An encouragement to those who have built their system

[kanelr]

Today the power went off on our street. we didn't notice for hours until we saw the clock was off on the 220 electric range. It felt pretty good to realize we didn't notice. Whether you went through all the build your own hassle to save money, be independent, or just to have backup, when you need it its good to have. Thanks all for your great words through the processess.
LK

 

[timselectric]

Yup, it's nice to not notice.
A few weeks ago I was watching the news. And they were talking about power outages, due to a storm.
So, I checked the outage map. And sure enough, the grid in my area was down. I just smiled, and made some popcorn in the microwave.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

Last fall a neighbor called. I only have one neighbor within earshot but he heard my vacuum cleaner. I guess the power had been out for hours; I too did not know it (I don’t have a ‘real’ grid connection anyways lol)

 

[Brett V]

I've had several occurrences where a neighbor texts or calls, "is the power out?" I always reply "I don't know...is it?

 

[12VoltInstalls]

I've had several occurrences where a neighbor texts or calls, "is the power out?" I always reply "I don't know...is it?

I have two meters I can look at if I want to know. Because i do have several hundred feet of 10A (12ga but I limited the possible draw) that has been my wintertime backup from said neighbor thst is within within earshot. I have two watt-hour meters on the wire; one for ‘import’ and one for a guerrilla grid-tie inverter’s ‘export.’ This was my way of ‘paying back’ any electricity that I might use. It’s done hundreds of kWh more than I’ve used and I don’t think I’ve used any grid since ? March??

But next week I’ll be totally offgrid at a new property and at the mercy of overpanelling. I think I’ll be fine.

 

[Brett V]

I have a legit grid tie system and a separate one for off grid. Have been using the off grid as much as I can with the limited PV I have. But even when I'm connected to the grid, the Growatt switches so quick, I usually don't notice. Really need to put in some sort of alarm to let me know.

 

[Skypower]

About a year ago my son and I were working in the garage. The garage is extremely well lit with three 8 foot double fluorescent fixtures converted to to LED. My garage door was open and I kept noticing that the cars going by were slowing and gawking. My curiosity got me to come to the driveway where I discovered that the neighborhood was totally dark. My outside three 100W equivalent LED outside lights were also on. Talk about a beacon in the night. Before I had a chance to turn around a neighbor that had solar only, asked why I still had power because he couldn’t hear a generator. After that I figured it would be prudent to turn off the outside lights and close the garage door. No sense in rubbing it in their face.

 

[toms]

On the flip side I’ve seen relationships break down and people sell up and move because their off-grid power went out.

Grid backup is great, off grid if you want reliable long term power a different approach is needed.

 

[dougbert]

same story with our system. No grid connection from April to October when I need to flip the breaker on for those long cloudy days when the battery needs a charge,

the goal is to go year round without the grid in normal usage - it is my generator backup

 

[12VoltInstalls]

off grid if you want reliable long term power a different approach is needed

This totally confuses me. How on earth does one even arrive at this conclusion?

Other than an MC4 water intrusion issue (which I solved; it didn’t disable my offgrid power, either) I have been like almost 5 years with an offgrid system, 100% of uptime, so 100% reliable.

 

[wattmatters]

My home automation sends an alert to my phone to let me know when the grid goes off-line, or comes back on.

 

[Gavin Stone]

I left for work early last week. Normally the porch lights are on as I pass houses on my way to work. I noticed everything was dark. It wasn’t until that evening I heard from a nearby family member that the power had been out all night and the next morning due to high winds.

That was part of our motivation for installing solar and being off grid. We lost power so frequently in our area. Now we usually just hear about it after the fact from friends or family.

 

[Mattb4]

My power Co-Op now has a automatic text message they send whenever power is out and another when power is restored. Handy if I have my phone turned on. Otherwise I might not know since my nearest neighbor is way too far off to see any lights from his house.

 

[toms]

This totally confuses me. How on earth does one even arrive at this conclusion?

Other than an MC4 water intrusion issue (which I solved; it didn’t disable my offgrid power, either) I have been like almost 5 years with an offgrid system, 100% of uptime, so 100% reliable.

5 years is but a blink of an eye.

As i said, where i live everyone is off-grid. Hundreds of systems - you get a good view of what can fail over time.
(hint - everything fails eventually)

 

[Skypower]

5 years is but a blink of an eye.

As i said, where i live everyone is off-grid. Hundreds of systems - you get a good view of what can fail over time.
(hint - everything fails eventually)

What part of the country?

 

[12VoltInstalls]

everything fails eventually

5 years is but a blink of an eye

I guess it depends on how and why you define something as unreliable versus reliable.
Of course things fail, but with good track-record equipment not specifically soon nor specifically often will it fail- all else being equal.

I would say my solar power is very reliable, and in case of failure I can swap components with spares on hand. Not worried about, though.

 

[kanelr]

WHICH RAISES THE BIG ETHICAL QUESTION-in an outage and the neighbor is without power.............

 

[#40Fan]

WHICH RAISES THE BIG ETHICAL QUESTION-in an outage and the neighbor is without power.............

....do you change the name on your WiFi router to:

-You should have bought solar
-My WiFi still works
-Sucks to be you
etc..

 

[wattmatters]

WHICH RAISES THE BIG ETHICAL QUESTION-in an outage and the neighbor is without power.............

They are too far away to be running a power cord but they can borrow our spare generator if needed. Likely depends on the nature of the outage. Our utility has an online outage information system, so we can at least have an understanding of the scale of the issue.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

WHICH RAISES THE BIG ETHICAL QUESTION-in an outage and the neighbor is without power.............

That isn’t an ethical question.

Lack of planning by others doesn’t necessarily equate to an obligation to abandon your own responsibilities of taking care of your own family or self so that the ignorant, unadaptable, or irresponsible can survive. There’s wisdom in allocating one’s resources.

When the alcoholic neighbor gets an evict notice because he drank the rent; or the friend that pays $200/month for satellite tv and internet, has two car payments, and avoids work yet needs gas money, food money, a car battery, heating fuel, chicken feed or a combo every single month and can never pay you back…

I’m not saying don’t be compassionate or philanthropic or help when led to, but if help isn’t going to change anything down the road there’s wisdom to attend to before you give away the golden goose. In 2021 and 2022 I made a ton of money (some weeks doing 80 hours) and I was surprised and got annoyed how many people expected me to pay for stuff ‘friends and family’ until eventually, uncomfortably, I started saying, “no.”
It’s funny how they’ve stopped calling.

I built my solar over time with cash money I earned and because of it I don’t have an electric bill, and it enabled me to live in such a way I’ve saved ~$10-$12k a year in living expenses by making hard choices over the last five years. Others are free to make sacrifices to better themselves, too.

Long story short: I have solar that works when the power goes out, and now I’ve upgraded a bit and probably have enough solar to never need supplementary alectricity. I do have a generator now just in case, but I shouldn’t need it based on the last two winters of wattmeter records.

If I have power and my neighbor doesn’t that’s how it is. Some of my neighbors have tractors and $90k pickups, several $25k side-by-sides, $65k RV campers... Good for them. They don’t owe me anything. If I want their stuff I can work to obtain it myself.
Neither do I owe them what they could obtain for themselves.

“Lend freely asking nothing in return” is something I try to live by, but I believe wisdom would have the rescue swimmer take great pains to not drown with the swimmer in trouble whom they’re trying to rescue. Even God gives freedom of choices to mankind. Not everyone chooses wisely.

I’m grateful to be independent, interdependent, and free. And I’m thankful my fridge, lights, coffeemaker and heat successfully run independent of the grid.