of doing this would be an old metal 55 gallon drum.  Cut flaps out of the side (only cut three sides of your rectangle).  Then bend these out to create fins that catch the current of the water forcing the barrel to spin.  then out on the edge of the water (on shore) place your alternator and attach the belt or chain system to the end of the center support pole.  Now you have a spinning water wheel that will spin the alternator's pulley, creating your charge.  This system will need regular maintenance.  You should check on this regularly to prevent a catastrophic failure of any kind.  Face it, gravity is something we have.  It can and will pull the whole system down into the water.  The benefit to a water system is that, as long as there is water flowing and spinning the water wheel, you are charging the batteries, day or night.  The downfall, again, is that water is a constantly changing thing.  Summer might bring drought, which will take your water level down.  You have the snow melt in spring, taking the run off and increasing your water level, carrying your whole system down a raging river, which used to be a pleasant little stream.  Now you have no power and have to rebuild, and possibly find or replace your parts that are now missing.

          Another alternative power source is solar, or the sun.  We all know of, or have seen, someone that utilizes a solar system on their house.  This concept can be extremely tricky, and involves a lot of math that I am not 100% sure about.  You have to know how much power you use, to make sure your system receives enough charge to carry you through the night, through cloudy bad weather days, and so on.  You may not always have the best sunlight, or not enough sunlight in your area (seasonal issues).  A quick Google search can guide you on how to learn how much power you consume, and how many and what size solar panels you will need.  I think most of my research has told me to position the panels in a Southern direction.  There are angles and degrees and whatnot that have to be calculated for your area to maximize your sunshine use.

          So, back to theoretical land.  We have our charge source all set up, we have our battery bank all set up.  Now, we have to connect the two.  There is another very crucial step here.  You need to have a charge controller to make sure you don't overcharge the batteries, this also prevents batteries draining, and a voltage meter so you can always see the charge level of your batteries.  The next thing needed is an inverter.  Battery power puts off DC or Direct Current.  You need AC, or Alternating Current, to power your household devices.  So, your charge system is connected to your alternator, your alternator is connected to the charge controller, which is connected to your battery bank, which is now connected to your power inverter.  Whew! This topic seems to have opened my eyes quite a bit, and now I feel like I have been rambling.

          One important step that needs to be discussed.  Voltage.  A 12V battery system will  not be able to power everything.  There just isn't enough juice here.  Which brings us to another step.  Wiring the battery in series. To connect batteries in series, use a jumper wire that is thick enough to handle the current, to connect the negative terminal to the positive terminal.  This now has changed two of your separate 12 V 8 Ah batteries into one big 24 V 8 Ah battery.You can do this as many times as needed to create enough Voltage to carry your load.  Now you should have an open positive and open negative, creating your larger battery with two smaller ones.  

          We also need to discuss battery types.  Lead Acid, deep cycle batteries are your best bet, these batteries are designed to be discharged and recharged several times.  But, you never want to over discharge your batteries.  This is why we have the voltage meter and charge controller in place.  Sealed Lead Acid batteries require much less maintenance.  The other type is a "flooded cell".  This is the type that you have to constantly maintain the water level.  This will add extra maintenance to your system.  

          So, initially I talked about both water and electricity.  This got away from me a little bit, so we will create a new article in the near future discussing water sources.  I hope this helps answer a few questions.  Remember, I am not an expert, and do not know everything.  This is all information that has been gathered in my off and on years of research.  I hope it answered some questions that you may have, and has helped in your journey to becoming an off-grid member of our great nation.  

Tim

Fire Starters on A Budget

          Okay, so I was surfing YouTube a few weeks ago, like I do most every day.  I came across a video of a guy that claimed to have made 100 fire-starters for about $3.  Of course, I was skeptical.  For those that don't know, the main source of heat that we use at my house, is my Fisher wood burning stove insert.  I am always looking for ways to make the process easier and faster.

          I went ahead and tried it out.  Honestly, I am so glad that I did.  Go to your local dollar store, buy a pack of "cotton rounds", these come in a pack of 100.  Then get two candles of your choice, I used those tall religious looking ones because of the amount of wax you get for $1 each, and they come in fairly decent colors (you will learn why in just a minute).  In total I used almost a whole pack of the Cotton Rounds, and the two candles we bought.

          This is how to make these nifty little fire-starters.  Prepare your work area.  You will need parchment paper or aluminum foil, your cotton rounds, tongs or pliers (that you don't really care about), a pan or metal bowl to melt the wax in, and your candles.  You can get the wax out of the candle however you choose, I used a trusty old butter knife and my wife,  She dug the knife in and carved all the wax into a little metal camping pot I use for "garage projects".  I actually just did my part to go green and save the planet.  I already had a fire going in the wood stove, so i just placed the metal pot right on top of the stove to melt the wax.  You can probably put the candle right on the stove or however you want to retrieve the wax is up to you.  I then laid out my cotton rounds into little stacks and placed them on the counter behind my parchment paper.  Now keep in mind, most things I call mine, are actually my wife's, and she normally doesn't know what I'm doing.  For example, I couldn't find the old silicone tongs we have, so I used a loose leaf tea ball contraption she has (to be safe I did count that she had more than one).  You then dip each cotton round into the wax.  They do tend to soak up a massive amount of wax, so we only dipped one side and then laid them down so that the wax dripped down through the other side.  Let them dry, and then store in a Ziploc bag, or even batch into stacks of five or ten, and vacuum seal these to keep in a bug out bag, or survival kit.  My first batch is in a gallon Ziploc bag by my wood stove.

          I take mine out when it is time to use it, and just basically push it down over my thumb, breaking the wax and exposing the cotton interior (you can see in the video what I'm talking about).  I normally rip mine in half for maximum cotton exposure.  I then place on a thin flat piece of wood inside my fireplace.  Then light the starter and gently place your kindling on top of and around the flame.  I normally go with the tee pee route for kindling placement.  Then gradually add your bigger wood pieces.

          I was skeptical at first.  I experimented with the first couple and actually timed the burn time on these fire-starters.  I must say, I am rather impressed with these.  They average just shy of 6 minute burn time per starter.  That 6 minutes allows a decent amount of time to gradually build the fire up without fear of burnout.  I have been using these for about two weeks now, and I have only had to use one per fire started, I imagine that if you get capable enough, you can use half of a starter per fire.

          I hope you find this as useful as I did.   And keep checking back as we add more content (more frequently now I hope).