Our Solar PV System

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Table of contents

1 Introduction

2 Description

3 VeggieGen

4 System controls

5 Battery Bank

6 Automatic Transfer Switch

7 Battery Charger

8 Wind System (AIR 303)

Introduction

Before I show you how to live off-grid, some background is in order.

Growing up as a child, my parents exposed me to a number of skills & experiences that were "survival" or "self sufficient" in nature. We raised goats for meat and milk, rabbits for meat, chickens for meat and eggs, and grew a garden. My parents were missionaries, and converted an old farm into a summer camp for children. We had volunteers show up every year to help build the facilities, so I was gofer for a variety of craftsmen. I learned carpentry, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, mechanical, and other construction skills that would come in handy as an adult.

My dad was a subscriber of The Mother Earth News, so I started learning about self sufficiency, environmentalism, cooking/canning, boiling maple syrup, and other practical lessons. We even converted a few vans and trucks into "RV's".

As I got older, my interests went in a different direction. I took an interest in computers and electronics, and built a career as a network engineer/executive. I married, had 3 children, and didn't think about being self sufficient or living lightly on the earth until .....

Y2K, that phenomena where half the world thought everything was going to crash, and the other half worked hard to make sure it didn't happen. OK, so maybe it wasn't half, but the doom and gloomers were very vocal. Actually, the potential was there for some catastrophic crap, had we not got our act together, and remediated or retired major systems. It was in the midst of these y2k remediation projects, that I again started thinking of becoming less dependent on "systems" for my comfort, and instead, providing as much as I could for my family directly. I started a website about survival, growing your own food, providing your own energy, efficient shelter, and related concepts.

Fortunately, Y2K came and went, and nothing serious happened. But I realized, there were more scenario's out there that were in the realm of possibilities. Weather, terrorism (who woulda thunk?), economic crashes ....

So I changed my focus to renewable energy and disaster proof self sufficiency. My thought was that there were so many things that could disrupt one's life, that instead of planning for a particular one, think about the common things to all disasters. Food, Shelter, Energy, Transportation, with the common purpose of providing a environmentally clean, sustainable, self sufficient replacement for each. It was time to throw off the rabid consumerism that I had got caught up in and look for more personal, self fulfilling concepts. Life had more hiccups to throw my way before I could put this plan into practice. First the Dot Bomb fiasco. I was involved in a series of dot com company crashes. Then 9-11, for which I had front row tickets. Enough was enough. So we moved back home to upstate NY, bought 5 off-grid acres of my original homestead, and started putting into practice what I had been researching, experimenting with, and preaching for the last 8 years. Welcome to our adventure .....

Description

Our PV setup consists of 1 set of Carrizo Quadlams (90 watts), Trace c30+ Charge Controller, AC-Delco 2.5kw MSW Inverter (The old Cobra 2kw died), and 6 Trojan T-105 (675 ah total) batteries. A Air 303 wind generator (currently offline - burned out regulator), 50 amp battery charger, 12.5 kw WVO powered generator, and automatic transfer switch round out the system.

The 1/2hp Gould jet pump on the 25' well is powered by the VeggieGen only, as is the Sears Kenmore frontloader washer, and propane dryer. All other loads are powered either by the gen or the inverter.

With the gen off, the transfer switch connects our main breaker panel to the inverter. When the gen is turned on, the loads are automatically switched to the gen. When the gen is turned off, the relays kick back to inverter.